Mitchelton-Scott to ride Pirelli tubs at the Tour de France

Team teams up with famous tyre maker

(Image credit: Arianna Vitamina C)

On Saturday, ahead of the motor racing French Grand Prix, Pirelli announced its partnership with Mitchelton-Scott, who will ride its new PZero Velo tubular tyres at the upcoming Tour de France. The team join Aqua Blue Sport who are already riding Pirelli tyres.

Pirelli says that it has been working with the team for months ahead of the announcement, taking on board the team’s technical feedback on the new tyres. The team says that the tubs have been tested for 300,000km both in races and practice sessions, ahead of the announcement, with multiple WorldTour races already ridden on unbranded Pirelli tyres.

Simon Yates got the Formula One circuit to himself ahead of Sunday's motor race
(Image credit: Steven Tee)

According to Mitchelton-Scott High Performance Manager Kevin Tabotta, “We have been really happy with the development of the tyres. Pirelli have been excellent in the way they’ve communicated with our athletes and taken on board their feedback. We have ended up with a fantastic fast, grippy, comfortable tyre that handles incredibly well.”

>>> Pirelli goes tubeless with new Cinturato tyre line

Pirelli says that the PZero Velo tub uses the same tyre tech: its SmartNET silica compound, Ideal Contour Shaping tyre tread profile, and Functional Groove Design, as its PZero Velo clincher tyres.

To mark the launch, fresh from his ride at the Giro d’Italia, Simon Yates rode his Scott Plasma time trial bike, complete with the new Pirelli tubs, around a lap of the 5.8km Paul Ricard Formula One circuit near Marseille, before handing the prize for pole position to Lewis Hamilton.

Yates’s brother, Adam, will be leader of the Mitchelton-Scott team at the Tour de France, riding the new Pirelli tubs.

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Paul Norman

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.