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After the aero nerd’s dream that was the Tour’s stage one-time trial, the riders were back on their road bikes and in their road helmets for stage two of the 2022 Tour de France.
We were once again roaming the team paddock pre and post stage to bring you the latest new tech and interesting happenings from the world’s biggest bike race.
Here’s what we found.
Trek-Segafredo had a few riders racing with a new helmet from Bontrager Trek. The Bontrager name typically appears on Trek’s helmets, but the new lid seemingly ditches any mention of Trek’s components wing.
The helmet seems to be a highly ventilated offering and presumably lightweight.The new helmet apparently is at least partly made with Trek’s OCLV carbon and perhaps that explains the change in branding.Rudy Project also had a new helmet on show today. The “Egos” was announced on the brand’s Instagram page and is said to offer safety, comfort, and “outstanding customisation.” SRAM has a gold chain for its former world champion Mads Pedersen …… with a gold cassette to match. SRAM also had a rainbow-coloured chain for Pedersen during his time in the rainbow jersey, and seemingly that rainbow chain will soon be available to the public. All the Groupama-FDJ riders, with the exception of Thibaut Pinot, raced with these 55-tooth chainrings from Kronos Sport.Wout van Aert decided to race on Vittoria’s Corsa Speed tyres, certainly a higher risk choice on Denmark’s roads which are known to cause more punctures than most. Specialized has been teasing a new tyre all season. But now the testing has ramped up a level, with the true identity almost visible through this slightly worn hotpatch. This Bahrain Victorious mechanic changed these brake pads phenomenally quickly moments before the start. Tadej Pogačar is racing with prototype Scicon glasses at the Tour. The glasses use aerodynamics in the opposite way than most new tech, with a hole in the lens directly in front of the frame said to channel airflow onto the face. Interestinly only Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven are racing with the new Madone bar/stem. All six remaining riders are riding the new Madone with some other bar and stem two-piece combo or the Aelous cockpit from the Emonda. From what we understand, some riders’ unique stem length and bar width combinations were not yet available in the new one-piece bar/stem and so these riders were forced to race with an alternative setup. Other riders prefer a lighter weight option or perhaps don’t particularly like the flared drops of the new handlebar. Bauke Mollema opts to race without a head unit. He apparently doesn’t like to see the data during the stage. Mollema will have a head unit in his pocket to record his ride data, but there are no distractions up front. Interestingly, though, Mollema does like a route profile on his bars, strange given he won’t have a kilometre count on a head unit to correlate where he is at any given moment.Wout van Aert has stated he is targeting the green jersey in this year’s Tour de France and, although, technically only keeping it warm for Lampert, Wout’s bike was decked out with a green fork today. The mechanics will have to switch back to the yellow fork tonight ahead of Wout’s first day in yellow tomorrow.Dylan Van Baarle was about to set off with a new Garmin 1040, but he wasn’t happy with some setup on the screen and switched to a 100 plus before the off. It really was not -25 ºC. Jumbo-Visma mechanics had the power meter ID stuck to the top tube for easier head unit pairing.Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl has custom Wolfpack K-Edge headunit mounts. Geraint Thomas at least tried to warm down with Zwift, but seemingly couldn’t get logged on. Perhaps he had forgotten his password. Maybe he should have tried BrandAmbassador1.Mike Woods is racing with a Darimo saddle to help save every gram on his Factor Ostro VAM. It worked too, as you will see in a forthcoming article and video. Jakob Fuglsang went a step further to save a few grams and is racing with this bare carbon Selle Italia SLR saddle. Israel-Premier Tech riders also have a new integrated cockpit which looks incredibly neat. Don’t forget to check the spare bike tyre pressures. The team mechanics get mic’d up also. That way they can communicate with the team car in the event of a crash. Sometimes the mechanic and the car can get separated in the chaos and distance between spares and the crash site.
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