2023 Tour de France Tech Trends | What Are Pros Riding?

This video contains paid product placement for Lezyne. Even since last year’s Grand Départ in Copenhagen, the archetypal Tour de France has changed and evolved.

We had the scales and tape measure out while casting our forensic eyes over the bikes at this year’s race start in Bilbao to find the tech trends of the pro peloton.

Which do you think will trickle down? Let us know in the comments 👇

#BikeRadar #CarbonFibre #RoadCycling

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:34 1x Drivetrains Are Back
02:18 Lots Of Different Tyres
04:09 One Bike For All
05:52 Time Trial Tech For Road Stages
07:10 Even More Narrow Handlebars
08:30 Big Budget Vs Small Budget

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[bikeradar]

Do you have any of these on your bike? 👇

[JimJCJimbo]

Yes, I use the same air as the pros do

[maxt]

Great video, as you grouped the key trends together and gave analysis. Whereas GCN's video on the same subject just went from team to team and talked about paint jobs, 3D printing and carbon Ti disc spiders. They missed that bikes were getting lighter, 1X drivetrains, more stretched stems and TT tech on road bikes.

[hkw]

Saving this for later knowing I’ll never afford any of this
Great video👍

[victorrodriguez]

Those Specialized Turbo cotton Tubs are made by Vittoria.

[charlesblithfield]

I’d like to see at least one stage in the tour or maybe any complete grand tour use standardized equipment….every rider has the exact same bike. Different manufacturers could be involved but the standardization is like the Japanese Keirin racing bikes. The only differences in performance will come from the riders and not the gear. I get why the gear innovation matters from an industry marketing perspective but a standardized equipment platform would be a great innovation for bike racing fans.

[dbofgain]

Jumbo uses 1X as the SRAM front mechs only works as and when it wants too.

[tomeklubomir]

Bad press for Pirelli tyres if even Pog and UAE is riding Conti in TDF and not the sponsor tyres, the fact they blow up so wide on the Enve rims is secondary…

[JoshuaTootell]

Weight matters to the typical rider because:
-They can feel it.
-They cant go fast enough (especially on climbs) to take advantage of aero.
-They cant ride an aero position anyway

My old SuperSix is about 14.5 pounds. Feels great to pick up. But I just got some nice aero Rovals for my "gravel" bike (I don't ride gravel and it has 28mm tires) and it certainly feels faster everywhere, which I don't like 😂

I am light, have a decent FTP, and can adopt an aero position, so it works. Im going to swap to a more aero frame in the near future. I'll ride the SuperSix on my big climbing days (I am surrounded by mountains) and the aero bike (with discs, great in the rain) for everything else.

[pierrex]

How is 1x improving chain line? I think it materially worsens chain line! Or what am i missing?

[johnboxxy]

All this money and tech but they can't avoid punctures and chain drops.
Chains coming off seems strange, derailer tensioners have been around a long time .

[gokaygs]

How does a 1x setup improve chainline????

[enigma]

I’d be more interested in a ‘bike cap’. You can have one bike to ride throughout the race. Any spare bikes must be identical, including tyres and wheels.

This would focus development on all round performance, reduce cost and complexity of running multiple bikes, be more relevant to most amateur cyclists, be an interesting challenge for the technicians to optimise the choice for varied terrain and it would be simpler for teams and their mechanics. What’s not to like?

[michaelvrbanac]

Any significant climbing needs to be on a 2x. Allows more efficient gearing. Tubulars for racing. Tubeless for TT's. Rim brake bikes are lighter and more aero. Difference between TT tires and road tires isn't worth the watt or two.

[JingsWorld]

The only advantage we as daily riders from the TDF racers are we carry spare tubes and pump. They don’t.

[m.talley]

Shimano called "sponsor of the majority of teams" might best be scripted as the choice of the majority of teams. SRAM is likely paying Jumbo a lot for these experiments. Shimano may have a sponsored team costing a bit less.

[markschmalenberger]

I don't know what material the teeth on that one x chain ring are made of, but they sure appear to be wasted.😮

[andrewlabat]

Does anyone who rides, and is honest, thinks that any difference in these bikes makes the difference? Not when the difference between the most and least expensive is unmeasurable efficiency. Planning, how good they on it that day, luck (good or bad) all is the difference. This is why pros, and none pros win on every equipment combo available to them. I'd think salary budget and being able to pay the best cyclist and team managers who run the show makes up the real difference.

[shibaburn]

Often such narrow handlebars aren't available to us regular cyclists. What do the UCI rules say about that? I'm surprised that Shimano doesn't offer a larger chainrings than 54/40, given the very high average speeds.

[erich]

The alleged aero advantage of 1x always gets repeated with little to no supporting evidence (also to justify the added drag of the Classified hub). It's probably nearly nothing.