PIRELLI back in the Pro Peloton partnering with Aqua Blue Sport
Pirelli signs its first technical collaboration agreement with a professional cycling team. With a debut at the recent Amstel Gold Race, the Irish Pro Continental team will use Pirelli’s new tubular tyres on 3T Strada's for the remainder of the season. The collaboration agreement is expected to generate new insight into tyre and wheel design.
Top-level racing has always been part of Pirelli’s DNA and to make its comeback to pro cycling the company has chosen a team that has made a reputation for its daring technical choices. Innovation and visionare, in fact, two traits that Pirelli has in common with Aqua Blue Sport, the only team at the professional road cycling level to use a 1x group-set on their 3T Strada bikes, a choice that has managed to amaze and almost defy the cycling world.
With this first collaboration agreement, Pirelli brings to cycling its unique approach to technical partnering. As it has done with all its top-notch sports partners, with the Aqua Blue Sport Pirelli has entered into an agreement that will serve first and foremost as an opportunity for growth and R&D work on the product. Pirelli’s role in sports partnerships does not consist solely of providing branded tyres, it entails genuine technical collaboration and an on-going exchange of feedback with team’s leading to the development of specific and unique tyre solutions.
Therefore, while it is a first “public” appearance for Pirelli bike tyres in a competitive context, the debut at Amstel Gold Race won’t be the final destination but rather a significant step in a journey of research and development which will continue throughout the season. At this race, and the ones that will follow, additional new solutions will be tested in actual racing conditions, to provide increasingly performing tubulars to the team. A close technical collaboration will make it possible to collect valuable data and feedback for the development of the tubulars that Pirelli will eventually present to the market.
Thus, for Aqua Blue Sport, Pirelli has developed a new, specific tubular tyre, which the team has been testing in recent months, in various contexts and on-road tests. It is a 28 mm tyre, specially developed to maximise the aerodynamic characteristics of the 3T Strada. When training, the Aqua Blue Sport team uses the 28 mm PZero Velo tyres already available on the market.
Like the PZero Velo clinchers, the new Pirelli tubulars for Aqua Blue Sport have been developed with the aid of a proprietary technology and the compounds are produced by Pirelli in their Slatina plant, in Romania, where the tyres for F1 single-seaters are also made.
“Pirelli’s comeback to the racing bikes is the natural consequence of the company’s return to the world of cycling – points out Antonella Lauriola, COO of Velo Pirelli Business Unit – and we are happy to be back with Aqua Blue Sport as our partner. They are a team with great personality and technical preparation, with whom we share values and vision. We have undertaken a joint R&D program that is highly constructive. The technological innovation that comes from this partnership - just as much as in other competitions where Pirelli is present – will hopefully lead to new wins for the team and will also serve the function of making cutting edge products for our end consumers.”
“We are proud to forge this new and exciting partnership with Pirelli, a brand that stands for the highest standard of quality in the tyre manufacturing universe. As we strive to continue to blaze a path in technical innovation in professional cycling, this new collaboration brings further momentum to our vision and hopefully pave the way to great results on the road,” said Stephen Moore, General Manager at team Aqua Blue Sport.
PZero™ Velo tyres are available in Australia through carefully selected quality Pirelli Velo Retailers. Head to our Store Locator to find your closest stockist and fesports.com.au for more details on the currently available Pirelli PZero Velo range.
