This article originally appeared on BikeRadar
Astride a last-year-model bike decorated with his newborn baby's footprint and a wooden good luck charm, John Degenkolb sprinted to victory in the 2015 Paris-Roubaix. Degenkolb rode a 2014 Giant Defy Advanced SL equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace 35 wheels shod in custom-made 30mm Vittoria tubulars.
Although wide, 27 and 28mm tubulars have long been the standard in the queen of the cobbled classics, a few riders chose to race 30mm tires this year, accepting a little additional rotational weight and perhaps a touch more rolling resistance in exchange for more comfort and suspension. For Giant-Alpecin, mechanics outfitted team race bikes with 30mm tubular casings with VIttoria clincher treads glued to them, while the back-up bikes on the team cars had 28mm versions.
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Along with the rest of his Giant-Alpecin team, Degenkolb raced the Hell of the North on last year's bikes, the 2014 Giant Defy Advanced SL, because Giant specced still-UCI-forbidden disc brakes on its 2015 model.
We could see the 2015 Giant Defy Advanced SL with disc brakes in professional competition later this year, as the UCI recently announced that "all teams will have the opportunity to use bikes with disc brakes at two events of their choice during August and September." Then the gates will be wide open for disc in 2016, still under UCI 'testing', with the idea being that, "if the experience is satisfactory, disc brakes will be officially introduced to the UCI WorldTour in 2017… the aim is to eventually introduce disc brakes to all levels of road cycling".
There is only one pro road race in the world where you'll see cockpit setups like this
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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