Article courtesy Cyclosprint Magazine, translation by Jan Janssens.

Dugast tires are renown.  They’ll get you through the hell of Paris-Roubaix unscathed, pistiers find them super-light, and cyclo-crossers like to poker with them. From “regular” to “unique,” Dugast will make them, on your request. Everything is possible. Up to last June, André Dugast used to manufacture them himself, but the 72-year old Parisian sold his little firm to Dutchman Richard Nieuwhuis.

Since then, Nieuwhuis is the one fabricating the tubes that Michelin, Vittoria, Vredestein and Hutchinson won’t even start thinking about.

Richard Nieuwhuis, 35, lives in Denekamp, the village of Hennie Kuiper. His workplace is a small shack on a far-off farm. The working space is....5 by 3 metres. We were expecting something a bit bigger, to be honest. There’s an electric fire for the cold winter months, a toilet, some cans full of latex, and a whole lot of white fibre-tires are suspended to the wall.

Remember the pantomime around Richard Groenendaal on the WC of Zolder 2 years ago? Richard would supposedly ride on tires that he could deflate/inflate with a button at his steering wheel. Almost the same story last year in Monopoli, where Bart Wellens' were supposedly was impossible to flatten. Stories that were already myths from the moment they originated, but with one similarity: Dugast was behind it all in both cases.

Richard Nieuwhuis laughs, he’s the rubber king. “Dugast has existed since 1972. Ask Eric De Vlaeminck, he used to ride on Dugasts, like all crossers nowadays...after all, we also make regular tires, some 9000 a year, for every discipline. The specials are usually just for the WC.”

CS: How did the interest in developing special tires start?

Richard Nieuwhuis: Because it’s fun. It’s the ultimate hobby. I made my debut in 2000, in Tabor, thanks to Groenendaal. They expected snow, and Richard wanted something special, he wasn’t feeling too certain. He wanted the Michelin-tire profile -which has a better grip on the road- on a tube. Such a thing doesn’t exist, ofcourse. So we got busy.

CS: Did it bring what you were hoping for? After all, Vervecken became world champion in Tabor, and not Groenendaal...

Because Richard fell into a pool of icewater. Before that he was the only one that could follow, in the descents. The tire did exactly what we hoped it would do.

CS: What did you do, exactly?

We cut the surface of a Michelin tire and then stitched that on a Dugast. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, I can assure you.

CS: Is Groenendaal that inventive?

He’s the master of detail. Richard has a bit less raw power in his legs, so he tries to compensate by looking for perfection in his material. He’s the rider that can tell me if a tire rides ok or not, after just three minutes of testing. Bart Wellens has that ability too. He’s a good customer, he came by for the first World Cup race in Torino this year. Did you see how he flew through that last turn? That would have been impossible on regular tubes. Now he almost managed to beat Nys in the sprint, which normally is unthinkable for Bart.

CS: Back to the WC in Zolder...what was the deal?

Groenendaal had come knocking again. He had been secretly training on the parcours, and he wanted a tire that had good grip, but that also allowed him to go fast on the road. We had to do something, he said.

CS: How do you start an assignment like that?

By thoroughly analyzing a parcours. In Zolder there was a long piece of road that would require a hard tire with a lot of pressure on it. And other than that the place crawled with bared roots and sand, that made comfort and grip essential. Those things normally don’t go together.

CS: Which led to...

An egg-shaped tire instead of a round one. A round one is too slow. You have too much grip with it, ideal for racing over bare roots and such; but it will also slow you down. So, we created an egg-shaped tire, of which the upper bended inwards as soon as it had to absorb a shock from the roots. That way the side would get a grip and the speed would drop, which was desireable only on those moments.

CS: The papers wrote that Groenendaal could deflate and inflate his tires on his steering wheel.

That’s how the myth started. Didn’t make any sense, of course. Some people thought that we had just copied it from auto-sport to cycling, because something like that exists over there. It’s true that in rally for example, you can monitor and adjust the pressure on your tires from your steering wheel. Some types of Mercedes even automatically inflate a flat tire after 50 metres.

Eventually, it made for some hilarious scenes in Zolder, which we could have made even bigger, in retrospect. Erik Dekker proposed that we would hang a white sheet over Richard’s bike and unveil it only 5 minutes before the start. But we didn’t do that, in the end. It would have been a bit out of proportion, because after all, Richard was just riding with different tubes.

CS: For Monopoli, last year, you created a tire that was unflattable.

Again, out of necessity. There had been a World Cup race that season already, that resulted in flat tires for almost everyone due to sharp rocks. Seventy-five percent struggled with it. Hence the request to make a tube that prevented flats.

CS: How did Dugast solve that one?

By adding a layer of pink latex to the sides of the tube, since it’s incredibly strong. It would be impossible for stones to cut through. They use that latex on the track as well, it can perfectly stand the grinding over concrete or wooden splinters.

CS: Where do you get that latex?

The square fibre “Soie natural” stems from the world of lingerie. The world of bras, to be more exact. They were looking for the same thing as us: something soft, comfortable and solid. When manufactured in a tire, the fibre gives a direct help when accelerating; the latex is the protection.

CS: Who rode on those tires, that day?

Every top cyclo-crosser who could afford them. Not Sven Nys. “For that amount I can buy 4 new tires for my camper,” he said. Ben Berden also found them too expensive. But they did both flat in Monopoli. Bart Wellens didn’t and he became world champion.

CS: Did he have your tubes?

Yes.

CS: So, the conclusion is that you have an influence on the outcome of a WC. Is that legit?

Of course it is. Every top rider can afford those tires, eh. I don’t exclude anyone.

CS: Why don’t top-brands like Michelin and Vittoria manufacture these kinds of tires?

Because the development costs way too much money in view of the amount of tires you sell. There were only 30 tires like the ones in Monopoli for example, while the development process cost some 1250€.

CS: So why do you do it then?

Pure hobbyism. It’s a challenge. I can’t have it that someone loses because of bad luck. I want everyone to be able to ride a fair race, and I believe that’s what I’m giving back.

CS: What was the last request you received?

The French champion Cadret phoned me for the WC in Pontchâteau. He wants to make the podium. Half an hour later I received a fax from the French coach with every detail of the parcours. The height differences, the climbs, the obstacles, everything’s on it.

CS: So, we can expect a special tube for Pontchâteau?

I’m going there soon. What I know so far, is that the WC will be held in a park, like Torino. There are a few height differences, but nothing spectacular, so it’ll be a fast WC, with a big chance that the temperature will sink below zero. Subzero weather makes the rubber harder, and thus gives less grip. The rolling resistance is different too.

CS: And what does that mean in layman’s terms?

That we’re going to use a fibre that’s insensitive to temperature differences. We’re also going to use less rubber so that the tire will stay flexible and fast, even when it’s freezing.  Plus giving the tire grip. Again, those things normally don’t go together.

CS: Will the pink latex-profile at the sides be necessary again?

No, because there are no stones lying around. The risk of getting a flat tire by bumping into a rock is pretty much nil.

CS: Who will ride on your tires?

I don’t have any favorites, there’s no exclusiveness. You buy ‘em, you have ‘em.

CS: Any other activities in prospect?

I’m already working on the tires for the Olympic mountain biking race. Meirhaeghe and Co. will need something special, since the parcours in Athens is very peculiar. They’ll have to be riding around on something that’s almost half a cross-bike, I think. On 28 inch tires. Hence, squarely woven tires with pink latex-profile at the sides. Shields from the rocks, and is still fast. There will be a lot of work for us in mountain biking in the near future, as the UCI is loosening the issued measurements on the size of the steering wheel and the wheels...

Rolling Resistance Facts from the Andre Dugast Tyres website.