Look Cycles has announced that it will continue to sponsor a French fixed gear racing team in fixed gear criterium races in 2017, having initially dipped its toes in these events last year.
This includes the Red Hook Criterium series, with races in New York, London, Barcelona and Milan. Other races scheduled for the team include the Dutch Crit Rijwijk on April 2, Geneva Criterium on June 17 & 18, La P’tite Course Crit Paris on July 8, Tournus Criterium on July 1 and Dijon National Mustard Crit on September 9.
The four member team includes Thibaut and Félix Lhenry, and François Février and this year is joined by its first woman member, 23-year-old Camille Udny.
Team get skin suits with crash protection in vulnerable areas like the outer thighs
(Image credit: Paolo Bravini)
All the team will ride customised Look AL464 alloy track bikes with an extra-stiff carbon fork, Mavic wheels, SRAM Omnium track/fixie specific chainset and Look Keo 2 Max pedals.
The AL464 is Look’s entry-level track/fixed gear frame and is used by many track schools. Look itself has quite a reputation in track frames. Its top-end R96 carbon frame was the most popular track bike at the Rio Olympics last August with a total of over 80 being used by various national teams.
Watch: How much faster does a skin suit make you?
Look is also kitting out the team with its Superhighway skin suit. Look says this has an aero design with two rear pockets. It also includes skin protection fabric in vulnerable zones. Look says this increases abrasion resistance by more than 40% over a conventional lycra fabric – useful in the fast-paced environment of fixed gear crits.
In 2016 the team took part in ten races, winning three and podiuming in five.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
