Lance Armstrong claims victory over the famed Alpe d'Huez climb on the Trek SSL bike made with Hexcel's HexPly® carbon prepreg, as he marches toward a history- making sixth crown.
Hexcel has worked in collaboration with Trek to develop one of the lightest bikes in the Tour de France. The weight of the bike is an important factor in winning such a race which lasts more than 3 weeks and includes challenging stages ascending and descending steep mountain passes.
The Time Trial is also an important stage when gains can be made over competitors, a speciality of the US Postal team. For Lance Armstrong's time trial up the 21 switch backs of the famed Alpe d'Huez climb, Trek created a customised SSL (Super, Super Light) bike incorporating Hexcel's HexPly® lightweight carbon prepreg designed for use on space satellites.
The new HexPly® carbon prepreg, weighing just 55 gsm (grams per square meter), is half the weight of the material used in other US Postal team bikes.
Trek has progressively lowered the wheel weight by reducing the weight of the individual prepreg plies -from 150gsm, to 120gsm, then 110gsm culminating in only 55gsm. Hexcel has continually provided Trek with new products that reduce weight while pushing the performance edge.
With Hexcel's composite materials the SSL bike weighs in at only 14.99 pounds (6.8 kg), the minimum allowable under international rules.
Hexcel Corporation is a leading advanced structural materials company. It develops, manufactures and
markets lightweight, high-performance reinforcement products, composite materials and engineered
products for use in commercial aerospace, space and defence, electronics, and industrial applications.
Contact: Rachel Atkinson (UK)
Tel: 44 (0) 1223 838475
Rachel.Atkinson@hexcel-eu.com
Contact: Sophie Meyniel (France)
Tel: 33 4 72 25 26 33
Sophie.Meyniel@hexcel-eu.com