Tubeless for the win! EF Education First win Tour Colombia time trial using tubeless Vision Metron 81 SL Disc wheels

Vision has just announced that the EF Education First team took the recent opening team time trial stage in the Tour Colombia 2.1 race using it tubeless Vision Metron 81 SL Disc wheels. It’s the latest team to embrace tubeless tyres.

- Buyer's guide to tubeless tyres — all your options in new technology rubber

The Vision Metron 81 SL Disc is a deep section wheelset - the rim is 81mm tall - with a generous 26.8mm width that is clincher and tubeless compatible. They’ve been in regular competition use and have graced the podium on 100 occasions the company tells us, but this is the first time they have taken a stage win.

The tyres used were Vittoria Corsa Sport tubeless. You can read our review of this tyre here.

“This triumphal day starts from afar, from years of research and development alongside the PRO teams,” explained Maurizio Bellin, general manager of Vision Europe.

“We have constantly closed the gap in our personal ‘challenge to the time’, introducing news and putting our wheels users in the best conditions to achieve their goals. This win with Tubeless Ready wheels is only the latest example about it. Today I am proud to admit that Vision wheels are universally recognised as synonymous of aerodynamics and technology applied to the road and triathlon bike.”

We assume the team will stick with tubular tyres for the rest of the road stages, but maybe this victory might convince them of the benefits of tubeless and make the switch?

The fall of tubular and rise of tubeless

This isn’t the first time a team has switched away from tubulars for the race against the clock. Go back to 2016 and Tony Martin won the world time trial championship on Specialized Turbo Cotton clincher tyres, backed up by data that shows clincher tyres provide lower rolling resistance than tubular tyres.

Tubeless tyres have gradually been emerging.  Several teams have used them at the sort of races that they obviously make a lot of sense, the cobbled classics like Paris-Roubaix. Phillipe Gilbert won Het Volk in 2008 on Hutchinson tubeless tyres, the French tyre brand being an innovator in the road tubeless market since being introduced a few years before.

More recently,  Specialized has been pushing its tubeless tyre tech with Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Fabio Jakobsen winning stage four of the Tour of California on a brand new set of prototype Specialized Project Black tubeless tyres last year.

lad to share with you the latest press release regarding the prestigious victory of the Metron 81 SL Disc TUBELESS wheels in Tour Colombia 2.1 with EF Education First. The team will use Metron Disc TUBELESS wheels throughout the season during the time trials, with the many advantages that derive from it.

More at www.visiontechusa.com

Photo Credits: @Gettysport