On 28th July 2019, Egan Bernal stood on the top step of the podium in Paris, his face aglow with joy and the frenetic flash of cameras.

For Team INEOS, it has been another successful year filled with moments of pride. Since the squad’s debut with its new title-sponsor at the Tour de Yorkshire, Team INEOS has maintained its winning form, claiming general classification triumphs, stage victories and jerseys alike.

As always, it’s been a team effort – it’s not just Bernal making the headlines. In the absence of multiple Grand Tour winner Chris Froome through injury, Geraint Thomas made another huge contribution. The charismatic Welshman selflessly guided the young Colombian to his first Grand Tour victory in France while claiming the second step on the podium himself.

Elsewhere, youth prevailed as Pavel Sivakov (22) took home the winner’s jersey at the Tour de Pologne. Not to be outdone, Iván Sosa, just 21, earned GC victory at the Vuelta a Burgos with two stage wins. Later, he took second at GranPiemonte, helping his countryman Bernal to the victory and securing a team 1-2.

In collaboration with pro riders, including Team INEOS, we developed Vento – fizik’s performance racing series. Vento is guided by the same principles that have brought the British-based team seven Tour de France victories: strength, determination, passion and perseverance. With all the emotions that make cycling great – excitement, exhaustion and elation – Team INEOS rides Vento throughout the year.

Photographs: Poci’s, Russ Ellis 

The 106th edition of the Tour de France has been a hugely exciting and successful Grand Tour for fizik riders, with overall victory for Egan Bernal of Team INEOS.

The three-week race was very tightly competed throughout and the General Classification was impossible to call right down to the final exciting stages in the Alps. But from start to finish, Egan has ridden strongly with his Antares R1 saddle and been a leading contender, close on time and in a top-five position every day in what has been the most gripping Grand Tour contest for years!

The whole 2019 Tour has been an amazing spectacle, thrilling from the Grand Départ in Brussels, through the Pyrenees and right to the decisive stages in the Alps before the final processional stage into Paris’ and along the iconic Champs-Elysées.

Congratulations to Egan for claiming the yellow jersey and thanks to all our riders for their enormous efforts and delivering such an entertaining competition and a great result!

Team Ineos’ Egan Bernal claimed overall victory at the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday, with a strong performance culminating in an assured ride on the final stage, marking a consistent threat from his closest rival Rohan Dennis.

Bernal assumed the race lead on stage 6, taking second place on the first mountains day behind Jumbo-Visma’s talented young Dutchman Antwan Tolhoek. Bernal extended his lead on stage 7, soloing the final 2km and arrive on the San Gottardo finish line 23sec ahead on the day and 41sec up on GC. It proved an unassailable lead as the 22-year-old won GC and the Young Rider prize while Ineos scooped the Team competition.

Meanwhile, Bernal’s teammate Iván Sosa claimed 2nd on GC on Route d’Occitanie (winning stage 3) behind Movistar Team’s Alejandro Valverde, who repeated his 2018 victory. In the Dauphiné – the other major preparation race for the Tour de France – Wout Van Aert took two stages for Jumbo-Visma, while Wout Poels  and Dylan Van Baarle racked up victories for Ineos.

When we’re cheering on our pro teams to success in the Classics, Grand Tours and other major races, it’s easy to overlook the precise detail that goes into setting up their bikes so the athletes can perform to the maximum.

Three important aspects of saddle set-up are: selecting the correct profile; measuring the rider’s bike position; and the art of setting up the bike with unerring accuracy every single day for every rider to replicate these vital metrics.

Gianni Moscon and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, for example, both suit the long, flat shape and narrow nose of the Arione. This year’s emerging talent, Egan Bernal, ride Antares, with its medium profile, as does Chris Froome; while it’s the waved profile Aliante for his ultra-reliable domestique Philip Deignan, who has just announced his retirement after 14 seasons as a pro.

With their, and their team-mates’ on-bike measurements recorded, we spent time with Team Sky’s mechanics who shared their vital part of the process.

Like all the team’s technical equipment, the measuring calipers they use are highly accurate professional tools, regularly checked – as are the riders’ measurements themselves.

Two sets of measurements that determine saddle height are taken for each rider: from the center of the bottom bracket to two points on the saddle. These positions vary from model to model because of their different profiles and are set to the fraction of a millimeter with the bike secure in a workstand.

The fore-aft measurements are the second set of positions for each rider, and these are also determined relative to the BB.

Advice that all good mechanics will gladly share – but you can imagine the potential consequences if these guys didn’t follow it themselves – is to use the correct torque settings on all bolts. They might make it all look easy, but of course, it’s a highly tuned professional operation that creates that effect!