531Aussie

I mean, I know why -- he obviously liked it, and had to appease sponsors -- but, surely, of the Cervelos he had on offer back in 2003, one of them would've been good enough?

All it says in the article is: "during the development of Cervelo's own carbon bike, the R2.5, he even had one of his old C40s resprayed in the team colours."

Ok, this sort of answers it, but could he not have trained on a Soloist or Prodigy?
This is a training pic. I guess he wanted to ride carbon.

https://www.ileach.co.uk/post/2005/co...c50hp/c50.html

asgelle

How many road models do you think Cervelo had then?

eric01

What? What year are we talking about? Are you referring to something that happened 6 years ago?

DrPete 

That looks an awful lot like a Cervelo SuperProdigy. Nice camouflage job.

531Aussie

bumpo

bigtea

Do you assume that pros all actually ride the team issue bike? It's been a practice of pros for years to ride what they like and get it painted to the team colors.

Treefox

Lance rode a repainted Litespeed in TT's for quite some time, despite all the Trek-love.

531Aussie

No (we all know about Cipo riding nothing but re-sprayed De Rosas for years), but it happens much less these days, mostly coz the different shapes of carbon frames are easily discernable.

531Aussie

I've gotta admit I made the mistake of forgetting that Cervelo only had 2 or (or 3?) road frames back then, one of which was steel. So, his options were limited.

dje31

This sort of thing is rampant on the pro tennis scene. A pro gets used to a certain racquet, but the sponsor wants them to use their "latest and greatest," that Joe Six-Pack and Sally Lunchpail can buy at the local pro shop. So the MFR takes the old, often out-of-production model that the sponsored pro likes, and give the frames the paintjob of the current or new product.

Viola! To the (dumb) masses, the pro is using the latest and greatest.

asgelle

You're still overcounting. They had exactly one road model. Since it was welded steel, Tafi could have had it in any geometry so the reason he chose not to ride it must have been something else.

531Aussie

Wrong.

The CSC deal started in 2003, and the Soloist came out in 2001 or 2002 -- and the Eyre (the predecessor to the Soloist) came out in 1996.

https://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/B...1683&Type=bike
https://www.cervelo.com/content.aspx?...ontinuedModels

And if I wanna nitpick, they had two steel models just prior to the begining of the CSC deal: the Renaissance and the Prodigy

I doubt they would've scored a Pro Tour sponsorship in 2003 with one steel frame and the 'promise' of a carbon model.

Flatballer

Happens in MTB racing too, especially XC. Many of the pro XC riders aren't riding full suspension, it just looks like it. The riders want hardtails, but the manufacturers want everyone to think they need to buy a full suspension bike, so they put in fake rear suspensions that don't actually work and are locked out completely in one way or another, and gutted so they're lightweight.