Making its highly-anticipated debut at the Ironman World Championship this weekend, Patrik Nilsson’s BMC Red Bull Prototype bike is making a claim for the title of world’s fastest race bike. It’s the product of a joint research project between BMC and the Red Bull Formula One team with rider input and feedback from four-time world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara.
Nilsson will be riding the BMC Red Bull Prototype bike with DT Swiss ARC DB 1100 wheels. The team behind the bike said it “started out with the ambition to design the fastest bike in the world.” It took knowledge of Formula One car racing aerodynamics and applied it to bike design, according to the team.
Nilsson will be riding DT Swiss ARC 1100 wheels, 62mm on the front and 80mm on the rear. He’s running Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 11-speed with a 55-42 chainring, an 11-28 rear cassette, and 165mm cranks. He’s also sporting CeramicSpeed’s brand-new Aero OSPW derailleur cage.
Above the bottom bracket, a removable storage box is integrated into the frameset, with a wider downtube and seat tube (compared to previous BMC tri bikes) to improve the airflow over this area. This bike is the product of a joint research project between BMC and Red Bull Advanced Technologies.
The Uniqo bars are 3D-printed and fully customized for Nilsson’s position with a uniquely high-mounted front hydration system.
On very first glance, it is this custom cockpit that really catches the eye. Made by Spanish company Uniqo, it is 3D printed and custom-designed for Nilsson.
He’ll be monitoring data via his (upside-down mounted!) Wahoo Elemnt Bolt bike computer.
To further his unconventional cockpit, Nilsson’s Shimano bar-end shifters are vertically positioned, versus the usual side-by-side, horizontal positioning.
All graphics on the bike were custom-designed by the Red Bull team.
Nilsson will be one of only a handful of riders using the new CeramicSpeed OSPW Aero, due to be released next month.
It’s bike tune-up time.
The BMC team is working hard to make sure this bike is as ready as its rider come race day.
Data comes to Nilsson’s bike computer via his 4iiii Precision Pro power meter.
Hutchinson Racing Labs tires are wrapped around Nilsson’s DT Swiss wheels. He said he’ll likely run his tires—25mm on the front, 28mm on the rear—around 80 PSI on race day.
Nilsson will be putting the power through his Speedplay Wahoo Aero pedals.
He’ll be perched on this Selle Italia Watt saddle.