News editor at Cycling Weekly, Adam brings his weekly opinion on the goings on at the upper echelons of our sport.
This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
“Ceci n'est pas une pipe” is the inscription beneath the image of a pipe in the Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s painting La Trahison des Images. It is a picture of a pipe, but not actually a pipe. It’s there, but it is not really there. The cycling industry had its own ‘not actually a pipe’ moment, earlier this month, in the shape of one Factor Ostro VAM.
Last week, Factor launched a new version of its aero race bike. The bike was a secret until its launch date, Valentine’s Day as it happened, so no one could properly acknowledge its presence, talk about it with all the information, or publish all the details. An embargo was in place - meaning information is provided to relevant parties, on the understanding it is not shared or published before a set time. It would be breaking confidence to talk about any feature of the bike which was not already in the public eye, before the embargo was lifted. There are some good reasons for that, for example, protecting the interests of local bike shops - read more about it, here.
However, the Factor Ostro VAM was not a secret. It was first seen after being posted online by team rider Simon Clarke’s chain waxer, in an inadvertent leak. Then, it was seen being ridden by the Israel-Premier Tech rider at the Australian nationals at the beginning of January, before he rode it at the Tour Down Under too. Stevie Williams, the race’s overall winner, also used the same machine throughout the six-stage event. It was hardly hidden.
While aware that the bike was ‘a secret’, I encountered it - in the wild - throughout my time at the Tour Down Under. It was there, being worked on in the marquee given over to team mechanics, which was open to the public. It was there, being ridden by Williams and Clarke, right in front of me. And yet it was still a secret.
It wasn’t as if it was camouflaged either. Professionals and bike brands sometimes require a ‘test run’ at the highest level, and so they use blacked-out equipment; blank canvases to camouflage the greatest evolutions in tech. The Factor Ostro VAM present in Australia, however, was bright blue, and ridden by the Tour Down Under winner. Inconspicuous it was not.
Despite all this, despite it very much being real, and there, and not a secret, it still was a secret. Does this make sense? It barely makes sense to me.
The Factor Ostro VAM is not the first time that items have been used in a race before being properly launched - Uno-X Mobility wearing new helmets is another example. The benefits will range from brand to brand, they may simply need to test the kit, they may want to drum up a little interest via the gossip mill, before the big launch.
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And, plenty of gossip was had about Factor’s Ostro VAM, the tweaks to the head tube, forks and seat tube, which - as it turns out - added up to a claimed 70 gram drag reduction (equating, to - again, a claimed - seven watts at 48kph).
In all this, though, it does seem rather mad that we are in a position where a bike can exist, and yet not officially exist at the same time. It seems rather surreal. This is not a bike, was not a bike, until last week. But it is a bike now. Sure.
This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
