Katusha, AG2R La Mondiale to use SRAM eTap groups in 2016

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SRAM has revealed the teams that will use their components and new electronic Red eTap groupset in the professional peloton in 2016, confirming the American company will be represented in both the men’s and women’s peloton, in the WorldTour and North America.

Both the Katusha and AG2R La Mondiale men’s WorldTour teams will ride mechanical Red or Red eTap gears. The French squad played a key role in the development of the electronic gears. SRAM is also a key sponsor of the Canyon//SRAM women’s team. Others men’s and women’s teams using SRAM in 2016 are WIGGINS, Drapac, Boels-Dolmans, Axeon Haegens Berman, TWENTY16, Cylance and the Rally Pro Cycling team that was known as Optum until in announced its new title sponsor.

SRAM will also sponsor the Dutch men’s Professional Continental team Roompot Oranje, confirming to Cyclingnews that the team will use the SRAM Red hydraulic disc brakes. The UCI has relaxed its rules for disc brakes for 2016 but Rompot Oranje is the first team to commit to using the new braking technology throughout the season.

Thanks to its sponsorship, SRAM will have the likes of sprinter Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Bradley Wiggins, women’s world champion Lizzie Armitstead and Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans), Tour de France stage winner Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Danny Pate and Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) and the young riders of Aexon Haegens Berman.

SRAM Red eTap gearing was voted best new product of 2015 in the annual Cyclingnews reader poll. SRAM Red eTap’s biggest trick is its fully wireless design, which uses proprietary encrypted signals to transfer information between the levers and derailleurs instead of physical cables. The multiple transmitters, receivers, and batteries add a bit of weight relative to the mechanical version but it’s a modest figure when everything is accounted for.

With SRAM owning other brands such as Zipp and Quark power metres, many of the teams will also use those components on their 2016 bikes.