Again in 2014, we had been handled to a Tour de France to recollect for loads of causes each good and dangerous. The race made its Grand Départ from Leeds to Harrogate within the UK, which noticed crowds akin to Alpe d’Huez flock to the roadside. Sadly, we additionally noticed Mark Cavendish’s hopes of any stage wins at that version scuppered by a crash within the closing meters that despatched him house with a separated shoulder.
Later within the race, we had been handled to a spectacle because the race took to the rain-soaked cobbles of Northern France with the eventual general winner Vincenzo Nibali happening the assault and taking minutes out of his rivals. It was additionally early on on this stage that the defending champion Chris Froome crashed out with a damaged wrist.
Though a number of the riders from the 2014 version are nonetheless going sturdy within the WorldTour peloton, one factor that actually has modified from a decade in the past is Tour de France bikes.
It may not appear all that way back however, since 2014, professional bike design has gone by a number of evolutions that place the trendy race bike in a totally completely different class. In 2014, Nibali rode to victory on Specialised’s S-Works Tarmac SL5 fitted with rim brakes, a Campagnolo Tremendous File mechanical groupset, and shockingly slender 22mm tubular tyres.
These days you gained’t discover any of this stuff floating across the peloton so simply what has modified?
Specialised S-Works Tarmac SL5 vs Colnago V4RS
Nibali’s Astana Professional staff had the selection of both the Tarmac SL5, cobble-focussed Roubaix SL4, or the first-generation Venge aero bike. Even with this selection, Nibali solely rode the Tarmac, together with on the testing cobbles of stage 5.
When the SL5 was launched it was the primary bike from Specialised to make use of its Rider First engineering know-how. This noticed every body measurement get particular person tube profiles with the purpose of constructing every body measurement have the identical experience traits.
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Quick ahead to 2024 and the present yellow jersey holder Tadej Pogačar additionally makes use of a one-bike technique. Colnago’s V4RS is Pogačar’s do-it-all superbike solely deviating for time trials.
Though the V4RS doesn’t characteristic Rider First engineering what it does characteristic is aerodynamic optimisation. The tube profiles of the V4RS have been designed to chop by the oncoming air as effectively as potential while retaining a light-weight climbing-friendly platform.
In 2014 the idea of aerodynamic optimisation was nonetheless a comparatively new enterprise for highway bike designers, with aero bikes and light-weight bikes sharing little or no crossover. The SL5 had huge oval tube profiles that had been stiff and light-weight however removed from aerodynamic (when Specialised launched the Tarmac SL6 in 2017 it might carry aerodynamics to the fore of the Tarmac’s design too).
Groupset and kit ratios
This is likely one of the areas that reveals simply how far bike tech has come up to now decade. In 2014, Nibali was operating Campagnolo’s mechanical Tremendous File drivetrain with rim brakes. The 11-speed cassette isn’t too removed from the 12-speed groupsets of recent professional bikes nevertheless the 11-27-tooth unfold would depart even the most effective racers in search of extra appropriate climbing gear at this 12 months’s Tour de France.
After we bought our arms on defending champion Jonas Vingegaard’s Cervélo R5 he had the widest SRAM Pink AXS cassette potential fitted to his bike with the 10-36 12-speed cassette matched to a 52/39 chainset. This wider unfold of gears ensures that even when the gradients exceed 10% riders can keep their optimum cadence and effectivity.
One other step change between Nibali’s bike and Vingegaard’s is how the groupset is actuated. By 2014, Campagnolo had launched its first model of Tremendous File EPS; its digital shifting platform. Nibali, nevertheless, most popular the texture of a mechanical groupset with the standard design counting on cables to manage each the entrance and rear derailleurs.
Leaping again to the current day, Vingegaard’s SRAM Pink AXS outfitted Cervélo is a totally wi-fi affair with shifting duties taken care of by an digital servo remotely managed by the shifters on the brake levers. Not solely does digital shifting permit for very quick, correct and crisp shifting, but it surely additionally reduces the time mechanics must spend on upkeep.
The ultimate large distinction between the bikes is that Nibali’s SL5 relied on rim brakes when it got here to placing on the anchors. Again in 2014, the WorldTour peloton was nonetheless 4 years away from having the usage of disc brakes formally accepted.
Many execs had been very happy on rim brakes. In actual fact, many nonetheless hark again to that point now, nevertheless, on a moist mountain descent the management and modulation disc brakes present is actually not one thing riders complain about.
2022 was the final Tour de France to be gained on rim brakes and since then each staff has used disc brake framesets. This and the transfer to wider tyres have been probably the most broadly adopted tech modifications up to now 10 years by the professional peloton.
Tyres have gotten a complete lot wider
It’s arduous to imagine simply how far tyre know-how has come up to now decade. In 2014 the peloton was slowly waking as much as the concept wider tyres would possibly provide some efficiency advantages over skinny alternate options. One one that didn’t comply with this pattern in 2014 was a sure Vincenzo Nibali, whose Tour de France bike was fitted with 22mm tubular tyres.
Each tyres of that width and magnificence have virtually all been changed, with just some groups clinging onto tubular tyres. As a substitute, most groups at the moment are operating tubeless tyres that use a normal clincher type tyre however substitute the internal tube with latex sealant. This hopefully prevents race-ending punctures with the sealant capable of plug small cuts to the tyre on the fly. Tubeless tyres have additionally been proven to supply higher rolling resistance than equal tubular tyres, presenting them as a marginal acquire in rolling effectivity.
The 22mm tyre width Nibali used was already a bit outdated even again in 2014, the vast majority of the peloton was on 23 or 25mm tyres with rim brake callipers limiting any riders desirous to go a lot wider than this.
In each the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Tour de France, Pogačar has solely used 30mm or wider Continental GP5000s TR tyres. The broader tyres provide a rise in rolling effectivity, higher grip, and nice puncture safety. With new wide-rimmed deep-section aero wheels, they’re additionally extra aerodynamic.
Pogačar is considerably of a trailblazer utilizing 30mm tyres, as a lot of the peloton run 28mm tyres as the usual; a width that was uncommon even to search out on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix again in 2014.
No GPS for Nibali
One thing that might look misplaced on even a budding newbie’s bike these days is the velocity sensor and magnet zip-tied to the fork of the bike. SRM was the selection of the peloton when it got here to energy meters with the top unit doing with out GPS. The velocity sensor sits moderately abruptly on the entrance of the bike pointing inwards in the direction of the spokes; one thing of an aerodynamic nightmare by fashionable requirements.
Trendy race bikes haven’t completely performed away with cumbersome add-ons, with the race timing transponders sitting on the fork legs usually lined with a piece of latex internal tube to easy issues over. So far as head models are involved, the GPS revolution has swept throughout the whole peloton and with it killed off the necessity for any bodily velocity sensors.
Bars are narrowing, and lever place is on the transfer
An rising pattern over the previous couple of seasons is for riders to level their brake levers inwards, whereas utilizing narrower however flared bars. The thought behind it’s that bringing the hoods of the levers inwards creates a narrower hand placement that’s extra aerodynamic.
The addition of flared bars permits riders to avoid the UCI laws across the most angle that the levers can deviate from being positioned straight forward because the measurement is taken from the axis of the bar.
Using flared bars implies that riders can capitalise on the aerodynamic advantages of a slender using place on the hoods while not compromising on management when using on the drops.
Nibali’s bike in distinction is a much more conventional design. The separate FSA carbon bar and stem are customary of their profile with the Campagnolo Tremendous File shifters parallel with each other.
It’s a small improvement however signifies simply how all-consuming the hunt for aerodynamic positive aspects has turn out to be within the professional peloton.
On the floor, bike weight hasn’t modified
In case you had been to weigh Nibali’s SL5 and Vingegaard’s R5 you’d discover that each are available in just about on the UCI’s minimal weight restrict of 6.8 kilos. On the floor, this could make it appear like there was no improvement in complete bike weights and that might partly be true.
Because the UCI appears to be like to be sitting agency on the 6.8kg restrict, there’s little or no in the best way of incentives for bike producers to have a look at dropping the burden of professional bikes beneath this restrict.
In case you have a look at the event of recent race bikes although between 2014 and 2024 the most important factor to have modified is the transfer from rim brakes to disc brakes. This change instantly added a couple of hundred grams to a motorbike with the body needing to be bolstered on the mounting factors to take care of the uneven forces of braking. The hydraulic reservoir, rotor and calliper all added vital weight over a standard rim brake design too.
Between 2014 and 2024 disc brake bikes ballooned in weight with most bikes heading north of 8.5kg. Step by step although, from their widespread uptake in 2018, disc brake bikes have been on a weight-reduction plan with the full weights falling 12 months on 12 months, though not all professional bikes are available in underneath 7kg they’re the lightest they’ve been within the aero-optimised disc brake period.
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