Flying under the radar on pro triathlete Cyril Viennot’s Scott Plasma 3 at Ironman World Championships in Kona last month was a “new” Mavic Cosmic Carbone 60 front wheel. That’s what is supposedly on Viennot’s bike shown here (pic from his blog, where he calls them “new”).
Mavic’s 2012 lineup includes Cosmic Carbone 80 wheelset and the new Cosmic Carbon SLE, which is 52mm deep. Thing is, neither look like the wheels shown here. The longer yellow decals don’t appear on any production wheels shown on Mavic’s website. The current CC80 has external spoke nipples, something not found on most of Mavic’s other high end aero wheels, and these here look to have external nipples but almost certainly aren’t 80mm deep.
Predictably, we haven’t received any official word from Mavic’s PR folk yet, but adding a bit of credence to this rumor is our buddy Herbert’s bike check post over at Slowtwitch.com (scroll to bottom), which clearly shows size differentiation between the front and rear wheels and lists the spec as Cosmic Carbone 60/80 front and rear.
Most of Mavic’s high end wheels now use their wheel/tyre system, selling with both as a package, and their tubular options jump from the 40mm deep Cosmic Carbone Ultimate all the way up to the 80. A 60mm depth makes a nice middle child that should appeal to a wider spectrum of riders. We’re guessing it’ll be tubular-only if they follow the design of the 80. That’s probably why we’re seeing external spoke nipples…no need to remove the tire to true the wheel.
More as we get it. Video interview with Viennot (in French) after the break that shows the bike in the background.
Big thanks to eagle-eyed Bogdan Ioachimescu for the tip!
