The last time the Tour de France visited the Mûr-de-Bretagne, on stage 2 of the 2021 edition, Julian Alaphilippe was wearing the yellow jersey, following a stunning solo victory the previous day.
Yet, while LouLou might not be quite the rider he was four years ago, the two-time road race world champion still commands respect for his glittering palmarès.
It seems unlikely that Alaphilippe can roll back the years and surprise favourites such as Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel on the Mûr today, but we suspect his bike of choice will be the new flyweight BMC Teammachine SLR 01.
Ahead of this year’s race, we visited Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling Team at the Grand Départ in Lille to check out the team’s bikes.
As promised by BMC, Alaphilippe’s new climbing bike is certainly lightweight, yet it’s also interesting to see how the veteran French rider is now more in step with modern trends. Let’s dig into it.
A modern, minimalist paintjob
Although the new Teammachine SLR’s overall silhouette is very familiar, one of the most notable changes is to the graphics.
Likely in a bid to save weight, Alaphilippe’s bike uses a clear-coat-over-raw-carbon finish, with an enormous red BMC logo adorning the down tube.
It’s a striking and unusual design, because the logo looks almost as if it doesn’t fit on the bike, but we’re always happy to see something different in the WorldTour peloton.
According to the Swiss brand, the new Teammachine SLR 01 frameset is 222g lighter than the previous version, thanks to updated tube shapes and an improved carbon layup.
All-in, a size-54cm bike is claimed to weigh 6.6kg. We weighed Alaphilippe’s size-52cm bike at 7.125kg, although that includes a set of Time XPro 12 SL pedals, the bike’s integrated aero bottle cages and a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt 3 bike computer.
Despite an overall focus on cutting weight, the Teamachine SLR retains truncated aerofoil tube shapes and a one-piece integrated cockpit to help it cut through the wind efficiently.
The latter is especially notable because Alaphilippe has opted for round handlebars and non-integrated cockpits for much of his career, but it seems he's finally had his head turned by the potential performance gains.
We measured Alaphilippe's BMC ICS Carbon Aero cockpit at 360x100mm (measured centre-to-centre at the brake hoods), although the drops flare out to 420mm wide for greater control when sprinting or descending.
New saddle, old wheels and pro-only tyres
In terms of equipment, Alaphilippe’s bike was decked out with a SRAM Red AXS groupset, with relatively small – by pro standards – 52/39t chainrings and a 10-36t cassette out back.
In fairness to Alaphilippe, though, 52x10 is still a big gear (big enough that it won’t be permitted during the UCI’s upcoming gearing restrictions trial), and this is a dedicated climbing bike. It’s possible his BMC Teammachine R Mpc. aero bike has a set of larger chainrings fitted to it, after all.
While the likes of Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard have moved to 165mm or shorter cranks, Alaphilippe is sticking with his tried-and-true 170mm cranks.
Up top, Alaphilippe has Selle Italia’s latest 3D-printed SLR 3D Carbon saddle. Launched just before the Tour, the new model is reportedly 6mm shorter, has 4mm-longer rails (for a greater adjustment range) and weighs 29g less than the previous version.
Unusually, though, Alaphilippe’s bike was rolling on the outgoing version of the DT Swiss ARC 1100 wheels.
Having launched in late June, the new DT Swiss ARC wheels are claimed to be slightly more aerodynamic thanks to an updated rim profile and reduced spoke count.
Having spoken to a representative of Uno-X Mobility, a rival team also sponsored by DT Swiss, we suspect the answer is simply that the new wheels are still in short supply, and will only appear on riders' number one race bikes (the teams often give us a rider’s spare bike to film and photograph, as the riders tend to be out training on their primary bikes at the same time).
Mounted to the DT Swiss rims is a set of 28c Schwalbe Pro One TLE tyres, with pro-only blue tyre beads. These measure around 29.4mm wide at the rear and 28.7mm wide up front.
With Schwalbe having launched a host of new gravel tyres recently, we had wondered whether we might see an updated Pro One TLE, or some riders using the Pro One Aero and Pro One TT tyres instead – both of which are supposedly a little faster than the standard Pro One TLE.
However, it seems both Schwalbe-sponsored teams at this year’s Tour are content to stick with the standard model. As we’ve often wondered, though, perhaps these ‘pro-only’ Pro Ones are in fact a little lighter and faster than what punters can buy in the shops anyway.
Specs | Julian Alaphilippe's BMC Teammachine SLR 01 for the 2025 Tour de France
- Frameset: BMC Teammachine SLR 01
- Groupset: SRAM Red AXS, 52x39t chainrings with 10-36t cassette
- Wheelset: DT Swiss ARC 1100 Dicut DB 50
- Power meter: SRAM Red AXS, 170mm cranks
- Tyres: Schwalbe Pro One TLE pro edition, 700x28c
- Handlebar: BMC ICS Aero Carbon
- Seatpost: BMC Teammachine SLR
- Saddle: Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon
- Bottle cages: BMC Teammachine SLR
- Pedals: Time XPro 12 SL
- Weight: 7.125kg
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