Bianchi has unveiled a revamped version of its Aquila RC time trial bike, which made its debut during the opening stage of last weekend’s Étoile des Bessèges.
“In an increasingly competitive road cycling landscape, every second counts. This is true for any challenge, but even more so in time trials, where one can only rely on oneself and the effectiveness of their equipment. To achieve the goal of being the world’s fastest time trial bike, the Bianchi Reparto Corse sought a perfect balance by reconfirming their design philosophy: to treat the rider’s movement and the bicycle’s dynamics as a unified system. This holistic approach — previously used to create the revolutionary Oltre RC Hyperbike — found its ultimate expression in the Aquila RC project, specifically designed for time trials. The Aquila has always been part of Bianchi’s emblem because it symbolizes power, speed, and elegance. The new Aquila RC carries this legacy forward by pushing the boundaries of time trial performance,” boasts Bianchi.
Drawing on decades of expertise and no fewer than twenty months of dedicated development, Bianchi collaborated with world-class time trial specialists and with Arkea-B&B Hotels WorldTour team’s Kévin Vauquelin, taking an iterative design process that involved extensive use of CAD analysis, advanced simulations, prototypes, wind tunnel and road testing, as well as experimenting with various airfoil profiles including opting for a seat tube angle of 77.5° to match WorldTour time trial specialists’ preferences to effect a faster, more aggressive riding position. Moreover, the Aquila’s tube profiles and shapes were designed to mitigate the “sailing” effect caused by side forces.
TESTING AND RESULTS
In time trial frame design, the variables that can be adjusted are extremely limited due to UCI regulations and the laws of physics. Therefore, the Bianchi Reparto Corse focused on optimizing the Aquila RC’s most impactful components: the handlebar, seatpost, and bottom bracket. By fine-tuning shape and position, Bianchi engineers minimized pressure drag in strategic areas of the frame. In addition, frame testing went beyond wind tunnel experiments, relying on countless hours in order to understand how human movement interacts with bicycle aerodynamics, while Bianchi developed an innovative tool that was able to replicate movement with artificial legs, allowing further optimization of the bike-rider interaction, with simulations that involved testing the bike alone, the bike with static legs, with legs in motion and by using different fork types.
The result is a savings of 16.1 watts at 50 km/h compared to the previous version. Also, on a 40.7 km course, at an average speed between 50.4 km/h and 51.1 km/h, the Aquila RC is claimed to be 37 seconds faster compared to its predecessor. What’s more, the Aquila RC consistently outperformed the outgoing model and the best industry competitor in yaw angles from -20° to 20°
Lastly, the Aquila RC also sees a new cockpit that was developed in partnership with Vision FSA, resulting in a fuselage with an impressive range of easy adjustability and aerodynamic integration.
Weighing at 1300 grams, the Aquila RC is offered exclusively as a frameset, with color limited to Metallic Celeste/Glossy Black for €5,449.
Bianchi
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