Want to Ride Faster? Copy These 11 Pro Tech Things!

It's worth noting that the bike weighed at the depart was not Tadejs lightest bike

-Eating disorder, check. -Sub 6.8kg aero bike, check. -Quit job to ride 6days a week, check. -Skin suit and shaved arms on 15k charity ride, check.

You could add a few points. Pogacar was running 165mm crankarms and both Vingegaard and Pogacar used 25mm internal with rims. And handlebar width have come down since 44cm in the 90s. Not sure JVs 1x experiment was to his advantage. He occasionally seems in a less than ideal gear and when 1x efficiency evidently is a bit worse at the ends of the cassette it seems an odd choice for mountain stages.

Somehow my Wilier Filante SLR in Size M with Ultegra, Faveros and the Miche SLR 42 wheels comes in at 7,4 kg. Maybe that massive paintjob needed half a k of paint 😅

"The days of 23mm tires..." Kids, I raced in the 80's on 19mm tires. NINETEEN. And we pumped them up to a minimum of 120psi. Might as well have been riding on tires made of solid steel.

I’d like deep section wheels but I do a lot of descents where I go >40mph. I‘ve heard that deep section wheels can be a nightmare in crosswind, especially on a descent.

I appreciate your work, David, and two thoughts, I think I'd have whatever Tadej's having as far as wheels and tires and the return of aero bottles makes sense and surely someone is working on ones which easily stand up for filling and such. I could see that becoming the next big tech purchase, get your aero bottle system, the bottles and cages and funnels and mixes and everything else we need for serious hydration and watt-savings. Or maybe it'll be bladders or behind-the-saddle bottles or, hey, a return to the old-school, bottles on the bars for that classic look, just aero bottles this time as bonus fairings. 😀

I can totally see average Joe riding up a 8% gradient climb at 25 km/h where aerodynamics start to matter as Tadej does.

I don't think it was a good decision from Vingegaard to go 1x. Weight will be only marginal lower because he needed a bigger cassette, and the aerodynamic benefits are almost zero; and though drivetrain losses are less with bigger chainrings and bigger cogs the increase due to the bad chain line is way bigger than that. On top the steps between gears are bigger and sometimes you could see that he could not find an optimal gear for maintaining his cadence. Also the hookless rims of Pogacar are a bad choice (...well they are not really a choice since the sponsor Enve only makes hookless rims...) - luckily in the TdF nothing happens, but at the Giro he had a crash caused by them - again luckily at low speed

Jonas uses 1x because Sram wants him to advertise it.

Concerning the simplified conclusions about the one gear in the front. Especially during the first time trial, several riders had problems when changing gears in the rear due to strong chain crossing. Most even had the largest and smallest gears in the rear just to fill the space and did not use them because of extreme chain crossing. And each had to have some component mounted in the front to prevent the chain from falling off.

Aero better than weight if you climb at 26km\h like Tadej… if you climb at 13km/h like a normal person, I’d go for less weight

If aero is winning the aero v weight battle with pros and endurance is winning the endurance v aggressive geometry with the rest of us, where is the affordable aero endurance bike?

The pre-race bike weights were shown to be wrong. The staff of TP and JV have both been seen adding weights to the bikes during the UCI checks in order to be compliant. These guys are going right to the limit, but the bike companies want you to think that the overweight bikes you're buying are being used in the Tour.

What else is pogacar taking, sorry doing 😅

But, David… Pogi’s bike was a 220ish watt one, far from the top ‘aero’ bikes (?). His improved fitness & nutrition won him 6+ min over JV. No aero bikes came close. I guess it’s the one to copy rather than scrutinizing marginal gain 😉 Btw, the wide tires were fitted to cope with their speed (see how fast they were on the descend along the ‘col’. One mistake could cost their lives; it may be counterproductive for amateurs other than pillowy ride but noodle legs while climbing)

But changing to wide tires, tubeless and aero means buying an expensive new bike. No thanks. I would love to buy a new climbing bike, my favorite - Giant TCR Advanced SL. However, I cannot afford one right now.

"No pressure from the company" that's rich 😂

De que cojones estais hablando de neumáticos, de manillares, bielas y calcetines......cuando realmente es otra cosa que se lleva por dentro, no veis que suben como motos a mas de 7 watios kilo y un vam de más de 1800.....pensad un poco, los arboles no os dejan ver el bosque