By: Pro Tour Cycling
The talk of the town in the road tire game since the Tour de France has been the continental 5000 Tour de France edition, so we had to get a set and put them to the test! For those that don’t know the only difference between the Tour de France edition tires and the regular GP 5000 is the color of the sidewall. The TDF edition comes in a new Tan sidewall, where as the traditional model comes all black.
A quick note to mention is that these tires were ridden between 70 & 100PSI for 6 weeks of riding 60-150km 5 days a week in dry, damp, and very wet weather conditions.
The GP 5000 tire has gotten a variety of reviews up until now, but we wanted to put the tires to the test where they haven’t been reviewed before, on descents up to 100km hr and cornering at 85km hr.
After all the hype we must admit that the GP 5000 TDF edition is rather disappointing on the performance side. The tire does not bite into the corners as well as competitor models, and at it’s price point it is in the top echelon of road bicycle clincher tires. The GP 5000 tire bounces around a lot at high speed, and does not stick to the road. Wet conditions at high speeds on the GP 5000 are nothing short of a nightmare, and the hard compound of the GP 5000 mixed with a wet road makes for the feeling of riding a bike on an ice rink. One positive take away from the GP 5000 tires is that because the compound is rather hard, it is fairly flat resistant. So, if you are someone that rides straight roads, and doesn’t take corners at high speeds you might actually enjoy the GP 5000 tire, that is of course if you don’t mind a stiff ride.