Ordinarily, a Tour de France time trial offers up slam-dunk picks for kit choices, but for a mountain time trial like today’s stage 13 to Peyregudes, things are very different.
Here, a balance between light weight and aerodynamics needs to be struck with more precision – usually, aerodynamics rule the roost.
We’ve dedicated a whole article to the choices made by the ‘big three’ already – Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel – but the choices by the rest of the peloton are as diverse as the landscape the Grand Boucle covers through its three-week duration.
Let’s dive in.
Lightweight versus aero versus TT helmets

We saw riders' choice of headwear diverge from the full-bore TT helmet, to the aero road helmet, and even lightweight lids.
Notably, Jonas Vingegaard took the fight to Pogačar donning his Giro Aerohead II TT headwear, clearly hoping that aero gains would outweigh any cooling issues, while the Slovenian phenom (and, spoiler alert, stage winner) opted for his Met Manta Mips road lid.

Visma Lease-a-Bike’s Simon Yates took the stage relatively easily (being caught by team-mate Matteo Jorgenson), but wore a smaller Giro Aerohead TT helmet, perhaps in a bid to keep UAE Team Emirates guessing, or simply to offer their riders all of the available options.
Sepp Kuss, meanwhile, wore an unreleased Giro aero road helmet.

Of course, for many riders out of the running for a GC placing or stage win, the choice simply came down to relative comfort. Enter, the lightweight lid.
Disc wheels on a road bike

We often see disc wheels on a TT bike, of course, but it’s less common when fitted to a road bike frame.
However, that’s exactly what long-time pace-setter Luke Plapp chose to run (as did King of the Mountains classification leader Lenny Martinez), before his time was beaten by the class of the field.
His Cadex disc wheel is heavier than a standard rear wheel, but can offer aerodynamic gains as airflow is controlled to a greater extent – and doesn’t interact with moving spokes and the internal edge of the rim.
Non-TT tyres, but why?

Lenny Martinez used a disc wheel to good effect, placing 9th on the stage, but opted for 30mm-only Continental Archetype tyres, rather than Grand Prix 5000 TT TR tyres.
Typically, the Grand Prix 5000 TT TR tyres are a logical choice – these are available in 25 and 28mm sizes, and are generally considered to be the fastest choice when matched to rims measuring less than 25mm wide internally.
Martinez’s front wheel, a Vision Metron 60 RS, features a 23mm internal, hooked rim, making the TT TR a realistic choice. It’s worth noting that Pogačar opted to run the TT TRs for his stage-winning setup.
New Roval Alpinist CLX III wheels

We caught a glimpse of a Roval Alpinist CLX III wheelset at the Grand Départ – well, technically, the boxes for a set of Alpinist CLX III wheels, anyway.
This is the first time we’re confident that we’ve seen the wheels in the race, though, with Primož Roglič’s rear wheel notably shallower than his front wheel.

This, of course, is the latest aero trick Roval has pulled with its Rapide CLX III wheels, which Remco Evenepoel chose to use, but the rear wheel for Roglič is notably shallower than the Rapide CLX III alternative.
It’s unclear if Roglič chose to pair a new Alpinist rear wheel with a Rapide front wheel (the front wheel profiles are very similar), but we’d expect Roval to unveil its new lightweight wheelsets sooner than later, now.
Carlos Rodriguez’s tri-spoke front wheel

Not satisfied with the Plain Jane choices of his competitors, Ineos Grenadiers’ Carlos Rodriguez chose to run with a tri-spoke Princeton CarbonWorks 7580 TSV2 front wheel.
Interestingly, he paired this with an Alta 3532 rear wheel – the lightest Princeton CarbonWorks makes, according to the brand.
This is the starkest sign yet (beyond Roval’s launch of its Rapide CLX III wheels) that brands might be cottoning onto the theory that an aerodynamic front wheel and shallower, lighter rear wheel may be a faster setup than the reverse.
No sunglasses and visors

Given riders can’t make contact with their team car while in motion in a time trial, it’s likely one lucky roadside fan has a special souvenir.
While the likes of Messrs Jorgenson, Roglič and Evenepoel started the time trial without sunglasses, perhaps knowing they’d only discard them, Jonas Vingegaard kept the visor on his enormous time trial lid for the first couple of rolling kilometres, before opting to ditch it in favour of greater airflow on the climb.

Of course, Vingegaard is currently in the process of securing his position as ‘best of the rest’, and while his competitors for that perhaps-unwanted mantle all went without, Pogačar kept his sunnies firmly planted on his face. Of course he did.
Flashy cassettes

Riders with a concern at the top end of the standings were clearly searching for every small gain, with the flashy blue-sprocketed cassette used by (that man, again) Lenny Martinez on his way to the top of the mountain.
The cassette in question, first spotted by CyclingSpy, is a Sixwheel 12-speed cassette. Martinez looks to have used the 11-33t version, giving him the smaller gears needed for the final ramp to the Peyregudes Altiport, and is claimed to weigh just 209g.
By comparison, the 11-34t standard Dura-Ace cassette is said to weigh 253g.
Long or short sleeves?

A mix of clothing choices were also on show – but most striking was the choice between short and long sleeves.
In the French summer, with temperatures on the climb to Peyragudes in the thirties, the automatic choice might have been to opt for short sleeves.

But not so for some, including Ineos Grenadiers veteran Geraint Thomas, who ‘chose’ to ride up the climb in long sleeves, commenting at the finish that he wears what the aerodynamicists tell him to wear.
Thomas was relaxed at the finish, partially joking, but he wasn’t alone with the choice – Movistar’s Einer Rubio also opted to cover his arms, as did team-mate Will Barta and long-time stage leader, Luke Plapp, among others.