Pirelli enters the WorldTour in partnership with Mitchelton-Scott
Pirelli and Mitchelton-Scott are proud to announce thier long-term technical partnership with the Australian WorldTour squad to use Pirelli tyres from the 2018 Tour De France and beyond. The news was delivered over the week-end at the Paul Ricard circuit in France where Simon Yates completed a lap on the French F1 Grand Prix circuit on board his team issue Scott Plazma equipped with the new exclusive Pirelli Velo Tubulars.
After signing an agreement with Pro Continental team Aqua Blue Sport, Pirelli accelerates its strategy to step up its presence in professional cycling with the company now teaming up with Mitchelton-SCOTT, currently No. 2 in the UCI WorldTour ranking. The debut will take place in just over two weeks, at the 2018 Tour De France where the members of the Australian team will be using new Pirelli tubular tyres. The WorldTour squads participation in the Grande Boucle will mark Pirelli’s return to major races on the UCI cycling calendar.
The 2018 F1 Pirelli Grand Prix De France provided the stage where the partnership was announced with a press conference attended by Antonella Lauriola, COO of Pirelli Velo, Piero Misani, Chief Technological Officer Two Wheels Pirelli, Mario Isola, Head of Car Racing Pirelli, and Simon Yates, one of the top athletes of the Mitchelton-SCOTT team. To celebrate the agreement, Yates completed a lap on the Paul Ricard circuit (5.8 km in length) riding his Scott Plazma fitted with the new Pirelli tubulars.
Using Le Castellet as the stage for the announcement was no random choice. Not only does the French GP take place a few weeks before the start of the Tour De France but it also underscores the existing ties in Pirelli’s strategy between motorsport and cycle racing. Pirelli’s approach to professional cycling is the same as motorsport with the world’s leading supplier to top level motor races signing partnership agreements that provide joint, continuous development work on the tyres with a view to attaining unprecedented performance levels.
During the months leading up to the Tour De France, the Mitchelton-SCOTT team and Pirelli R&D personnel have been working together, in a constant exchange of technical feedback with a total of 300,000 km covered with the new tubular tyres in races and testing sessions conducted jointly by Pirelli professional testers and the team riders.
The result of this intensive testing and performance validation process, which will continue race after race throughout the cycling season is the PZero Velo tubular. A tyre born of the most demanding conditions, which besides featuring the high efficiency level and grip typically associated with Pirelli products and ideally suited for WorldTour competitions, enables the riders to reach new levels of confidence and control even under extreme conditions. Among the characteristics it shares with the current clinchers in the same family we find the SmartNET™ Silica compound, ICS (Ideal Contour Shaping) tyre tread profile and FGD (Functional Groove Design) – all of which are viewed by Pirelli as essential constituents of Velo products at the design and development stages.
“Pirelli is the choice of top-notch athletes and the very best teams in many high-level sports – points out Antonella Lauriola, COO of Pirelli Business Unit Velo – so it was only natural that in cycling we too would be the choice of a WorldTour leading team such as Mitchelton-SCOTT. To Pirelli, each bike, each cyclist and each and every racing condition calls for a different product. This is the way we work in motorsport championships too. We are certain that this partnership will yield significant results, not only in terms of race wins, but also in terms of product development”.
“The tyre is arguably the most important piece of equipment available to a professional road cyclist. There’s an incredible amount of trust that goes into a very small contact patch to the road” commented Kevin Tabotta, Mitchelton-SCOTT team Performance Director. “We have been really happy with the development of the tyres. Pirelli have been excellent in the way they’ve communicated with our athletes and taken on board their feedback. We have ended up with a fantastic fast, grippy, comfortable tyre that handles incredibly well”.
Look out for the Pirelli equipped Mitchton-SCOTT team at the head of the peloton from July 7th as "La Grand Boucle" 2018 heads off through the Vendée - Pays De La Loire region of north-western France. For the current Pirelli Velo range head to www.fesports.com.au/products and the FE Sports Store Locator page to find your nearest Pirelli stockist.
