According to an official team announcement Joaquím Rodriguez has spent time in the wind tunnel working on optimizing his time trial position with the Katusha sports scientist and head coach Sebastian Weber earlier this week.

Reportedly the Spaniard spent an intense morning in the same wind tunnel in Silverstone used by the Mercedes Amg Petronas Formula one team. He tested various handlebar, helmet and wheel combinations as he looked to develop his aerodynamic positions in the saddle.

Rodriguez infamously let overall victory in the 2012 Giro d'Italia slip through his fingers in the final time trial stage to Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp). This year Rodriguez will focus on the Tour de France and realizes that the two individual time trials and the team time trial might play a decisive role in determining who wins the 100th edition of Le Tour.

"We worked mostly on positioning a new handlebar setup and some tests with different setups of front wheel, helmet configuration and so on," Weber said.”

"I found quite a lot of stuff I should improve. Some minor improvements will come shortly, while the major changes with regards to position will take some time. For this reason we will adapt his TT training bike with the new position - on and off bike training. Also Canyon will adapt the handlebar for him."