Just when we think all the new WorldTour sponsorship announcements have been made, another one gets announced, there’s a pattern forming of late.
This news follows hot on the heels of Tadej Pogacar switching saddle sponsors and Visma-Lease a bike potentially making their own kit. You can keep up to date with sponsor and equipment changes in our Mens WorldTour bike guide.
Alpecin-Deceuninck have announced a new partnership with Italian brand Pirelli which will see the team riding and racing on Pirelli tyres until 2029. This new agreement of course means the team will bid farewell to the previous long-term tyre sponsor Vittoria. The Alpecin-Deceuninck Development team, a UCI Continental squad will also use Pirelli tyres to race on.
A few sneaky spy shots had been floating around online this winter of Alpecin riders rolling on Pirelli rubber, but today’s announcement formally confirms things.
Alpecin riders will have two key models at their disposal for racing on the road. The top-of-the-range P Zero Race TLR RS tyre which we published an in-depth review for this week, and the P Zero Race TLR which is more of an all-rounder. For gravel, a discipline in which team leader Van der Poel is the reigning world champion the Cinturato range will be used, whilst Kiwi Sam Gaze, former world MTB XCC world champion will compete in MTB races using the Scorpion XC tyres.
Though we would hardly expect him to publicly voice any doubts, a quote from Van der Poel in the attached press release showed he seemed to be pleased so far with the new tyres.
“I really like these tyres, I tested them out a bit here in Spain and they have an excellent grip, particularly on these roads, which especially in the morning can be slippery. I always feel in control of the bike, which is great”.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
How fast are the new tyres?
Van der Poel, Philipsen and co. will switch from Vittoria Corsa Pro and Corsa Speed tyres, widely acknowledged as some of the best road bike tyres to the P Zero Race TLR RS which we assume they will use for most races. It’s incidentally the same tyres as key classics rider Mads Pedersen will be using. Has Van der Poel just lost a few watts?
As part of our CN Labs’ independent testing projects, we took some of the best road bike tyres out there and tested their rolling resistance. That test included the aforementioned tyres.
CN Labs rolling resistance test
CN Labs: Aero wheel test
We recommend you read the full test, but on the Silverstone Sports engineering test rig, we found both tyres measured up very closely to each other in terms of power requirements at 30 and 40kph roughly, with the Corsa Pro edging things, slightly.
The new season is shimmering on the horizon and the team will be racing on Pirelli tyres at the Tour Down Under under the blazing sun, but after that it won’t be long until Van der Poel does battle at the classics and truly puts the tyres to the test with colder temperatures and a higher frequency of wet, mucky roads.