10 Things To Copy Off Tour de France Pros To Make You FASTER & More Comfortable on The Bike

the Tour de France isn't everyone's cup of tea but it is currently home to the world's best Riders and it turns out they know a thing or two about riding bikes so who better to go to in order to see what cycling Tech is taking off what Saddles and gearing they choose for 3405 kilometers of hell and if there's anything that me or you can copy to make us faster or more comfortable on the bike for years it's been almost expected that a Pros bike is slammed with the stem as low as possible in what sometimes appears to be a competition of who can get the biggest drop between their bars and saddle however when wandering around the bikes this year it's notable that not everyone is still buying into this game oh yes whilst a lower front end is arguably faster over short distances thanks to lowering your body and hence reducing your frontal area speed is fairly pointless in the Tour de France or any long ride really if it's unsustainable many riders this year have a good few spaces under their stems and we reckon that without out with the same stretching conditioning as the pros most of our bikes should forego the super aggressive look too in favor of actual real world performance and comfort actually most of our riding is probably better suited to an endurance road bike so if you haven't yet watched our endurance bike versus rates bike rid then you can use the link up there every year we say that tires are the widest they've ever been and well guess what we're gonna say it again we saw the vast majority of road bikes being ridden at the 2023 Tour de France and who'd like to guess the very smallest tire size that we saw nope not 23 mil not even 25 mil but 26 mil that was a tubular Tire on team astana's coromers the majority of riders though are using 28 mil Rubber and we also spotted this set of 30 mil tractor tires on Mateo Trenton's spare bike just because a 23 mil time might feel faster as you rattle your way down our less than perfect Road surfaces it doesn't necessarily mean it is it's about time we copied the pros and rode wide rubber did you know that derailleurs were first seen in the 1937 Tour de France some 86 years ago you would have thought then that the big players Shimano SRAM and campagnolo would have worked out how to keep chains on chainrings the Peloton despite having the best mechanics in the world are clearly less than convinced that this is the case walk around the team buses and you're seeing chain catchers being used more than EPO in the 90s and that's no mean feat kh's design is present across plenty of teams including borahansgra and Quick Step while still in groning vegan goes for this fourier's catcher there's very few downsides to using a chain catcher they don't exactly weigh a lot and can be picked up for not a lot of cash would you add around 12 grams to your bike for the additional peace of mind or have you had any chainsaw nightmares let us know in the comments section below and if you haven't already then please subscribe to the channel as it really does help us make content like this tubeless is a debate that continues to rage on and while some of us are fans there's plenty of arguments to say that there's some way to go before we all ditch the inner tubes the pro Peloton is also seemingly having this invisible debate or a hands grower told us that on dry stages they choose to use the Clincher s-works turbo cotton with latex inner tubes whereas for wet stages they switch to tubeless the S Works rapid air Tire to be precise this is replicated across the other specialized teams total energies and suit out quick step however most other teams seem to have transitioned tubeless for the majority of stages EF UAE jumbo vizma and ineos all have The Telltale tubeless valves the conclusion is that sometimes tubeless is better and at other times there's no point now let's stop hating on our fellow Riders just because they make slightly different life choices to ours ever wondered what cogs the pros are riding well if you're on the bike with a Shimano group set then it appears to nearly always be a 5440 at the front an 1134 at the rear why not use smaller cogs at both the front and rear well not only does this combo give more top end speed but teams also reckon it improves chain line as Riders will more often be riding in the middle of the block and hence reducing drivetrain weight losses SRAM kicked up quite the storm when it announced its chain Rings would top out at 50 37 even though when combined with the 10 tooth sprocket at the back it gave a bigger gear than full size Rings an 11 tooth sprocket since then SRAM has given in and made pro level chain sets in sizes 52 39 54 41 and a massive 56-43 so that anyone wanting to push a bigger gear can most of the pros from Jumbo bismar and movistart that we spotted are on the 52-39 tooth option Now We're Not For a Moment saying that you should go out and copy these exact ratios for most of us that would be absolutely insane however you should tailor your gearing choices to the terrain you're riding just like the pros a comfortable Cadence is not only more efficient but can also save those joints and potential back soreness this next one isn't necessarily Tech and more the lack of it it wasn't until we had a chat in the office that we realized how anti-crainted stem stickers are and whilst it's a solution that clearly works we are surprised that Tech hasn't taken their place even though Cyclone computers now have the ability to remind you to eat and drink the pros still love their stem stickers and this goes to show how important fueling is on the bike eating and drinking enough on the bike will make a far bigger difference to your riding performance than just about any expensive upgrade out there so whether you go paperless or make your own stem sticker to remind you to fuel just make sure you do the Peloton is normally reluctant to try new things being a bunch of traditionalists however short nose Saddles are one of those Creations that have seemingly come out of nowhere and now are everywhere just about every saddle brand out there offers saddles in both long and short varieties and Riders get the whole range to choose from this year most Riders are going for the short ones short nose Saddles aren't for everyone but if you want to ride fast in an aggressive position then if shorter saddle could allow your pelvis to roll forwards more making getting lower easier a few years ago there was black insulation tape being stuck around all over the place to hide non-sponsored components but the current generation of riders are either a lot less fussy about their kit more well-behaved or of course the sponsors have listened and actually created kit that the Riders want wandering around we struggle to find many things that would anger team sponsors at all this physique saddle was spotted on Jayco Lula's giant Propel for going Giant's own brand cadex and camping Arts opted for a sizeable rotor chain ring over Shimano it's during the TTS that the bikes get Unchained and in particular this Aero coach AOK Zephyr and Titan front wheel seems to be a popular choice despite Arrow coach not being the official wheel sponsor of any team the whopping hundred mil deep front wheels aren't exactly lighter over a kilo but as we know aerodynamics rule Supreme an aerocote says that this is the fastest front wheel it's ever tested plenty of teams are clearly buying into it we also spotted the small British brand Aero coaches rear wheel in action take a look at this weird embossed section around the cassette area if you take a look around any Tour de France teams bikes then you'll soon see that no two of them are the same separate from special paint jobs you'll notice that every Rider has a different stem length handlebar width and of course saddle height and this isn't just because the team got sent some random assortment of components from their suppliers the fit of your bike will make a far bigger difference your comfort technical ability and performance than you might think so it's well worth investing some time in just like the pros do there's all sorts of books YouTube videos and articles available on the road CC website for fine-tuning your fit or of course you could invest in a bike fit a good one doesn't come cheap but but it could be money well spent I love being a bit of a weight weenie changing bolts for lighter ones finding lighter bottle cages and so on however if you're doing it in the pursuit of speed then I'm afraid it's going to make very very minimal difference the priority for the Tour de France Pros is no longer getting the lightest bike possible not because it's impossible to get a disc brake bite down to 6.8 kilos but rather the Aero sacrifices that have to be made to do it pro riders love deep Wheels integrated cockpits and aeroframes so much that they're prepared to Lug around an extra few hundred grams for the three weeks now that is commitment even though me and you travel a lot slower than the pros we can still learn a thing or two from them most of our rides are unlikely to take in the same huge mountains or elevation and we're also out in the wind for much longer so Aero is still important it is always worth remembering though that between 70 and 80 Air drag comes from your body not your equipment so maybe that's Food For Thought will you be copying any of these tour from Tech Trends let us know in the comments section below if you haven't already then please give this video a like And subscribe to the channel for lots more Tech tips and tests that put the latest gear through their Paces we'll see you next time

Channel: road.cc

Views: 538,619

Keywords: cycling, road cycling, tour de france, tour de france 2023, road bike, gcn cycling, jonas vingegaard bike, road bike upgrades for speed, road bike upgrades you need, best road bike upgrades, cheap road bike upgrades, road bike upgrades for beginners, tadej, tadej pogačar, tadej pogačar bike, aerocoach, short nosed saddle, tubeless tyre, tubeless vs tube tyre, tubeless road bike tires, bike fit, bike racing, road cc, tdf 2023, 2023 tour de france, tour de france tech

Id: xPiWRm4MFek

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 08 2023