I mean, do you also believe that combining the madone and emonda and cutting 2 sizes from the lineup had nothing to do with the financially motivated SKU reduction, as they’re claiming?
I personally don’t count the test of one bike with aero bottles vs the other without as legitimate. Nothing stopping you from running aero bottles on any bike, except of course that they don’t function for their intended purpose of keeping you hydrated.
Beyond that, there’s no doubt they changed the testing protocol. Specifically I find it quite likely that they’re only comparing 0 degrees of yaw, where we know that shallower tubes can do alright as long as they’re very narrow. But that is not the same testing protocol they used when designing the gen 7, nor is it the one that best represents real world conditions.
The marketing around the madone 8 launch is nothing but an IQ test.