All the Tour de France Tech You May Have Missed… But We Didn’t

It’s the second week at the Tour de France, and with a few sprint stages, a couple for the breakaway experts, a sprinkling of mountain stages and even a team time trial behind us, it’s been a packed calendar of racing.

With all that behind us, we still haven’t shared all the most interesting bits of tech from the Tour. Our latest Tour Tech video is a round-up of some of the odds and ends that have been spotted at the race.

We’ve already covered the new and interesting bikes from the race in a separate video, and the time trial tech that saw action on stage 1, so in this one Logan and I break down not just what we’ve seen but what we think some of the brands are thinking and what we hope they perform like.

There’s new wheels from Shimano under the Alpecin-Premier Tech team, and for some odd reason they’ve covered the logos up with black tape, but in a manner that still lets you read the name! There are also new wheels over at Lidl-Trek, with Bontrager seeming to have a new 62mm carbon-spoked Aeolus in use. Then those who have Enve as a sponsor, including Pogačar and the UAE squad, are rolling around on some stages on a new steel-spoked 60mm-deep wheel that shies away from some of the trends we’ve seen over the past few years.

There are new Oakley helmets on the heads of not all the Tudor team, just a select few. Why? Well, we guess it’s because it’s still a little bit away from hitting production, especially with what looks like a full carbon outer shell, a first for a road helmet, where usually brands stick to polycarbonate outer shells and, if you’re lucky, a carbon inner skeleton. Ekoi also has its two teams, Lotto-Intermarché and NSN, using a new climbing helmet, again with a touch of carbon on it.

Logan and I also delve into cooling tech, as it’s one heck of a hot topic (pun intended) at this year’s race. Every team now look like they’re ready for some kind of lycra-clad warfare at the stage starts and finishes due to their bulletproof vest-looking cooling aids.

There’s more in the video too, but I won’t spoil it any further; please hit that play button and enjoy. And stay tuned as we have two more videos coming your way from the Tour de France. Want to know how much kit a team uses over three weeks in France? Well, you’re in luck. And if that’s not enough, we hunt for the climbing bikes of the Tour — or are they an endangered species now?

Cheers,
Dave