In the world of professional cycling, January is an oddly frenetic month. Pro riders from around the world (those not participating in the Tour Down Under) usually head out into the Spanish sunshine for their respective winter training camps to tune up their legs and, perhaps more importantly, their bike setups for the new season Down on the road. Many teams use new bikes, some have new group sets, but even teams that have no sponsor changes, like Suredal-Quick Step, spend time squeezing every last watt out of their setups.

Cycling News' Steven Farrand interviewed Soudal-Quick Step's Technical and Development Manager Nicolas Koosmans and Specialized's Gian Paolo Mondini to talk about bike setups for next year.

We asked them about the bike set-up for next year.

Given the recent implementation of the UCI rule banning extreme lever turns, which many riders, including Lemco Evenpoel, used last season, the first thing we noted was that the bikes were already all set up with much straighter levers were.

"Since the new rules came into effect in December, we changed everyone, or more or less everyone, to the new positions. Because as of today the rule is gone. We preferred to do it at that point so they could get used to it," Koosmans said.

The new rule has been viewed with considerable disdain by some players, with Lot Destony escape specialist Victor Campanaerts calling it "bullshit."

"It actually went smoother than we thought," Koosmans said. 'They won't be happy, but at the end of the day we explained and they understood that safety was important, too.'

The safety aspect that Koosmans touches on relates to a point made by Adam Hansen and the CPA, who favor a ban on the grounds that it would put unnecessary stress on the bar and could lead to cracks and accidents in the peloton.

It was apparent from walking through the paddock at various races last year that Quick Step primarily uses inner tubes. This despite the fact that Specialized itself, the team's wheel and tire sponsor, claims that tubeless (2Bliss in marketing terms) is the optimal setup.

When asked if this would change this year, the answer was "no."

"It's the exact same bike we ended the 2023 season with," Koosmans told me about the Sudar Quickstep tire choice, which uses 26mm, cotton-cased Specialized Turbo Cotton tires and latex inner tubes.

Naturally, the question arises as to why not tubeless, to which Koosmans' answer was:

"It will be. It's a project we are working on."

Beulah Hansgrohe, who also races for Specialized, was spotted testing a "wet" version of Specialized's 28mm tubeless setup in Majorca. A source told Cycling News that the riders are happy with the "wet" tubeless, but that the "dry" tubeless tire still needs to be improved so that the riders are 100% satisfied going into the race.

Mondini had this to say about Sudar's tire choice: "We are very happy with the tires. Right now it's cotton tires. Cotton tires perform better. So we will continue to use them."

This is somewhat in contrast to Specialized's marketing materials, which moved away from advertising inner tubes with the launch of Rapide CLX II and Alpinist II wheels. One wondered if this was a safety issue in terms of preventing punctures, but Mondini responded that it depends on the type of puncture, and it remains unclear.

Tubeless seems to be what Specialized and its team are aiming for, but not everything is perfect for demanding professional racers.

Time trial world champion Lemko Evenpoel has a pretty perfect setup.

"Lemko is super aero, so it's hard to change anything. Shorten the cranks to ..... .165mm...... I also lowered the handlebars by 5mm. The saddle went up 5mm, which is a lot more. The saddle went up 5 mm, so it's a centimeter bigger," Koosmans explained. [Mondini added that these changes were made to help the Belgian superstar get better efficiency at higher cadences. Now he's testing them on his road bike as well, so they will help a little bit at higher cadences and on harder climbs."

"We can give him a chance to go faster at a bigger cadence. So we'll see."

Koosmans noted that Josh Tarling made significant progress with his TT setup last season, but speculated that Ineos riders will also make smaller progress this season as they approach the nexus of efficiency and aero benefits

"Last year, we made a lot of progress.

"Last year we saw Tarling take a big step forward," he said.

Asked if he thinks Lemko's time trial position is safe, Koosmans replied: "He is used to it. He rides his bike [in the TT position] several times a week, so those guys are used to it."