As Tadej Pogačar stormed to victory at the 20th edition of the men's Strade Bianche, the tech-centred attention was shared equally by his paint-stripped black Colnago Y1Rs and the strange sensor positioned on the underside of his upper arm, but it turns out the Slovenian had one more trick up his sleeve: Secret wheels.
The eagle-eyed Cyclingnews tech team spotted that the World Champion was riding what looked to be his sponsor Enve's SES 6.7 wheels. According to Enve, these comprise a 60mm front rim and 67mm rear, complete with a 23mm internal rim width and a hookless bead.
Had he done that last season, nobody would have batted an eyelid, but the UCI introduced a new rule on January 1 that banned wheels over 65mm deep, effectively making the SES 6.7 rear wheel illegal.
So did Pogačar use an illegal wheel for his Strade Bianche victory? Fortunately for him, the answer to that question, according to our sources, is no. So what's really going on?
Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews, the team's press officer, Luke Maguire, confirmed that the rear wheel was 65mm deep, but was unable to give any more details. Enve doesn't make a 65mm rear wheel as far as we can tell, so was he lying to us? Was he simply trying to throw us off the scent of illicit activity?
Evidently not, because soon after, Enve's VP of Marketing, Neil Shirley, offered a similar explanation, but with some more clarity, and it turns out Pogačar was given a prototype wheelset to use for the race.
"We do have a wheel in development that provides UAE Team Emirates a UCI-legal SES 6.7," he began.
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"Rather than looking for a workaround (like using the shallower front rim laced to the rear hub), we took the opportunity to do a proper development project."
And it's not just Pogačar who's been using them. Images from Paris-Nice show Brandon McNulty also using the should-be-banned Enve SES 6.7s.
(Image credit: Future)
Printed logos
Helpfully, the logos on Enve's rims are printed with the depth written in plain black and white, but frustratingly for us, the writing is small enough that even the best photos from the various professional photographers on the ground at the race were unable to capture it clearly enough to see in retrospect.
And we've not yet gotten close enough to a pair to see if it's printed with the claimed 65mm depth, or whether they are simply badged up with the older wheels' logos for stealth.
Regardless of that, it's evident from the footage of the race and subsequent images that the front wheel is still slightly shallower, so it has presumably been kept at 60mm, rather than trying to maximise the 65mm limit and running equal depths front and rear.
Shirley promised to let us know as soon as Enve was able to share more details, and for the time being, is remaining tight-lipped on other details such as internal rim width.
And as a result, we'll have to wait and see if they remain hookless, or whether the hooked bead reintroduced with the SES 4.5 Pro is being used again here.
Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
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