For the past few years, we have been working on further improvements for the P3 line of bikes. Though the P3 design is already very clean aerodynamically, we saw the potential for improvement in the headtube area, the shape of the seattube and how it meets up with the seatstays. However, to achieve these improvements we had to switch to carbon, as it allows us to make certain shapes not possible in any other way. In fact, even in carbon some of the shapes are very difficult to achieve, borne out by our mould manufacturer who let us know that the P3 Carbon mould is by far the most difficult he has ever made. But the result has been worth it, and we proudly introduce the P3 Carbon as the new standard in time trial bikes.
Once out in the field, it didn't take very long for the P3 Carbon to live up to its heritage. It was first used in a ProTour cycling event by Ivan Basso in stage 8 of the 2005 Giro, in which he came second. Then in the second time trial of the Giro, stage 18, he won. This was the first time ever that Ivan Basso, not exactly known as a TT specialist, won a time trial This feat was followed up by Dave Zabriskie's stunning victory over Lance Armstrong in stage 1 of the Tour de France, and another solid performance in the closing TT for Basso.
In triathlon, the P3 Carbon won two of the first three Ironman races it was entered in, and by October 2005 no fewer than 26 P3 Carbons were entered into the Ironman Hawaii World Championship, unheard of for a bike that has only been on the market for five months.
