July 4, 2003 – For Canadians, the big news at this year's Tour de France is the debut of Toronto-based framebuilder, Cervelo, bike sponsor of CSC. With Tyler Hamilton riding for CSC, and a big G.C. threat, it is likely we'll be seeing a lot of Cervelo over the next three weeks. Pedal spoke to Gerard Vroomen of Cervelo just before the Tour.

Pedal: Tell us about the new carbon frame, the R2.5, and how long it has been in development.

Vroomen: It's hard to pinpoint the exact starting date of these projects, for Phil (White) and myself carbon is “always on our mind” so to speak, after all that's what we both specialized in during our mechanical engineering studies. Whenever we have a new concept, in principle we consider any material and try to figure out which one makes the most sense for that particular application. The R2.5 is the first time that the set of features we were looking for made carbon the perfect material (for a production bike, we've made one-offs in carbon before such as our very first bike, the Baracchi).

The choice for carbon for this model was made a year or so ago, and we've been designing and fine-tuning ever since. Of course a lot has changed for Cervelo in this last year, for example when we started the project we did not have Team CSC on our bikes. But we have made good use of their expertise this year, and some of you may have seen Tyler Hamilton and Carlos Sastre riding on R2.5 prototypes earlier this year (these prototypes did not have Cervelo decals on them, which unfortunately had the opposite effect than we hoped for – they attracted a LOT of attention.)

Pedal: How many of the CSC riders will be riding the frame in the Tour? Will it be used only on mountain stages?

Vroomen: All riders on CSC's Tour team have one or more R2.5s – when they use them is up to them. For some it makes more sense to use the Soloist in the flatter stages, for example if they are planning a solo breakaway or they are likely to do a lot of work at the front of the peloton. But again, that is completely up to them. All the riders have at least one Soloist, one SuperProdigy and one R2.5 at their disposal – when they use which model depends on their personal preference. To a lesser degree that also applies to the time trial bike. Somebody like Carlos Sastre has a 650c and 700c P3 (one is a 51cm, the other a 52cm stock frame) and based on the type of course he will choose one or the other. Or for the really technical TT courses that seem to become more widespread, he'll use the Soloist in time-trial mode.

Pedal: What makes this frame so special?

Vroomen: The R2.5 has a few outstanding features, but I think the most important one is that although it is very light, it is also very durable. We've never understood the concept of making superlight “disposable” frames (not specifically in carbon, but in any material), frames that are too flexible to ride and not durable enough to offer a decent warranty. The R2.5 is the first sub-1,000 gram frame to be certified by the EFBe test lab (a renowned test lab in Germany that performs independent fatigue tests on bikes)..

The R2.5 is also proof that we are not changing our priorities, while it is light, its lightness is simply a result of the design effort and not the one and only goal. It's only after strength, stiffness and durability are secured that we start to think about light weight.

Pedal: Will you be headed to France soon?

Vroomen: No, I'm not going to the Tour. There is too much work to be done in the office, I was at the Dauphine to deliver the carbon frames and that will have to do for this year. hopefully next year I'll have a chance to go to the Tour, who knows maybe they'll have a spot open on the team….