Up close with Joe Skipper’s bike, the Guerciotti Eclipse
Top British Ironman Joe Skipper talks us through his new Italian ride, and the go-faster mods it has
I spoke to Italian bike brand Guerciotti’s UK distributor, Tri4life’s Tom Powell, at the end of 2016 and was impressed by his passion for the brand. Straight away, I liked the ride and could sense it was a quick bike.
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For me, a key thing of the Eclipse TT is that it has a normal cockpit so it’s very easy to take apart when I’m travelling to races. I can also get a lot of adjustability from the TT bars for refining my position. I’m going to put a new stem on the bike, which is at an angle so I can get a little bit lower, as I think this’ll give me a pretty optimal aerodynamic position for Ironman.
I wouldn’t say that I’ve found the perfect set-up – that’s a work in progress. What I’ll do is look at power on my Rotor power meter and see if tinkering with my position has a positive or negative effect.
There’s a flat bit of road near me that’s 3km long and nearly traffic-free. I seem to get reliable results by riding up and down at a given power output and comparing my times with different positions and equipment. It takes times to do it but it’s worth it long term.
1. I ride Alto Velo wheels for racing and training. For racing, I’ll use the disc wheel and the 86mm front; and for training I’ll use the 40mm wheelset.
2. I use a Rotor power meter. A key benefit is to stop me going off too fast on race day.
3. At the moment I’m using Xlab for storage. Although I’m hoping to get some integrated options for the TT bike in the future, which’ll make it even more aero and sleek.
4. The frame is the standard Eclipse TT. Guerciotti can do custom paint jobs on all their frames. Mine just has my name on it!
5. The groupset is Shimano Dura Ace with Q-Ring cranks but I’d like to give Sram Etap a go as I think it’ll be a cleaner set-up on the TT bike.
Joe Skipper clocked the fastest British Iron-distance time (7:56:23) in history at Challenge Roth in July 2016, which was then beaten by Tim Don at the 2017 Ironman South American Championship in Brazil. What can Skipper in the future?
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