Rein Taaramae’s Look 695 SR

Integration was the keyword guiding Look's engineers as they went about designing their new flagship road frame, the 695, for the French Cofidis team.

Cofidis are actually riding the 695SR at this year's race the ever so slightly less compliant version of the 695, the ‘SR' suffix standing for super-rigid.

Integration-wise, the 695 boast a host of features. The über-stiff frame is augmented by the huge 65mm bottom bracket that houses Look's Zed 2 one-piece carbon crankset, as first seen on Look's 596 time trial bikes.

The 695 retains Look's hugely popular integrated E-Post seat post, but new is the fully adjustable C-Stem which allows a range of vertical adjustment, plus 10mm fore and aft thanks to a clever cam design.

And neither does adjustability end there: three different crank lengths are catered for by the Zed 2 crankset, with the cranks' ‘three-lobe' insert allowing you to choose 170, 172.5 or 175 crank lengths.

At Cofidis's Tour stable, a few riders had frames adapted to use sponsors FSA's cranksets (with SRM power meters) and stems. But Estonian team leader Rein Taaramäe has the whole Look kit, with Shimano Dura-Ace 7900, Vision TriMax carbon wheels, FSA bars and a Fizik Arione saddle.

Look's new lightweight C-Stem offers a variety of adjustments both vertically and fore-aft.

Look uses internal cable routing for a cleaner, more aerodynamic frame.

Look's Zed 2 one-piece crankset adds to the super-stiff ride; Kéo Blade pedals are standard issue.

This article first appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine 15th July 2010. All photo's by Andy Jones