Udo Bolts rode a rather unsophisticated aluminum Pinarello for the race. It is not the highest technology carbon bike the Telekom team rides during the big summer stage race time trials, but is rather the bike that the riders will get for the spring races. Although we don't know for sure, one surmises that the riders don't keep the expensive carbon jobs. This bike features standard road geometry, with simply an aero downtube and nothing else which separates it from a road race bike.

There are some other touches, though, such as a Profile Design Carbon X front-end, courtesy of Profile via a match made between it and Bolts by a mutual friend, Lothar Leder. Bolts is Leder's friend -- indeed it was he who set Bolts up with WTC, the Ironman owners -- and Leder is also a Profile Design rider himself. Unlike Normann Stadler, who also uses the Carbon X, Bolts is also using Profile Design's very nice brake levers.

We must admit, we are somewhat behind the 8-ball, we recognize the wheels we've heard about for years built by a pair of German craftsmen, which cost a fortune, and are very hard to come by. These are amazingly light wheels, with hubs, spokes, rims, everything made of carbon. But we don't know the name of the wheels, and neither our German nor Bolts' english could bridge the gap, and we still don't know the name of the wheel maker.

LATE NOTE: from Slowtwitch readers (and with great thanks from Slowtwitch):

---

From Ulrich Porsch:

the race wheels Boelts used at IM Hawaii might be manufactured by the Munich-based company Lightweight (www.lightweight.de exists, but doesn't have any entries yet). There's been a test of these wheels in German TOUR bicycle magazine, in April 2000 (email to redaktion@tour-magazin.de, they ought to read English...).

Alternatively, the wheels might be made by Heydenreich (www.heydenreich.de, but also no content). I'm sorry, but I do not know more about those wheels.

Best regards, and thanks for a very interesting e-zine...

---

From Jesper Andersen:

I have read your report on the bike of Udo Bölts. You refer to the wheels as German and otherwise unknown. They are actually from Holland

I believe that the wheel setup is from the Dutch company ADA - often refered to as " ADA wheels". They are made by a guy called Cees Beers and quite often used by european pro-cyclists. Bjarne Riis from Telekom started using the wheels a few years ago and Jan Ulrich has also been seen on them.

Here is a few links for you to study.

http://www.prepare2win.com/cees1.htm http://www.ada.prorider.org/profiles.html
http://www.ada.prorider.org/
Anyway it is allways interesting to log-on to your website and see different sides of the triathlon world. Nice job.

I am a triathlete myself from Denmark. One of the crazy people who is going to Ironman Lanzarote next year - so i could definetely use a pair of ADA wheels myself for climbing those hills. Unfortunately the aprox. USD3500 for a set is a bit on the steep side for me - so i guess i will have to do with old-fasioned "thigh-power."

---

From Charles Ehm:

I think the wheel company you are looking for would be ADA. Check out the web site at: http://www.ada.prorider.org/wheels.html

Now if only I could talk my wife into a pair....

Thanks for the informative and entertaining website.

---

From Sam Shaw:

I want to take the opportunity to thank you for your insightful, interesting and helpful on-line articles and information from your slowtwitch website.

Regarding your recent piece on Udo's bike, you inquired about his wheelset. If this is the same wheelset used by the other Telekom riders, then it may be a custom set made by Cees Beers by ADA. They rode these (at times) in the TDF with Campy labels on them, but they weren't Boras. Adding confusion to things, sometimes I think they did ride the Boras.

The website is: http://www.ada.prorider.org/carbonwheel.html

Keep up the good work.

---

From Cervelo's Gerard Vroomen

Here's the real scoop on Udo's wheels.

They were invented by two Germans from Munich, whose company is called Lightweight. This is probably what Udo tried to tell you ("these wheels are lightweight". "Yes I know, but who makes them?" etc.). [Editor's note: this is exactly how the conversation went].Then there is a small company called Heylight, owned by an engineer called Heydenreich. This company makes all sorts of lightweight stuff, and he also offered the Lightweight wheel under his own name but made by the company Lightweight.

Now for the ADA part, that is a bit unpleasant. According to Tour Magazin, Mr. Cees Beers approached Lightweight and offered to help them market the wheels. Since the two owners are engineers with no marketing knowledge they gladly accepted. Beers then took a good look at how the wheels were produced and knocked them off. In his everyday life, Beers is the superintendant of the bike storage facility at the train station in Almere, Netherlands.

---

From ADA's Cees Beers:

i have got some mail to react on gerard vroomen mail its something that lots of people hear only something and they think they know it.

well we have given the order to make the wheels like it is now ,for in the begin of the 90's.

i never approaced heylight. he wanted my idea because i had lots of trouble with the person's who made it for me at the time (they did not wanted to make the change's i orderd at that time. the resin and the layup was not what i orderd, etc. i told them if they not make the change's i orderd i would do it myself since the live of persons was at stake here.

because i did not put evrything good on paper in the beginnig  i have nothing to avoid that they still making the product i designed.

its now so that people think they made the design, they only made the wheels after my design.

so we made changes to the wheels for the tour 97 bjarne riss rode the new style wheel with much improvements (the people in germany still say they made it but we have the wheels here, and if you look good at the picture from that time you can see the changes what we did campy compatible -and kevlar braking surface yellow!!!!) also we did a better layup, since the old was very dangerous in the mountains.

so the next year we started a whole new design that was much stiffer and lighter then the old wheels the things that we changed  was better carbon, better layup, other resin, also you can disassemble the wheel with out tools    also campy 10 speed and shimano.

2 wheels under 1 kg.  

cees beers