CSC is using FSA cranks for the Tour de France. If you go over to the FSA website, Full Speed Ahead,
you will see they offer two versions of double carbon cranks in 130mm bcd. And one double carbon
crank in 110mm bcd. 110mm bcd allows a 34 inner ring. I suspect he used the 110mm bcd crank for the
mountain stages. If you reread his diary entry closer, you will see he is only talking about using
the 52/36 setup for stages 8 and 9. Alpe d'Huez and Tourmaillot. The picture on Cycling News website
claims to show a picture of Hamilton's bike on top of a car and it shows the 130mm bcd 38 tooth
rings. But this does not prove he rode this exact bike on stages 8 and 9. And the diary entry refers
to stages 8 and 9 only. The mountainous stages. I suspect pro mechanics could change a crankset in 5
minutes. No need to change the bottom bracket since they are both double cranks. I suspect the lead
rider for a pro team can make special equipment requests from the mechanics.
A year or two ago many riders in the Vuelta had special climbing gears installed for the one day on
the Agrilu mountain. Triples, mountain bike cassettes, long cage rear derailleurs. They did not use
these mountain climbing setups on the other days so the mechanics changed the bikes one night and
then changed them back the next. On Cycling News this year there was an article about the 28 and 30
tooth rear cogs and 38 tooth chainrings used by many pros, Simoni and Pantani, on one hard mountian
stage. I suspect the gears were changed back to normal for the next stage.
cliff <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> In Tyler Hamilton's Tour diary, he wrote that he is using 52/36 chainrings. The tech photo on
> Velonews' TdF tech site shows his FSA TdF carbon crank (130 bolt circle) with what I think
> are 53/39.
>
>
http://www.velonews.com/tour2003/tech/articles/4525.1.html[/url]
>
> The smallest chainring available for a 130 crank is a 38. Has anyone seen any photos of Hamilton
> with another crank set that would fit a 36? Or am I mistaken and the FSA crank in the picture is a
> 110 mm bolt circle?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> Cliff