Bruyneel joins UAE tyre debate with insider information — and a 2003 story that feels familiar

The debate over UAE Team Emirates-XRG's tyre choice at the Giro d'Italia is not going away. After Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe raised the question on their podcast, and now former Lance Armstrong team director Johan Bruyneel has weighed in on THE MOVE. His interest in the tyre debate was piqued by Thomas and Rowe. With a memory from a 2003 team time trial rattling around his brains, he decided to speak to a contact inside Continental to get the full picture.

The Giro crashes story is well know by now. UAE went down first on a wet bend in stage 2, losing Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Adam Yates. More importantly, they took out around 30 riders in the process, many of whom also had to abandon. The question asked by Thomas and Rowe was direct: should the team have been riding time trial tyres in those conditions?

After watching Igor Arrieta sliding all over the place on stage 5, Bruyneel went into investigation mode.

Bruyneel identified the specific tyre at the centre of the discussion. UAE ride on Continental rubber, and their tyre of choice for most stages — wet or dry — is the GP5000 TT. It is a model designed for time trials, valued for being faster and lighter than all-round alternatives.

Bruyneel went to the source. "I've spoken to somebody from inside Continental," he said on the podcast. "I asked him: does the GP5000 TT have less grip than the S model or the AS model?"

The answer was careful, but telling. His contact did not explicitly say the TT tyre has less grip. What he did confirm is that it is a lighter tyre. A lighter tyre, he explained, with more chances of puncturing.

Bruyneel drew his own conclusion: "I'm personally going to think that the TT has less grip."

His overall verdict? "I think it's not a great decision to ride with time trial tyres just because they're fast. I know the riders will probably want them — you can feel the difference when it's a super fast tyre. But man, when it's a rainy day…"

UAE’s tyre nightmares took Bruyneel back to his time running US Postal Service in the early 2000s. Yes, that Postal Service — the team of Tour de France super-villain Lance Armstrong.

"It brought me back to 2003," he said. "Back in those days, we were riding 23-millimetre tubulars for road stages. Then there was a special time trial tubular — 21mm, sometimes even 19mm. Unthinkable now, but that was the standard."

The difference in philosophy between teams was stark, even then. Bruyneel made a deliberate choice at Postal. "I made the decision, especially in team time trials, to always go with the normal road tubulars. The all-rounders. The 23mm Hutchinsons. But some of our biggest competitors were obsessed with time trial tyres."

One particular team time trial in 2003 became his evidence. He cannot remember the exact stage, but the result stuck. "We won that time trial on our usual normal road tyres. Our two rival teams — CSC and Phonak — were convinced they had to be on time trial tyres. Well, guess what? They both crashed. And it was also raining."

He is careful to contextualise the comparison. "It's not the same as now. But there was already a difference between the normal road tyre and the time trial tyre in terms of grip — even then."

The gap has arguably narrowed. Modern TT and road tyres share the same width — unlike the 19mm versus 23mm split of two decades ago. But Bruyneel believes the composition of the rubber still makes a difference, even when the dimensions do not.

Bruyneel also identified something that Thomas had touched on: the way tyre choice can drift from choice into habit. "Once you get used to it, it's hard to say: I want a different tyre because it might rain or the terrain is rough. But they did end up switching for stages where there was a possibility of rain — so clearly the assessment can be made."

He was careful not to strip UAE of the benefit of the doubt. "They've probably done their research and have a reason to use them." But the conclusion was firm: "I think sometimes giving a little in terms of performance and going for safety is probably worth it — especially in a Grand Tour."