German brand also releases 700 x 28c version of its fast-rolling GP5000 TT TR
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By Jack Evans
Published: March 3, 2023 at 8:00 am
Continental has added the all-season AS TR, alongside a 700 x 28c option for the speed-focused TT TR, to its growing GP5000 tubeless tyre family.
The German brand says the AS TR has better grip in the wet, sidewall protection and durability than any other GP5000 tyre, including the excellent S TR. Therefore, Continental is aiming it at cyclists who want to go fast outdoors, all-year round.
Continental claims the GP5000 TT TR is lightweight and rolls fast, while resisting tears and punctures. It’s meant primarily for criterium, time trial and triathlon racers.
The wider version joins the 700 x 25c GP5000 TT TR, released at the 2022 Tour de France.
Continental says the AS TR pairs GP5000 speed with the longevity and puncture-protection of the Grand Prix 4 Season tyre.
Although technically superseding it in terms of performance on paper, the brand will continue to produce the stalwart clincher winter road bike tyre for the time being.
The AS TR uses the GP5000 Black Chili compound. Continental says it has added a boosted tread pattern, sturdier multi-layer ply construction and more resistant sidewalls.
Like the GP5000 S TR, the AS TR and the TT TR tyres share a 110 TPI (threads-per-inch) casing. The AS TR has four layers of ply construction, compared to the S TR’s three, according to Continental.
Continental product manager Alexander Hänke says the AS TR has a thicker tread than the GP5000 S TR, which should make it last longer than the lighter tyre.
Available in 25mm to 35mm widths, the GP5000 AS TR is tubeless-ready and compatible with hookless rims.
All sizes come with cream or black sidewalls, but ‘transparent’ tan sidewalls aren’t in the mix.
The black version uses Black-Reflex technology – an incognito reflective band – to increase the rider’s visibility in the dark without showing up in daylight.
Continental says a 700 x 25c AS TR tyre weighs 300g, but our 28c samples tip the scales at 340g for the black-sidewalled version and 342g for the cream variety.
Continental says it has made the GP 5000 TT TR tyre fast, supple and light, with the 110 TPI casing married to a two-ply construction (remember, the benchmark S TR has three plys).
The TT TR is claimed to be 35g lighter than the S TR, at 220g per tyre in a 700 x 25c size. The wider version weighs 253g per tyre.
That said, Continental has added a textile breaker under the tread “to make sure you get to the finish line” without a race-ending puncture.
Continental says the TT TR is its fastest tyre, and is tubeless-ready and hookless-compatible.
The German brand claims running a 25mm tyre at the front and 28mm at the back “provides the lowest overall rolling resistance”.
In theory, a wider rear tyre should provide more air volume with the majority of rider weight over it.
The all-season Continental GP5000 tubeless is unlikely to be ridden at WorldTour level except, perhaps, in atrocious conditions, or as a training tyre.
Continental’s Hänke said the GP5000 AS TR is a “training tyre that’s robust enough to carry you over rough roads in bad weather”.
He added that the range of available widths (from 25 to 35c) broadens the tyre’s versatility, suiting cyclists who train on their ride to work and/or ride fast gravel bikes, according to Hänke.
Team UAE Emirates has switched from Pirelli to Continental tyres for the 2023 season. Its riders will continue to use the GP5000 S TR in tomorrow’s Strade Bianche, unless it rains.
Tadej Pogačar won the men’s race last year on 28c Pirelli P Zero Race TLR tyres set up tubeless.
Speaking to journalists before Strade Bianche, Pogačar’s teammate Davide Formolo said he’s been impressed by the S TR’s puncture sealing and performance on wet descents.
He expects to increase tyre width from 28c to 30c to tackle the sterrato. While the team is yet to make a final tyre choice decision, he imagines he’ll run the GP5000 S TR at a tyre pressure of about 60psi.
The GP5000 TT TR is already proven to be fast. Dan Bigham and Filippo Ganna rode the 25c size in their successful Hour Record attempts.
Therefore, Hänke says the TT TR is increasingly popular among riders on Continental-supported WorldTour teams for dry time trials.
Most riders should continue with the S TR for dry road races, but some chose the TT TR for the smooth, fast surfaces at the Australian National Road Race Championships, according to the product manager.
It’s unclear whether the feedback from those riders was positive enough to begin eliciting a wholesale switch from Continental-shod pro riders as the season unfolds.
Digital Writer
Jack Evans is a digital writer for BikeRadar.com Jack learnt to ride on rough Cotswold trails before switching to tarmac in his teens. Gravel riding and cyclocross racing (badly) has since taken him back to his roots. Most at home scaling south Wales climbs, Jack more commonly escapes his home in Birmingham via the lanes and bridleways of Worcestershire, riding either his Canyon Ultimate road bike or Canyon Grail gravel bike. He wishes he was as good at riding as he is drinking espresso. But he has completed the 296km Dragon Devil sportive in under 10 hours and finished in the top 100 at the 2022 UK National Hill Climb Championships. Jack is an NCTJ-trained journalist and a former press agency hack with bylines in The Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror. He was once electrocuted for a Sun frontpage exclusive and taste-tested camel milk for The Times.
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