If you are following the Tour of Dubai, and following Team Dimension Data on Instagram (@teamdidata) Cavendish seems to be spotting something interesting.
Here's a picture from @teamdidata's Instastory, just before Stage 3.
Its a long stem, that looks to be at least 120 / 130mm, maybe longer.. And it doesn't seem as beefed up as the traditional stem. On the top portion it seems to incorporate a computer mount, with a design, a little more sleek than the existing. The face plate is a completely different design from the existing 4 bolt system. We're guessing a solid face plate creates better drag results? And we wonder if Simon Smart is involved in this stem's development, as we cant spot an 'SES' label.
To be brutally honest, we've had some bad experiences with single bolt designs in the past. Its a really bold move, putting Cavendish on one of these with the way he sprints off the front end - but Enve's definitely trying to make a statement here.
We believe this is a prototype solely by Enve and not an Enve-Cervelo collaboration, because Cervelo actually (already) makes their own Aero Road bars (available on the S5) which doesn't look like its compatible with this stem's computer mount. On top of that, Cervelo does seem to have collaborated with Barfly on a proprietary system for their computer mount.
Here's a picture of the Cervelo Bar and Barfly mount.
An Insta-story just before Stage 4 shows a better view of the Top cap.
The first thing we noticed was, the top cap is flush with the stem! So we're definitely feeling this is an Aero stem. Which does made sense, since we only see it on the S5 with the Enve Aero road bar, while the other R5's in the peloton are still on the traditional bars and stems.
Upon examining the top cap further, we realised there is a small recessed area, giving the bolt head just enough clearance to be raked fore/aft, which would allow the stem's angle to be altered accordingly, using a shim.
This would make a lot of sense for Enve to produce, as their current line up only has +/- 6deg stems. Some riders who need the drop have actually been riding other stems, like this -17deg 3T stem below.
A frontal look at this photo of Cavendish taking the win at Stage 3 of the Tour of Dubai confirms this.
This prototype is definitely not a -6 deg stem angle. It has to be at least -10 but we're betting its more like -17 deg.
