Bahrain Victorious

Pello Bilbao is a veteran Spanish climber who races for the Bahrain Victorious team. Bilbao is recognised for his high consistency in the mountains and he has won a stage of the Tour de France and two stages of the Giro d’Italia during his career. Bilbao has finished inside the top-ten in four Grand Tours, including two fifth place finishes in the Giro. Turning professional with Euskaltel Euskadi at the start of the 2021 season, Bilbao has also raced for Caja Rural, Astana Pro Team, and Bahrain.

Pello Bilbao

Tech

Pro Bikes

Pro bike: Pello Bilbao's Merida Reacto 

 have seen a complete change in team colours for 2024, making their team bikes some of the freshest in the professional peloton. No longer are the 

 team bikes a black-and-red affair, instead they are almost the perfect reverse with an iridescent white and blue colour scheme the new palette for the team.

The team sponsored by Merida have the choice of either the lightweight Scultura or the aerodynamically optimised Reacto. When we got our hands on 

stage 1 of the UAE Tour, characterised by its flat and fast parcours.

 The opening days of the UAE Tour lend themselves perfectly to the use of an aero bike with no real downside, so it's no surprise that the Spaniard had opted for the Reacto. Let's take a closer look at his set-up.

UAE Tour time trial tech gallery: New bikes, monster gearing and custom cockpits

Vision Metron SL60 wheels are proving a peloton favourite

Having only been released at the end of 2023, we are already seeing plenty of teams rolling around on Vision’s latest wheelset, the SL60. As a Vision-sponsored team, Bahrain Victorious are part of this collective with the aerodynamic credentials of the wheelset perfect for the desert racing.

How are carbon fibre wheels designed and tested?

The rims are designed specifically around the use of wider tyres with a 21mm internal rim width which has been paired with a staggeringly wide 32mm external rim width at its widest point. This allows for a smoother flow of air from the rim to the tyre, however the tyre needs to be wide enough to maximise this effect. Bilbao looks to have a set of 28mm Continental Grand Prix 5000 TTR tyres fitted to the rims.

The wheels also use a new hub design that uses two oversized ratchet rings that provide a 5-degree angle of engagement. The advantage of a ratchet hub design over a classic pawl hub is that all the teeth of the ring engage at the same time meaning that there is a significant increase in surface area to deal with the power transfer.

-sponsored outfit, Bilbao has Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 fitted to his Reacto. The groupset is firmly the most popular in the WorldTour with only four teams not using the Japanese brand.

Since the arrival of 12-speed Shimano groupsets in 2021, riders have been experimenting with different gearing combinations with the general consensus, Bilbao included, settling on 54/40t chainrings with riders swapping between either an 11-30t or 11-34t cassette. With the opening stages lacking any climbing Bilbao had made the choice to fit the closer-ratio 11-30t cassette, giving him smaller steps between each gear.

Tobias Foss will use a monster 68-tooth chainring for UAE Tour time trial

At the front of the bike, Bilbao is using another bit of kit from Vision in the 5D EVO one-piece bar and stem. Interestingly, the profile of the stem raises the bars ever so slightly prioritising comfort over an aggressively limiting aero position. Bilbao has opted for the deeper profile drop to the bars, giving him a wider range of riding positions. The bars are finished off with 

Following the Prologo theme is the Nago Evo CPC saddle. This is a more traditionally shaped saddle with no cut-out design or short nose profile. The small darker patches scattered across the saddle are the CPC (Connected Power Control) material that acts to improve grip, comfort and position stability.

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Pello Bilbao

Pello Bilbao's Bikes

Pro bike: Pello Bilbao's Merida Reacto

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