{"id":786350,"date":"2026-09-29T12:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786350\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:34:14","slug":"why-did-tom-pidcock-swap-his-sponsored-zipp-wheels-for-a-little-known-australian-brand-at-the-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/786350\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Tom Pidcock swap his sponsored Zipp wheels for a little-known Australian brand at the World Championships?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Pidcock finished seventh in the Men\u2019s Elite Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, with some extra help from Australian brand Partington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pidcock\u2019s Pinarello-Q36.5 cycling team officially uses Zipp wheels, but the British rider employed Partington’s R-Series road bike wheels<\/a> on his Pinarello Dogma F<\/a> during the race in Montreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Peter Nicholson, a principal at Double Digital Communications, Partington\u2019s marketing agency, Pidcock chose the R-Series wheels \u201cfor their balance of power transfer, low weight, and aerodynamics\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPut simply, he chose the way they perform as he sought every advantage for one of his biggest targets of the season,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n

Two versions of the wheels
\n\"MONTREAL,Tom Pidcock racing at the Men\u2019s Elite Road World Road Race in Montreal. Dario Belingheri \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Nicholson says Pidcock used two versions of the R-Series wheels during the race, both with 50mm-deep rims.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pidcock started on the R-Series Performance wheels, but after being involved in a crash with 80km to go, he switched to a bike fitted with the R-Series Performance Ti wheels.<\/p>\n

The Performance Ti wheels have several upgrades over the Performance wheels. They use titanium hardware and a titanium ratchet system, and also feature ceramic bearings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pidcock typically uses Zipp\u2019s 454 NSW wheels<\/a>, but the R-Series wheels offer one immediate advantage on paper. Zipp says the 454 NSW wheelset weighs a claimed 1,428g, whereas Partington says the R-Series Performance wheels weigh 1,200g.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Partington\u2019s wheels also use carbon spokes, compared to Zipp\u2019s steel spokes. As well as saving weight, this could have offered Pidcock a stiffer and more responsive ride. The hubs on Partington\u2019s R Series wheels have 68 points of engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With an internal rim width<\/a> of 23mm, the Partington wheels are designed to be used with a 30mm tyre, and Pidcock opted for the Pro Corsa tyres from his team sponsor Vittoria in this width at the Worlds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hand-built as a complete system<\/p>\n

Nicholson also stresses that the Partington R-Series wheels are \u201chand-built as a complete system\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Perform hub, to the Flexon continuous carbon fiber spokes, to the Multi-Material Composite AERON Carbon Fiber Rim with PMI foam core, each wheelset delivers a complete performance advantage \u2013 something that is simply not achievable using \u2018off the shelf\u2019 components,\u201d Nicholson says.<\/p>\n

For most of the season, riders will disguise any kit that isn\u2019t sponsor-correct with tape or permanent marker (think back to the Castelli Gabba\u2019s origins<\/a>). But for the World Championships, they are allowed to use other equipment because they are representing their country rather than their team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Nicholson says Pidcock was in touch with Partington through Pinarello-Q36.5.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPartington and Tom have multiple mutual contacts via some of his existing sponsors including Pinarello, Q36.5, and Amacx,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Pidcock finished seventh in the Men\u2019s Elite Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-786350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}