Pirelli Gets Even Lighter, Faster With P ZERO Race TLR RS

As the Giro d’Italia rolls on, Pirelli releases their latest addition to the P ZERO line of road cycling tires, the P Zero Race TLR RS. Produced at Pirelli’s Milan-Bollate plant the TLR RS is the brands new top of the line race tire, providing grip in all conditions with a lower weight and rolling resistance compared to the previous model, thanks to a new SmartEVO2 compound.

The latest edition of the P Zero Race TLR hasn’t been out that long when it upgraded the the previous version under the same name. The updated SpeedCORE casing made the tire faster, and it was successful at the WorldTour level. It’s personally one of my favorite tires, but for racing, the added protection the was a little overboard for a top level race tire. That’s where the RS steps in.

Having been raced under a prototype heat label by the Lidl-Trek men’s and women’s pro teams since the beginning of the season, the team has official adopted the tire as their race tire. So far, it has been ridden to over 70 podiums this season, including wins at stage 4 at Giro d’Italia, the Tour of the Alps, the Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour de la Provence and the Tour des Flandres Women, as well as two national titles (ITT and Road) in the South African championships. They have also taken a 2nd place at both the men’s and women’s Strade Bianche events, 2nd place at Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes and Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and 3rd at Paris-Roubaix. While the tire is just a part of the equipment, riders, and team that all combine to take the win, it shows they can be raced at the highest level successfully.

SmartEVO2 is an evolution of the SmartEVO compound, which has been further developed to enhance the properties of the various polymeric chains (molecules bonded in specific directions and linked together), which helps to improve grip and rolling resistance at the same time. The compound is made at the same facility that Pirelli uses for their motorsports compounds.

Adding in Pirelli’s SpeedCORE casing technology, they were able to reduce weight by about 8% and further reduce rolling resistance by about another 16% on an already light and fast P ZERO Race TLR. SpeedCORE is a thin, air-tight layer of rubber compound infused with aramid particles, offering puncture protection inline with other race level tires. The new bead design, which uses a different geometry and internal structure with a different arrangement of Kevlar strands, allows this tubeless ready tire to be used with hooked or hookless rims (28mm and larger tires).

All of this adds up to a tire made to be fast, comfortable, and light. With a scale to five, speed and comfort max out at a five, wet grip and lightweight are 4.5, mileage at 4, and protection at 3.5. This is going to be your racing tire, maybe not your long distance training or winter tire.

Development was surprisingly fast. With their R&D department located in Milan Bicocca, about 11km away from the plant in Bollate, the new tires was developed in less than 6 months. Prototypes were tested and validated in the lab and using virtual development tools they commonly use in the automotive world. From there, they were taken to the road, and made their way onto the bikes of Pirelli testers and Lidl-Trek athletes, who tested them racing down Mount Etna in Sicily and trough the Arenberg Forest in France.

The P ZERO Race TRL RS is now the top of the line model in the series, which still includes the P ZERO Race (all-round performance), TLR (high performance all-around racing and training tire), 4S (all-weather performance), and specialty TLR SL (lightweight), Tub SL (tubular), and TT (time trial). The new tire will be available in 26, 28, 30, and 32mm tires for 700c wheelsets.

At $99 a tire, the Pirelli P ZERO Race TLR RS are not cheap, but right around the same mark as other race tires. We’ll have a set of 28’s coming in to review, so keep an eye out for that coming in a few months after we put some miles on them.

www.pirelli.com