Published on : 01/11/2023
This season, the Cofidis team riders will ride a Look bike that is light, aerodynamic and designed to shine on all terrains. Here is the story of the long term work done by the Cofidis and Look teams in order to contribute to a successful season.
This is one of the essential keys to performance. To have a reliable, light, agile bike that is able to match the best teams in the world. For several months, the Look and Cofidis teams have been working together so that the riders can have the best possible tool on all terrains. The bike must suit Bryan Coquard's sprinting qualities as well as Guillaume Martin's climbing skills and all the specificities of each rider.
At the beginning, there were discussions between Cédric Vasseur, general manager and obviously sensitive to the quality of the bikes as a former racer, and the Look teams. "It was important to define the contours of the partnership and to show consistency by bringing our two entities together," says Federico Musi, Look's CEO. As soon as the agreement was reached, it was time to roll up our sleeves.
Look's design office and engineers got to work, regularly calling on the team's performance unit. After defining the specifications and drawing the first prototypes, it was time to build the bike. This is where Benjamin Thomas comes in. During his particularly busy season, the rider also tested the bike many times. Of course, it's a lot of extra travel, but I tried to put all my energy into it," he explains. It's a lot of fun to test equipment and do everything to improve it.
"During the first tests, the feedback was already very encouraging," says Samuel Bellenoue, head of the performance team. "Right from the start, it was a very good bike and the following versions allowed us to select the most versatile and most complete", Benjamin assures.
"We immediately felt Look's real desire to work with us, to learn from our feedback," Samuel continues. "The fact that Look and Corima are the same entity allows us to work more on the behavior of the bike, on the wheel-frame interface which is very important. "There has been a lot of work on weight, stiffness and aerodynamics," adds Benjamin.
During the December course in Dénia, Spain, all the riders were able to test it.
Beforehand, each rider had given the ideal measurements in terms of settings in order to optimize the time to the maximum. After a particularly important work of the mechanics, who adapted quickly, each one was able to start to ride and to become familiar with it. Benjamin speaks of an "extremely versatile and complete" bike capable of "competing with the best in the international peloton".
It has been designed to be excellent everywhere," says Look CEO Federico Musi. There has been extensive research on materials to be both rigid, light, comfortable and that the geometry of the bike is adequate for all riders. For his part, Benjamin Thomas says he "has a big crush" on the time trial bike, "probably one of the best race bikes I've ever ridden. And the rider assures: "I hope that all the work that has been done in the last few months will translate to the track!"
