The Tour de France is obviously a competition between the racers themselves, but for road bike gearheads, it’s also the premier showcase for the best the road world has to offer. The most advanced carbon fiber framesets, the fastest aero wheels, and every special touch and custom trick that the world’s finest mechanics have up their sleeves – it’s all at Le Tour.
Who’s riding what? Who isn’t riding what they’re supposed to be? Who has the sweetest paint job? What don’t the teams want the rest of us to see? In this three-part series, we bring you overviews and details of every team’s bikes at this year’s Tour.
Kicking off the series are the bikes of Ineos, Deceuninck-Quick Step, CCC, Jumbo-Visma, and Trek-Segafredo, with the rest to come in the days to follow.
[Please note that this gallery is best viewed on a desktop computer with a big monitor. And you can also find our complete coverage from this year’s Tour de France here.]
The Pinarello Dogma F12 of Team Ineos leader Geraint Thomas looks decidedly serious in this black-to-blood red paint scheme.
Thomas’s bike is fitted with a Most one-piece carbon fiber handlebar and stem.
There’s not much unusual to see here: Shimano Dura-Ace power meter cranks, a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 front derailleur, and a K-Edge chain watcher (with the magnet built into an extension for the power meter so mechanics don’t have to attach a separate one).
The seatpost binder hardware on one of Geraint Thomas’s spare Pinarello Dogma F12s is right in the line of fire for road spray coming off of the rear wheel. A strip of electrical tape helps protect from corrosion.
One of the Bianchi Oltre XR4 machines of this year’s first maillot jaune, Mike Teunissen of team Jumbo-Visma.
Jumbo-Visma went decidedly subtle with the yellow treatment for the start of stage 3.
Just a pair of yellow Tacx Deva bottle cages and some yellow bar tape visually marked the Bianchi Oltre XR4 of team Jumbo-Visma rider Mike Teunissen while he was in the maillot jaune.
The Vision Metron one-piece integrated handlebar-and-stem is particularly popular amongst pro riders.
Jumbo-Visma sprinter Dylan Groenewegen gets some custom graphics on his Bianchi Oltre XR4. The lion definitely roared on Saturday, when he sprinted to a convincing win on stage 7.
So far, Jumbo-Visma has run nothing but rim brakes at this year’s Tour de France.
Julian Alaphilippe grabbed the stage win – and the maillot jaune – aboard this Specialized S-Works Tarmac with a spectacular solo ride into Épernay on stage 3.
The custom K-Edge computer mount pays homage to Alaphilippe’s French roots. And yes, that’s some seriously pro finish work on the handlebar tape.
Alaphilippe runs his bars clocked slightly down, with the hoods clamped fairly high up.
Yep, dropped seatstays are all over the place. Get used to it.
Alaphilippe plants himself on a Specialized S-Works Romin Evo saddle.
Alaphilippe’s Shimano Dura-Ace power meter crank has clearly seen a dropped chain or two.
A K-Edge chain catcher keeps the chain from getting tossed off to the inside.
Team mechanics physically measure every stem since even a couple of millimeters of variance in length can adversely affect a rider’s fit. Also seen here is K-Edge’s new stainless steel Shimano Di2 junction box holder.
Deceuninck-Quick Step bikes are fitted with number plate holders that are glued directly to the back of the seatposts.
CeramicSpeed threaded bottom brackets for the Deceuninck-Quick Step boys. Check out the detail on the paint, too.
Lots of Wolfpack references on this team.
Nearly all of the team is on Roval carbon tubulars and Specialized S-Works Turbo tubular tires. More on this later…
The Supacaz tape is finished with tidy anodized and laser etched aluminum end plugs.
Deceuninck-Quick Step team mechanics use handheld electric drivers with the flush-fit thru-axles to speed up wheel changes.
Just in case you forgot the team nickname already…
Even pros have to futz with their computers sometimes, too. Here, Julian Alaphilippe spends a moment pairing his Bryton computer to his Shimano Dura-Ace power meter before the start of stage 3.
That signal is here somewhere…
Several riders run inward-angled brake hoods in order to get a narrower – and more aero – position when charging into the wind, but with the additional stability and leverage that standard-width drops provide when descending and sprinting. Maybe flared road bars will be a thing sooner than later?
Specialized originally marketed its Mimic saddle as being developed specifically for women, but male riders have taken a liking to it as well. This one belongs to Deceuninck-Quick Step rider Michael Morkov.
Like most of the teams at the Tour de France, CCC is fielding a mix of aero and non-aero bikes for road stages, depending on the designated role for each rider (and, to some extent, personal preference). In this case, the team is also mixing rim and disc brakes.
Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet gets to rightfully enjoy a lot of gold for a while.
Giant unveiled its new Cadex range of aftermarket wheels, tires, and saddles just before the start of this year’s Tour de France. They sound quite competitive, and we’re eager to start testing some for ourselves.
Sometimes mechanics need to add some weight at the last minute to get bikes to meet the 6.8kg UCI-mandated minimum weight, and in a pinch, a hunk of metal and some tape will just have to do.
CCC team bikes are built using thread-together bottom bracket cups in place of standard Shimano PF86 press-fit units. Sorry, but the exact supplier here isn’t known to us.
Giant’s new Cadex wheelsets use carbon fiber spokes and widely spaced flanges to help reduce weight and boost wheel stiffness. Also worth noting is that riders continue to move to increasingly wide-range cassettes. Here, Greg van Avermaet’s Giant TCR Advanced SL is equipped with an 11-30T cluster.
Again, tape isn’t always the most elegant solution, but it gets the job done in a pinch.
Trek-Segafredo is another team running a mix of aero and non-aero machines for road stages at this year’s Tour de France.
Spare bikes get a more standard red-and-white finish.
Trek-Segafredo is running Vittoria tires and Bontrager carbon wheels. Tubulars are being used exclusively for road stages, but tubeless tires are being used selectively for time trials.
It’s mostly disc brakes so far for Trek-Segafredo on road stages. It’ll be interesting to see if that changes once the big mountains arrive.
Several Trek-Segafredo team bikes are fitted with conventionally-sized separate chainrings instead of the downsized (and rather fancy) one-piece machined double chainrings that are normally supplied with SRAM’s new Red eTap AXS groupset. It’s unlikely that any of the riders are making much use of the monster 53-10T top gear that’s available as a result, which suggests that either drivetrain friction or front shifting performance is the motivating force here.
Several Trek-Segafredo riders are using single-chainring setups on their SRAM Red eTap AXS drivetrains for select road stages. K-Edge mini-chain guides are fitted up top.
Rather than use the bulky clamps that normally come with SRAM’s remote shift buttons, Trek-Segafredo team mechanics just glue the buttons directly to the bar.
No need for aftermarket chain watchers on Trek-Segafredo’s machines; they’re already built into their Trek Madones and Emondas.
Bontrager also has nifty computer mounts that attach directly to the stem for a tidy setup.
Always good to know what’s coming up.
The stunning paint on Trek-Segafredo’s team bikes will soon be available as an option on consumer bikes through Trek’s Project One custom program. It’s truly stunning in person.
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