{"id":674478,"date":"2026-05-16T10:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674478\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:01:12","slug":"riders-arent-crashing-at-the-giro-ditalia-because-of-tt-tyres-despite-what-geraint-thomas-and-luke-rowe-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674478\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders aren’t crashing at the Giro d’Italia because of TT tyres \u2013 despite what Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking on their Watts Occurring podcast this week, Geraint Thomas<\/a> and Luke Rowe<\/a> questioned UAE Team Emirates-XRG<\/a>\u2019s decision to race the wet opening stages of the Giro d\u2019Italia on Continental\u2019s GP5000 TT TR<\/a> \u2013 the time trial-oriented version of the GP5000 line \u2013 after a Stage 2 crash took down Adam Yates<\/a>, Jay Vine, and Marc Soler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know they\u2019re faster. They are faster. They always use them,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cBut they do have less grip\u2026 The first guy down was a UAE guy. He lost both wheels. You also question the decision making there.\u201d Thomas agreed, noting that Ineos<\/a> had themselves drifted toward TT tyres in road races over time. \u201cI don\u2019t understand that decision making, mate,\u201d Rowe added. \u201cI really don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

UAE pushed back firmly. \u201cWe don\u2019t feel it was a tyre issue,\u201d a team spokesperson told Cycling News.<\/a> \u201cThe riders have been using TT tyres for a long time. We think it was just because of the wet and the speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The instinct that a TT tyre must mean less grip is a strong one. It\u2019s also, on the current Continental range, harder to support than it once was.<\/p>\n

The GP5000 TT TR and the more widely raced GP5000 S TR share the same BlackChilli compound. They share the same Lazer Grip shoulder pattern. The differences are structural rather than surface level: the TT runs a two-ply sidewall against the S TR\u2019s three, with marginally thinner tread on top, making it lighter, more supple, and faster rolling. The rubber meeting the road is the same rubber in the same pattern on both tyres.<\/p>\n

Another common assumption is that the limited tread on TT tyres has an impact on grip. This is a position that many of us absorb from learning to drive a car: wide, flat-fronted contact patches inflated to around 30psi means that at motorway speeds, they can aquaplane.<\/p>\n

But bike tyres – at 28 or 30mm and 70psi – are very different. Continental\u2019s own technical pages put it pretty bluntly: bicycles are not susceptible to aquaplaning in any realistic riding scenario. The tread on a race tyre is there for cornering deformation and, increasingly, aerodynamic trip effects, not water dispersal.<\/p>\n

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Given both the Continental options discussed share the same tread, it wouldn\u2019t be fair to suggest this was an assumption at play in the What\u2019s Occurring podcast, but it is a point worth making for the general public.<\/p>\n

What does cost a rider grip when wet is a compound’s behaviour when cold, the surface itself (diesel, dirt, shiny cobbles), and the lean angle asked of the rubber. Stage 2 probably had a generous helping of all three. So did the cobbled run-in to Naples on Stage 6. The tyre choice \u2013 GP S TR or the TT version \u2013 shouldn\u2019t have made a difference.<\/p>\n

Thomas and Rowe are riders of generational experience, and their instincts were earned in an era when \u201cTT tyre\u201d did indeed mean a harder compound and a slicker tread, with a measurable grip cost. That tyre is no longer the one UAE are racing on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking on their Watts Occurring podcast this week, Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe questioned UAE Team Emirates-XRG\u2019s decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-674478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}