If you’ve spent any time reading cycling media over the last twelve years you’ll undoubtedly have come across Vision. The brand has been partnering with top teams since 2014 when it made a splash with Cannondale Pro Cycling - Kenda, topping the WorldTour team classification thanks to the soon-to-be legendary triple world champion, Peter Sagan.
Since these early days the brand’s wheels have become one of the most used in the pro peloton, currently counting EF Education and Bahrain Victorious as supported teams, as well as being instrumental in helping Sir Mark Cavendish secure his record breaking 35 Tour de France stage win in July 2024, alongside numerous other high tech mods to help the Manxman cross the line first.
A supply chain totally under control
A chain, as the saying goes, is only as strong as its weakest link. Working with high performance carbon manufacturing, for many brands, involves outsourcing part of, or even the majority of the production and supply chain, leaving space for unknown issues to arise outside the control of the brand. Robust quality control can alleviate this to some degree, but Vision takes a different approach and has ownership of the entire supply chain.
Not only does this mean a much greater sense of control over the whole product life cycle, from ideation, through research and development through to materials procurement and final production, but it also adds a degree of agility that would otherwise be impossible. This agility, neatly mirroring the Metron wheels themselves, allows vision to not only produce its set menu of products that teams and individual riders can use to tailor and optimise their setups for the task at hand, but also allow the development and rapid prototyping of custom products designed specifically for pro riders and their exacting needs.
While there has undoubtedly been a recent surge in the popularity of direct to consumer brands, particularly in the wheel space, be it from brands based in the far east or from those simply sourcing their products from there, it is this supply chain control that sets Vision apart as something of a rarity, and has undoubtedly been instrumental in why it has become such a trusted name.
A winning pedigree
However good a supply chain is, it’s worthless if the products aren’t going to help riders win. At the top of the sport of cycling, if you’re not developing you’re going backwards, and Vision is constantly permuting its halo products so that it maintains its status among the other big players – the likes of Enve, Princeton, Zipp, and Scope.
The Metron 60 RS wheels, the brands pinnacle wheels, are available in a 37mm, 45mm, and 60mm deep to allow teams to fully realise the potential of both rider and equipment depending on the terrain at hand. They’ve been extensively tested in the wind tunnel following design via computational fluid dynamic modelling to offer an aerodynamic advantage over the already extremely fast SL range, with the newly understood ‘sail effect’ coming into play at higher yaw angles, effectively making the wheels even faster during crosswinds.
Advances in manufacturing have also meant that this improvement in aerodynamics hasn’t had to come at the expense of added weight, despite the wheels being better optimised for wider tyres than older models. Carbon spokes, lighter hubs, and a graphic set that is applied in-mould to save over 20 grams shows no stone has been left unturned to produce a truly rapid set of wheels, and deflection testing shows they are more than capable of standing up to the power produced by the fastest sprinters in the peloton, which is about as demanding a real world test as it is possible to find.
While the wheels often take the plaudits, given that they often carry any brands logo pride of place, the cockpits are perhaps the unsung heroes, given that they have the unenviable task of being the leading edge of the bike as it tries to puncture a hole through the air at high velocity.
The Metron 5D Evo road cockpit has built upon several extremely successful versions, but improves aerodynamics by dropping 15mm from the stack height to reduce the frontal area as much as possible. The wing-shaped top sections are available in two thicknesses to balance ergonomics with aerodynamic efficiency, and the slight forward sweep allows a more natural wrist position while going full gas to the line in the drops.
Likewise, the TFE Evo time trial extensions are aimed to provide a seamless transition between bar and forearm, acting somewhat like a fairing in the process. Highly adjustable, and highly aerodynamic, offering something akin to a semi-custom setup; this is why both bars are trusted by Visma - Lease A Bike, one of the most successful cycling teams of the modern era.
