We talk about fairytale endings, but what about fairytale starts? Well, Romain Bardet certainly had his on the Tour de France stage one’s finish into a scorching hot Rimini, taking his first yellow jersey after 11 years of starts, and ever-being France’s great GC hope.
We also often talk about a fairytale bicycle; one that can do it all. A mythical unicorn that is as light as it is fast aerodynamically. Well, over the lumpy 206km from Florence to Rimini, the Frenchman’s Scott Foil RC was just that. It propelled Bardet’s stinging attack over the Côte de San Leo before holding off the chase over a flat final 15km.
Of Scott’s two bike roster, the Foil RC is its out-and-out aerobike while the Addict RC is the brand’s lightweight offering.
A revamp in 2023 saw a refining of the Foil’s shape, with its airfoil tubing, hourglass head tube and curved seat tube said to make the bike 20% faster aerodynamically, and a claimed 9% lighter than the outgoing model.
The larger tubing also increases stiffness (and with it weight), and nowhere is this more evident than on the down tube and at the bottom bracket. Still, it wasn’t enough to dissuade Bardet of the Foil, clearly favouring improved aerodynamics regardless of terrain.
To reduce the bike’s weight, Bardet has opted to run Shimano’s Dura-Ace C36 wheels, a shallower option than we’re used to seeing in the modern peloton. Typically, we would expect something deeper and more befitting an aero frame but it’s likely Bardet prefers the handling benefit of the shallower wheels.
It’s not the first time that the Scott Foil RC has inhabited fairytale space. In 2016, it was ridden by Matthew Hayman to victory at Paris-Roubaix – a parcours long considered too technical for the harsh ride of an aero frame. Now it would be unthinkable to not race an aerobike, such is improved compliance of these frames.
These wheels are shod with Vittoria Corsa Pro 26c tyres, notably narrower than many of the bikes we’ve seen at this tour. The Corsa’s can be run with tubes or, as is the case here, as tubeless.
The one-piece bar and stem combo is provided by Synchros, Scott’s in-house equipment company and Team DSM-Firmenich Post-NL use a complete Shimano Dura-Ace groupset with 54/40t chainrings.
Bardet’s preferred terrain is still to come, and we can expect to see him targeting another stage victory in the Alps later this week. A second stage win on home soil would be a fitting end to his final Tour de France.
