Walking through the pits at the start of the second stage of the Vuelta a España, the Ineos Grenadiers team bus caught my eye. The team's performance director, Scott Drewer, told Cycling News exclusively that Rodriguez's bike is one of several ultralight race bikes built in partnership with Silverstone Paint Technology (SPT), a company that specializes in minimalist coatings and focuses primarily on Formula 1 The company revealed that Rodriguez's bike is one of several ultralight race bikes built in partnership with Silverstone Paint Technology (SPT), which specializes in minimalist coatings and focuses primarily on Formula One.

Drower revealed that while the team bikes are indeed lightweight, enough to meet UCI weight limits for consumer-spec models, teams will have access to frames that have had the factory paint stripped off them by SBT. In this case, the raw carbon is coated with minimal clear lacquer, and the paint itself is visibly lighter.

The Stage 2 profile was hardly a true Alpine, with only Rodriguez seemingly opting for a lighter paint job, but Josh Tarling also had a nearly paint-free seat post. These two riders, both tall and using large, heavy frames, may need extra help to keep their machines as feathery as possible.

This is not reported elsewhere, but a partnership with SBT is not new for Ineos Grenadiers; SBT's Facebook page has partnership announcements dating back to 2018 and from the SBT channel to 2020. Drawer was unable to provide a figure for how much weight has now been reduced by the partnership, but it is still quite likely to be a significant one.

However, this is far from SBT's first foray into the world of performance cycling; an examination of SBT's archives reveals that in 2019 Sunweb and the team's Cérvelo bike and in 2018 Dimension Data and Mark Cavendish's one-off project to paint the Cérvelo S5, and the team Pursuit machine for British Cycling and the track team at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

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