At just 23 years old American Andrew Talansky made a name for himself last month by nearly beating out Sky’s Bradley Wiggins in the Tour of Romandie time trial. If Talansky had ridden the bike he showed up with at Amgen Tour of California, it would probably have been a different story. The new
P5, Cervelo’s latest time trial bike, was launched late last year, but up until now hasn’t been included in Garmin-Barracuda’s cache of bikes.
Stage 5’s time trial will be the first race test for it on U.S. soil.
The P5 not only represents the highest-tech time trial bike Cervelo has ever produced, but it’s arguably the most advanced of any time trial bike on the planet. The frame improves aerodynamics over the P4 by increasing tube depth, especially at the head tube and seat tube. It’s quite possible that the only bike faster the Garmin-Barracuda’s P5 is the P5 triathlon model, which uses a much deeper fork with a fairing to cover the front brake. The tri fork is not UCI legal, so the bike is available with either fork.
It’s not only the frame's tube shapes and depths that puts the P5 in a league of its own; Cervelo was the first to offer a much needed solution to the oft-troublesome braking problems of a time trial bike. Using an all-new hydraulic rim brake from Magura called RT8 allowed Cervelo to give the P5 brakes that maintained an aero profile, while still being able to slow you down—something that evades many of the current time trial bike brake setups. The RT8 has been in the works for the past year and a half, with Cervelo playing a part in the brakes' development. Twenty-five years ago Magura introduced the first hydraulic brake for mountain bikes, and now they’ve done it for the road too.
Magura’s hydraulic RT8 brake was a coordinated effort with Cervelo to develop a brake with sufficient stopping power that was still aerodynamic.
The P5’s undercarriage is where the RT8 rear brake is hidden away under a protective covering, aka a fairing for the brake.
Rather than the short-nosed Ares time trial saddle that most Fizik sponsored riders opt for, Talansky uses the Tri model of the Arione, which has a heavily padded nose. The P5’s curvy seat tube has a much deeper tube profile than the P4, in addition to a longer tail that shelters the rear wheel.
The P5’s bottom bracket junction resembles that of the P4, with a massive amount of carbon to close the front-triangle in order to improve aerodynamics. Cervelo uses the BBright bottom bracket system they developed with Rotor’s aluminum 3D cranks.
3T and Cervelo co-designed the Anduro aero bar setup. Notable features are fully integrated wire routing and adjustability that ranges from Talansky’s slammed elbow pad position, all the way up to 11cm of height.
The much-anticipated Garmin Vector Power Pedal…is still not here. Garmin-Barracuda’s pedals, which from what we understand, are sans the power-measuring device.
Talansky runs a 55 tooth outer Rotor chainring, but opts for the round version rather than the oval Q-Rings. Rotor also provides a chain catcher to ensure that any shifting mishaps are for the other teams to deal with.