New team, same tech? Why Remco Evenepoel's switch to another Specialized team isn’t as straightforward as expected

What happens when a rider switches from one Specialized-sponsored team to another? You’d think it’s quite straightforward, but in reality, it’s anything but.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Remco Evenepoel would be doing just that, in a huge mid-contract switch from Soudal-QuickStep to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Both teams have had longstanding partnerships with the California-based brand, and Evenepoel himself has a strong personal relationship with the brand too, similar to that of Demi Vollering and the now-retired Peter Sagan.

As a result, a lot will be familiar to the Belgian. He’ll ride the same bike with the same wheels and the same tyres. He’ll wear the same helmet and keep the same Remco-branded Specialized shoes.

Many of the optimisations he has found in recent years, likely including his famously aggressive time trial position, will have been uncovered at the ‘Win Tunnel’ wind tunnel at Specialized’s HQ in Morgan Hill, and that will remain a constant too, but while it might seem as though all his existing data can just be carried over to his new team, it’s not as simple as that.

Specialized’s agreement with its teams means the Olympic champion will be forced to go back to the drawing board somewhat.

Specialized’s policy

“Any data generated with or for a pro team remains strictly confidential and is never shared outside that team without their explicit permission,” Lionello Bardina, Specialized’s R&D Engineer, told Cyclingnews.

“When a rider joins a new team, their new team will generally bring them back over here to the Win Tunnel right after the transfer to re-establish their datasets with their new team. The most recent example is Demi Vollering, she came back to the Win Tunnel with FDJ-Suez to get a full dataset even though she had done multiple Win Tunnel tests with us fairly recently with SD Worx.

“Occasionally - with a team’s permission - we may use select data for marketing purposes, such as showcasing a new product worn by a rider.

“It is important to keep in mind that many of the teams we support compete directly against one another, and as such, our commitment to respecting the privacy of their data is essential to maintaining the strength of these partnerships.”

From data to application

Evenepoel, and likely any staff who have made the transition along with him, such as Sven Vanthourenhout, will know the Olympic champion’s preferred bike fit setup, including simple configurations such as his preferred frame size, saddle height, stem length, handlebar width, crank length and so on. It’ll probably also include his preferred saddle model, tyre choice and chainring size.

But while that’s likely the extent to which amateurs will go to optimise their setup, that’s only the beginning for Specialized’s sponsored teams and athletes.

With Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe having Dan Bigham at the helm of its performance optimisation team, choosing equipment for a particular race is much more involved than rider preference. For key races such as the recent Stage 13 of the Tour de France, finding the optimal balance between weight and aerodynamics will involve understanding the course, the various gradients, the weather conditions, the corners, and even how a race scenario is likely to play out.

Like most teams, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have access to software that models such scenarios and allows the team to choose the optimal equipment for each rider on each course on any given day.

But the software isn’t useful without the rider data too. Without knowing Evenepoel’s exact CdA (Coefficient of Drag x Area) in certain ride positions and specific combinations of clothing and helmets, the software can’t give accurate outputs. In turn, Bigham and his team won't be able to confidently model Evenepoel’s performance or ensure the optimal set-up on important race days.

Different clothing

The other part of that equation is that Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe use Specialized clothing, while Soudal-QuickStep wears Castelli.

To an outsider, it might seem as though a skinsuit is a skinsuit, but the aerodynamic effect of each item of clothing can be incredibly individual, meaning what works well with one rider could work badly with another.

If Bigham and his team were to find that a particular skinsuit is fastest for every rider they’ve tested so far, it might be enough confidence to guide equipment choices for lower-level riders, but it's not a guarantee. So for a team leader as prominent as Evenepoel, no stone will be left unturned.

He will likely be tested in every item of clothing that Specialized supplies to the team, with every wheelset and tyre choice on both road and time trial frames, and presumably prototype items too. These are all tests he’ll have done before, on the same bikes, in the same wind tunnel run by the same Lionello Bardina, just with a different team of engineers in the room and a different logo on the bike's top tube.

Cycling really can be boiled down to a big mathematical equation, and while that’ll help make Evenepoel faster come race day, he first needs to go over a lot of old ground, laying the foundations for the success he hopes to build at his new team.