The Tour de France 2022 has been one for the ages. Exciting races, fantastic performances, heart-pounding moments at the edge of your seat on almost every stage and a wealth of new technology. It’s been a busy month with no shortage of content for CyclingTips to cover.
As such, some things have slipped through the net, but now on the eve of the final stage, we’ve sat down to scroll through our tech-filled camera SD cards and pick out some of the tech that doesn’t. did not make it an independent article. . Not because it’s not interesting, but because it was intended to be part of a dedicated standalone that for some reason didn’t materialize, or waited for more details that didn’t never arrived.
The good news is that the contents of this tech savings piggy bank make for a great wrap-up gallery. Enjoy
KTM reveal prototype
Three days from the Grand Départ, and we have already spotted Cyril Lemoine’s new KTM Revelator. Until KTM reveals the Revelator at the Tour or Eurobike, we saved these shots for the big reveal. KTM has yet to reveal this Revelator reveal.
Unfortunately, even when KTM fully unveils the Revelator, that zebra-like paint job is unlikely to be available to you and me. One can hope, however, and in the meantime here are some close-ups of the new bike.
The new Revelator looks light, aerodynamic and fast. This is definitely a bike we want to learn more about. Dropped seatstays and hidden seat post clamps are some of my favorite things…when done right. This seat post clamp bolt seems pretty accessible, good start. The bike looks very neat up front with internal cable routing supported by FSA with their ACR system.Ah Cyril, your man just scuffed that paint job. Truncated tube – check. The new frame apparently balances the aero and stiffness gains of a deeper head tube with the weight savings of a smaller design.Flatback seatpost – check. The new Revelator features many nearly standard design cues on today’s lightweight, aero bikes, but does so in a way that gives the frame a unique identity. Pierre Rolland also had the new Revelator but in a much more discreet paint job. The Revelator Alto team to give it its full name.
Campagnolo climbing wheels
Campagnolo has rolled out its new climbing wheels for the UAE team. The Italian manufacturer has yet to make an official announcement on the new wheels, and again, it’s something we were hoping to hear in July, but these close-up photos at least give us more details to speculate on. One thing that Campagnolo Tour staff have confirmed is the development of a tubeless and tubular compatible version of the new Climbing wheels. Oh, Campagnolo also confirmed that these were Campagnolo’s new lightweight climbing-specific wheels, but we already knew that. The new wheels apparently feature new rims and the G3 lacing pattern has been dropped. New hubs too.
Reserve Motorcycle Spear
Cervelo and Reserve had taken over the Santa Cruz store in Morzine on the first real day off. Reserve have since released their new 52/63 Aero road wheelset, and now that scooter really comes into its own.
The three-wheeled scooter was not some form of modern version of an ancient Roman chariot, but rather the custom platform equipped on the front with pitot tubes and other instruments to collect aerodynamic data, wind , ambient weather, and other information in Reserve’s offering to better understand the turbulent conditions riders face in the real world. The pitot tubes up front are highly technical, extremely sharp, and apparently cost $13,000 each. This is not your average bike shop display. The pitot tubes were in the open when I took these photos, behind black and yellow warning tape when I was leaving, and disappeared later in the day. Prevention is better than cure. All of this data was collected with this laptop and software housed in the hard box on the back of the scooter. Reserve then used the data to design the new 52/63 wheelset.
New shoes, old shoes, bad shoes
Magnus Cort had these polka dot Northwave shoes for his time in the King of the Mountains jersey. While Adam Yates has butchered the rear of these Sidi Shot 2 shoes, Yates has done away with the adjustable heel retention device entirely, either for even less retention or just to save a few grams. Geraint Thomas now races in the Giro Imperial road shoes. Perhaps influenced by the same shoes breaking the Everesting record? Another former British Tour de France champion would also race with the Giro Imperials in Sidi overshoes on at least one mountainous stage…While Chris Froome ran around with those eye-catching Sidis on other stages. Speaking of overshoes, Alexandre Kristoff pushes the UCI sock height limit with these DMT overshoes and really pushes his stud moniker with this stance. The winner of the Shoes de France 2022 must be Wout van Aert, painted by Caitlin Fielder.. Jonas Vingaard looks set to win the Tour de France, but he’s likely losing a lot more now that we’ve exposed his socks, sandals and tracksuit after the stage.
Merida Bars
Bahrain-Victorious race with Vision components on their Merida bikes. But some riders seem to prefer the stock Merida Team SL bars, either for weight savings or perhaps personal fit preferences. The Merida bars have mostly gone unnoticed partly because of the Vision stickers, but mostly because aside from the excellent Fred Wright, the rest of the team has been mostly Bahrain-Invisible in this Tour. Some riders also still prefer the good old-fashioned fit and drop shape of a classic two-piece stem and classic drop bar.
Headache against the clock
It never ceases to amaze me how much work the mechanics have to do before and during time trial days. You might think WorldTour riders have their time trial bikes set up and prepared well in advance, but we regularly see mechanics rebuilding and adjusting time trial bikes even as close as the morning of the time trial stages. Here, mechanic Alpecin-Deceuninck was preparing Mathieu van der Poel’s Canyon Speedmax on the eve of the stage 1 time trial. Team Israel-Premier Tech’s Gary Blem was building a new Factor Hanzo for Chris Froome, also on the eve of Stage 1. Caption this…With so many riders on each team and each having vastly different positions and setup preferences, many teams are now using software and online spreadsheets to track each setup down to the exact function of each gearshift button. speed. Most take time trial day seriously, some take it exceptionally seriously.
Random
Jumbo’s mechanics came prepared for Wout’s jersey-swapping antics. Its days in yellow meant the green forked Cervelos were relegated to the spare van.In the middle of all the Speedmaxes and Aeroads in the Alpecin truck was this Ultimate. Was MVDP hoping for a Wout style relay in green and yellow? The Movistar team largely stuck to tubular tires for many stages. Ditch the tubeless trend, which they have kept for aftermarket bikes. There is great anticipation for the new Giant Propel, and Team BikeExchange-Jayco’s loyalty to the Propel for high mountain stages has only increased the hype. Many taking this as a sign, the new bike is really at the around 7kg mark that Giant suggested to us when we approached the new Propel in Copenhagen. High mountain weight saving hacks aren’t quite what they once were, but they still exist if you know where to look. Jonas Vingaard has raced with a Cervelo S5 on many stages but, together with Wout van Aert, switches to a Cervelo R5 for the uphill stages.Vingegaard also runs a Garmin 530, which is lighter than larger display units like the new 1040, but more interestingly, it apparently uses a stripped paint version of the Metron 5D ACR integrated bar stem. Just like Primož Roglič with this slightly different cockpit but still far from the standard design. Jumbo also seemed happy to run tubeless tires on the flatter stages, but largely opted for tubular tires on Shimano’s lighter C36 wheelset for the mountainous stages. Interestingly, a team mechanic told us that the filler between the tire and the rim is actually a new prototype tube cement that needs to be applied all the way to the rim wall and not an aero hack. Some of the Ineos Grenadiers also opted for the C36 for the hillier stages but preferred the tubeless version. Super Plank needs a super gear. Geraint Thomas climbed to fifth on the monstrously steep gravel road with a 40 chainring and what looks like a 32 cog in the rear. We hear so much about how runners stay fueled for 21 days of racing, but so little about how directors feed themselves…
