By George Scott

Published: Saturday, 02 July 2022 at 12:00 am

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The time trial tyre used by Ineos-Grenadiers and a host of other teams on the opening stage of the Tour de France has been officially launched by Continental.

Lurking around team hotels in the days leading up to the race, we spotted the Grand Prix 5000 TT TdF mounted to wheels on Continental-sponsored teams ranging from Ineos to Intermarché.

With tubeless dominating tyre choices at the Tour de France and the opening stage a hot-bed of new tech, the Grand Prix 5000 TT TdF arrives as a time trial version of Continental’s popular Grand Prix 5000 S TR tubeless tyre.

The existing tyre has been raced to victory by Filippo Ganna at the World Championships and Sonny Colbrelli at Paris-Roubaix (it also received five stars in our Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR review) but Conti says the TT version offers a 17-second saving over a 40 kilometre time trial.

The German brand says this has been achieved “thanks to optimised tread thickness and construction to reduce material deformation at the contact point between road and tyre.”

It’s also a claimed 25g lighter (215g per tyre) than the road tyre in a 25c size. That’s the only width offered by Continental for the time trial tyre, with a narrow frontal aero often preferred when racing against the clock.

The Grand Prix 5000 TT TdF uses Conti’s BlackChili compound and is said to include “Vectran Breaker” liquid crystal-polymers for puncture protection and, according to Continental, five-times greater tear resistance than a comparable nylon breaker.

The Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT TdF will be available to purchase from 1 July worldwide, priced at €99.99 per tyre. UK and US pricing is to be confirmed.