Pro bike: Henok Mulubrhan’s African Champion Wilier Filante SLR

We take a closer look at the Astana Qazaqstan team bike that has a colourway fit for a champ

09:16, Wednesday 8th May 2024

Alex Hunt

Junior Tech Writer

Henok Mulubrhan's Wilier Filante SLR

Astana Qazaqstan Team
- Nationality Kazakhstan
- Founded 2006
- Team Principal Alexander Vinokourov
- UCI Code AST
- Bike Sponsor Wilier Triestina
Henok Mulubrhan
- Team Astana Qazaqstan Team
- Nationality Eritrea
- Age 24
- UCI Wins 8
- Height 1.76m
Wilier Triestina
Wilier Triestina is an Italian manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes and e-bikes, based in Rossano Veneto in northern Italy.

New to the WorldTour and Astana Qazaqstan for 2024, Henok Mulubrhan has had very little time to settle in before making his debut Grand Tour appearance at this year's Giro d’Italia. The 24-year-old joins the Kazakhstan team as the reigning African Continental champion with two titles in his palmarès as well as the GC overall at the Tour of Rwanda to his name in his career so far.

As is the case for any rider joining a new team, Mulubrhan has been getting acquainted with the sponsor-provided equipment, which in his case means bikes from Italian brand Wilier.

Unlike most riders Mulubran is not simply jumping on a team edition bike. Instead, he has one of the most eye-catching paint schemes in the peloton to celebrate his African champion title.

Read more: Wilier brings out Filante SL - a cheaper version of the SLR

Ahead of stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia, we managed to get our hands on this custom bike to see how Mulubrhan likes to have his bike set up for a day set to finish with a bunch sprint.

Wilier Filante SLR

At the heart of this pro bike is Wilier’s Filante SLR frameset. The Filante is one of two bikes available to the team with the other bike the 0 SLR reserved for the high mountain passes that feature later in the race.

The Filante SLR is the brand's all-rounder aero bike joining the 0 SLR lightweight bike

Although the Filante SLR is undoubtedly the brand’s go-to aero bike with the silhouette typical of the latest bread of wind-cheating race machines, Wilier are confident that the bike is more than just a one-trick pony.

When the Filante SLR was designed, the engineers used new aerodynamically optimised frame profiles that enabled them to shed some weight. With no sharp edges, the frame requires less material and less resin. The result of this is a claimed frame weight of 870 grams with Wilier confident that a pro build can be achieved at the UCI minimum weight limit of 6.8kg – something of the holy grail when it comes to aero bikes.

The fork and rear triangle of the bike features a blue to green fade interwoven with a gold geometric pattern

Much like his teammate Simone Velasco's Italian champion bike, Mulubrhan has a wonderfully custom-painted frameset in celebration of his African Continental Championships title. From afar, the base colour of the bike looks to be a standard grey colour, however upon closer inspection it is actually a marble effect with swirls of white mixed in with the grey. On the fork and the rear triangle of the bike, a blue-to-green fade is interlaced with a geometric gold pattern making this a bike that is hard to mistake for anyone else.

Read more: Pro bike: Simone Velasco’s Wilier Filante SLR for the Giro d’Italia

Standard gearing for a sprint day

The fact that a rider is using standard ‘pro’ gearing shouldn’t be something newsworthy, however using a 54/40 chainset on a sprint stage of a Grand Tour is becoming less and less common. Frequently we see riders opting for a 55 or 56-tooth outer chainring to better handle the higher speeds associated with the flat stages.

Mulubrhan kept things simple with a standard 54/40-tooth crankset

As far as Mulubhran’s drivetrain is concerned it is a very ordinary affair with the standard ‘pro’ crankset being matched to Shimano’s 11-30 Dura-Ace cassette.

Read more: Why bigger is better when it comes to time trial chainrings

For the flatter sprint stages an 11-30 cassette is the preference

Wilier finishing kit

Mulubrhan’s Filante SLR sports one of the most aesthetic cockpits in the professional peloton. Although fairly regular in profile, the bars are finished off in the same grey/white marbling effect of the frame. The one-piece bar and stem, though covered up by Prologo bar tape, are made by Wilier using the same carbon fibre as the 0 SLR. Using this carbon lay-up the brand says: “We have reached an absolute level of lightness and stiffness.”

The one-piece Wilier bars are finished in the same marble effect paint as the frame

Rounding off the build is a set of Vision Metron SL 60 wheels with 28mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres mounted to them. Topping off the seat post is Prologo’s Nago R4 PAS saddle in a 137mm width.

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