Road Cycling - Sastre no longer using Quarq?

It looks like Sastre's new giro bike has no quarq on it. Anyone know the story behind this? Does he never use power meters in races or was there an issue?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/photos/2009/tech/features/giro09_stage_three/Cervelo_Sastre_crank
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2009/tech/features/giro09_stage_three/Cervelo_Sastre_crank.jpg

could it be a new prototype?

I assumed the new rotor cranks use a different spider that they haven't produced a CinQo for yet, but that is only speculation on my part.

Man how do you guys notice this kind of stuff?

Man how do you guys notice this kind of stuff?

How do you not? :p

I noticed it when I read about the new Rotor 3D crank...

I assumed the new rotor cranks use a different spider that they haven't produced a CinQo for yet, but that is only speculation on my part.

Correct. That is a new Rotor prototype crank. It has a different spider interface than the Rotor Agilis cranks that we built CinQos for. You'll probably see some CinQos on those cranks later this summer if the team likes them.

Mieke Meyer
Quarq Technology

How do you not? :p

I noticed it when I read about the new Rotor 3D crank...

I don't know I guess I just don't troll the net for pros rigs.

Hmmmm, how did you get the jpg off their site? :)
Via 'view > source'?

More interesting is that a few more pros are persisting with odd-shaped chainrings (if they were totally crap, I suspect they might've fizzed out by now, despite sponsorship deals), and the Fuji team are using 26mm bars.

his name is on the crank

Correct. That is a new Rotor prototype crank. It has a different spider interface than the Rotor Agilis cranks that we built CinQos for. You'll probably see some CinQos on those cranks later this summer if the team likes them.

Mieke Meyer
Quarq Technology

Why didn't rotor work with Quarq to make them work together? I thought the point of the Cervelo Test Team was specifically to enable all these companies to work together to produce better products?

Why didn't rotor work with Quarq to make them work together? I thought the point of the Cervelo Test Team was specifically to enable all these companies to work together to produce better products?

sounds like they are. rotor has a new prototype crank, and if the team likes them, then quarq will make a spider for them.

his name is on the crank

Wouldn't it be painful getting your name inked on your crank?

sounds like they are. rotor has a new prototype crank, and if the team likes them, then quarq will make a spider for them.

That's right. We don't want to make a bunch of CinQos until we know that the protytpe cranks are going to be used for the rest of the year. It takes too much time and money to just keep making new CinQos for the team everytime there is a new prototype crank. Once we know what cranks they are going to run with for the rest of the year, we'll make CinQos to fit them.

Mieke Meyer
Quarq Technology

Wouldn't it be painful getting your name inked on your crank?

or even worse... laser etched. :twitchy:

That's right. We don't want to make a bunch of CinQos until we know that the protytpe cranks are going to be used for the rest of the year. It takes too much time and money to just keep making new CinQos for the team everytime there is a new prototype crank. Once we know what cranks they are going to run with for the rest of the year, we'll make CinQos to fit them.

Mieke Meyer
Quarq Technology

I understand that but then it means you're going a huge chunk of time without any feedback on the cinqo, and at a pretty critical time - a grand tour. Seems that would benefit you two ways, one with info but secondly with marketing. Having a guy ride it in a GT will greatly improve people's perception of it's durability, consistency and weight (and yes, perception matters more than facts with purchase choices). That's the only reason I was asking why you guys weren't coordinating on it, since Rotor's choice to do a new prototype takes away from Quarq's ability to have their product used/displayed (which I assume is what they pay the sponsorship money for).

I'm sure the guys at Quarq have a better understanding of what's good for their business than you, donr.

I'm sure the guys at Quarq have a better understanding of what's good for their business than you, donr.

That's why I'm asking. I'm trying to understand how allowing them to not use your product in a grand tour outweighs the cost of building a prototype to work with the new rotor.

to oversimplify, maybe the consideration works out to:
|(Cost of developing new prototype)| > |(Projected revenue loss from Sastre not riding Quarq in Giro)|