With the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes – the Tour de France warm-up race – underway, we’ve had a glimpse of what’s to come in July.
While none of the ‘big three’ Tour de France contenders are in attendance at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the race formerly known as the Critèrium du Dauphiné has thrown up four new bikes and other juicy tech nuggets to get our teeth into.
Aside from the bikes, the tech choices have given us an early indication of how the riders might turn up at the Grand Départ in just under a month’s time, and enabled us to put our finger on the pulse of the peloton.
These are the key tech trends defining the dress rehearsal for road cycling's main event in July.
Wider tyres aren’t always faster
While the ‘wider tyres are faster’ bandwagon was in full swing at early-season races this year, many riders at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are still using 28mm-marked tyres.
There seems to be a consensus, especially among Continental-sponsored teams, that this is the fastest way to go for mountainous races such as this, even though a 30mm version of the GP5000 TT TR is now available.
This contrasts with the thinking of some Vittoria-sponsored teams, who ran either 29 or 30mm tyres. Michelin’s new Power Cup S race tyre was a 28mm model, according to the team mechanic we spoke to.
The nominal size difference is small, but it was enough to prompt Visma-Lease a Bike to run 30mm tyres on its front wheels, and 29mm tyres on its rear wheels – ostensibly for aerodynamic reasons on the team’s Reserve wheels.
Of course, teams also look to match their tyre choices to the rims they’re running.
Uno-X, which uses DT Swiss wheels, went with the brand’s Continental-collab Aero 111 front tyre in a narrow 26mm size on the Ridley Noah Fast, and a 28mm GP5000 TT TR rear tyre. The team says this is the fastest combo for these wheels and this terrain.
Nominal and ‘actual’ inflated tyre widths are often different things, though. On the modern, wide rims teams are now using almost exclusively, most of these tyres inflate to “around 31-32mm anyway, but the narrower tyre is lighter”, according to a NetCompany Ineos team mechanic.
Tyre development continues at a pace
We’ve seen huge strides in the development of road-racing tyres in the past few years.
Tubeless has finally killed off tubulars and clinchers (in the WorldTour, at least) and tyres that are nominally designed for short time trials are now trusted by the best riders in the world for long road races.
If you thought things might be about to plateau in this area, though, Michelin’s new Power Cup S could show that isn’t the case.
It joins the likes of Specialized’s Cotton TLR and Pirelli’s P Zero Race TLR SL-R, and has us wondering whether we might see Continental’s venerable GP5000 S TR updated sooner rather than later. After all, that tyre was launched almost five years ago, following Sonny Colbrelli’s iconic victory at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix.
As well as a new all-rounder road-racing tyre (likely a successor to the Power Cup TLR), a source at Team Picnic-PostNL confirmed Michelin is working on a new time trail-specific tyre.
The team refused to offer any further insight into what that might entail, but we suspect it will be a tubeless-ready upgrade to the existing Power Time Trial clincher.
No more ultra-narrow handlebars
A further finding is that handlebar sizes have, as expected, settled largely on the UCI's updated minimum bar-width regulation, which now sits at 400mm, measured outside-to-outside at the drops.
We measured more than a dozen handlebars, although we were only allowed to photograph a couple (due to many teams wishing to keep the riders' choices out of the public eye). Each one measured differently between the brake hoods due to different mounting points and canters.
When asked about this, two mechanics said the choices were mainly about rider comfort and grip when riding on the hoods, rather than any specific aero considerations.
Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t an aero gain to be had if the hood position influences how comfortably the rider can hold their optimal position.
Lightweight race bikes aren’t dead yet
The reveal of a new lightweight Ridley race bike, plus more exposure for Paul Seixas’ prototype Van Rysel, proves low weight remains a key trait for pro bikes, despite the popularity of aero bikes.
Both bikes have aero features, of course, but they stand apart from each brand’s aero bike – the Noah Fast and RCR-F, respectively.
A leak of the supposed new Specialized Tarmac SL9, broken by Cyclingnews, also reveals the American brand isn’t planning on radically transforming its race bike.
While likely a little more aerodynamic (if the updated tube shapes are anything to go by), unconfirmed renders and Instagram leaks all but confirm the all-round formula looks set to remain.
Even Tour de France debutant team Caja Rural was using the two race bikes from its sponsor MMR – the aero Aelion SLR and lightweight Adrenaline SLR.
Wax lubes take over
The peloton now appears to have made a wholesale switch to using wax-based chain lubes.
This trend has been gathering pace for a while, as teams look for marginal performance gains in drivetrain efficiency.
In a nutshell, waxed chains can be more efficient because the wax creates a solid barrier to contamination – dirt from the road – that would otherwise increase friction.
It’s fair to say committing to waxed drivetrains across an entire team is a labour-intensive process (especially for one on the road at a stage race), but most seem to believe it’s worth the additional effort by team mechanics.
When we investigated this trend a couple of years ago, there were still several pro teams choosing to stick with oil-based chain lubes (whether for performance, logistical or sponsorship reasons) but wax is clearly in fashion now.
Given road cycling’s two dominant teams – UAE Team Emirates XRG and Team Visma-Lease a Bike – have been doing it for a few years now, it’s perhaps no surprise to see rival teams have taken notice.
