We’re now within the two-month testing window for disc brakes in professional road racing, yet so far, the only team to have taken the opportunity is the young Pro-Continental team Roompot on SRAM-equipped Isaac bikes. And even still, only a few members of this team are racing discs at the Eneco Tour.
Earlier in the year, the UCI announced "all teams will have the opportunity to use bikes with disc brakes at two events of their choice during August and September."
With the help of our sister site Cyclingnews, we reached out to the WorldTour squads to find out which have plans to trial disc brakes during the allowed two-month period.
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BMC, Orica-GreenEdge, Lotto-Soudal, Movistar and Astana all stated they have no plans on testing discs in 2015 races. BMC and Orica are sponsored by Shimano, which has disc brakes. The other three are sponsored by Campagnolo, which does not yet have discs in the marketplace.
Katusha will likely test discs at the Eurométropole Tour, team communications manager Philippe Maertens said. Trek Factory Racing will be testing discs at the Vuelta a España and IAM Cycling will take advantage of the opportunity during the GP Isbergues and Eurométropole races, team spokespeople said. Other teams did not immediately respond definitively.
While it makes sense that Campy-sponsored teams would not test disc brakes, it isn't just a matter of component availability. Bike selection also plays into the equation. While most if not all of the WorldTour teams' bike sponsors have disc bikes, the vast majority of these are endurance bikes, with notably different geometry than the race machines most of the riders use everyday. Specialized's Tarmac Disc bike has identical geometry to its standard Tarmac race bike. However this machine uses a proprietary rear hub spacing, so riders could not take a neutral support wheel unless it was a Specialized Roval.
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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