7 Hottest Tech Upgrades on Tour de France Pro Race Bikes

The Tour de France is the ultimate testing ground for pro bike tech, and in 2025, the teams are pulling out all the stops. In this video, I break down 7 key trends I spotted on the ground at the race — from wider tires and shorter cranks to wild new cockpit setups and drivetrain tweaks. Whether you’re chasing speed or just curious what the pros are up to, these are the upgrades, changes, and obsessions shaping the fastest bikes in the world right now — and some you might want to try yourself.

Content
00:00 Intro
00:21 Aero is everything
2:07 But weight is important too
4:10 Aero vs Light bike choice
6:30 Wide tyres are standard now
7:32 Narrow handlebars
9:01 Short cranks aren’t a fad
9:54 Groupset gearing choices
11:39 Marginal gains is alive and well

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I just returned from France watching the opening stage of the tour to France and I spent some time trolling around the team bikes and the team trucks and these are seven of my tech observations from arrow to lightweight to wombby to short cranks. These are some of the tech trends being used by France pros this year. Arrow is everything. Nothing new, but the speeds in the race demand maximum arrow. And while the stages of the tour front might be shorter than they were in the past, the speeds have gone through the roof. The average speed on the opening stage around Leo was just eye watering. It’s like a crit race for 4 hours just insane. And the rides are fully embracing a road from helmets to skin suits to socks, shoes, and the bikes. Their bikes are a road to the max. And so we see the likes of a Cello S5 being used by the Visma team. The Caron Y1 RS being embraced more widely by Tad and Co. as a Bianke ultra. Massive Vanderpole early rides the Canyon Airro and it has become an arms race for bike manufacturers and teams are trying develop the best air solutions for the riders. And interesting how some brands are going fully in on one bike to do everything both air and lightweight like Trek Mone the Specialized Tarmac while other brands like Sevel Canyon Giant Bianke have a dedicated to a bike while still offering a lightweight bike as well because I guess rather than trying to make the arrow bike compromise in that pursuit of low weight and give away some arrow just make the bike as area as possible and be damned with the weight and then just offer a lightweight bike for the climbing stages. And there are some big climbing stages coming up as I found out earlier last week when I rode stage 18 and stage 19 of this year’s tour of France in an upcoming video. My experience will be shared. Now, while arrow is clearly everything for flat stages where the speeds are insanely high, weight is still important, too. and pro rides have long offset about that weight whether measuring the food in the morning or weighing the the bikes to make them as light as possible and with the UI weight limit of 6.8 8 kg. That’s always been a target for riders and teams and manufacturers to aim for. But bikes with the latest technology are already that light. Tires getting wider with disc brakes, electronic gears, and even lightweight bikes like a tarmac still have some error as well. But it’s clear for the tough mountain stages to come in the Alps and the Pyrenees, quite a few riders like Tad and Remco and Jonas had bikes that were really chasing the grams to be as light as possible. For example, Remco Evelyn Paul had a Specialized Tom S8 built as a climbing bike. His team are sponsored by Specialized and they have the Tom S8 to use. They don’t have a pure aerobike or a lightweight client bike, just one bike to do both. But the team had built a specially lightweight bike that weighs, according to the team, 6.8 kg on the nose. And it starts with the thinnest layer of black paint because black paint is lighter. Then carbon fiber chain rings like we’ve seen on Tally’s bikes. The new Reval wheels with carbon fiber spokes to save more weight. a real obsessive attention to detail to save weight. Get a bike as light as possible. And then his regular sort of non-climbing bike is a bit heavier with different wheels and tires and components on it. Also shows the challenge of making a bike that light. Despite all the amazing technology, bikes aren’t easy down to 6.8 kg. is a still clearly an effort to get a bike down to that weight like fully ready to race weight with pedals and all the other gums you need on a bike to race. So arrow is clearly everything where the stage demands it and we are seeing a real aero battle between the top bike brands. But then weight still matters when in the mountains and some riders will use an arrow bike in the mountains, but most riders will opt for a lighter bike. So Tally, for example, we use the Y1 RS on the flat stages for maximum arrow. But that bike is 7.2 7.3 kilos. So for the mountain stages, he’ll be on a V5 RS, a brand new bike, which I rode earlier this year. Link that video down below. And that bike is right on a US weight limit of 6.8 8 kg with the new MV SCS 4.5 Pro wheels which are sub 1,300 grams. Has a one piece MV handlebar with no paint on it at all. You see the carbon fiber weave and layer to save a few grams. Really trim the weight around the headset and the top cap as well, especially made by Envy. And of course, carbon fiber chain rings as well to save yet more weight. And one detail really shows the obsessive nature in really pursuing maximum arrow and roll resistance on flat stages but then low weight for the climbing stages is the tire choice. So Tally’s team will use a 30 mil wide tire on the flat stages for maximum rolling resistance benefits. But in the mountains they use a 28 mil wide tire the TTR time trial tire because it’s lighter because they don’t need as much rolling resistance benefits when the road goes up. So using a narrower, lighter tire on that climbing focused bike. So that really shows the attention to detail really trying to maximize the arrow and also maximize the weight savings as well. I do wonder how long before we get to a point where that air bike is 6.8 8 kilos. And this battle, this tension between arrow and weight and bike choice for the riders and that focus on max arrow and max lightweight becomes a mute point as an arrow bike can be down to that UI weight limit. But right now, aerobikes are a long way from being down to a UI weight limit. The only vinegard tiny size S5 is 7.1. TAS is 7.2 7.3. So they’re all well over 7 kilos. The common trend for the last few years has been wide tires. And looking around all the tires or most of the teams I made it to over the last few days, they’re all wide tires. I didn’t see anything narrower than a 28. 28 was the narrowest I saw. 30 was the widest I saw. Those two widths seem to be the standard. And that reflects the latest understanding around the rolling resistance benefits of a wide tire at low pressures and also design for wide rims because wheels are getting wider. That internal rim width is getting wider. We come a long way from what 17 or 19 mm internal width now up to 23 25 and a wide tire design around that wide inner width for perfect harmony of aerodynamics. So yeah, tires are wide. They’re also tubeless as well. Didn’t see one sign of a tubler tire, a glue on tub, or a clincher in tube setup. All I saw were tubeless, tuber ties everywhere. Handlebars are still narrow and I was able to measure a few handlebars discreetly with the mechanics not seeing with my tape measure, but tricky to film and measure at the same time. and they’re all narrower than the recent ruling from the USA around handlear width announced just a few weeks ago before the tour of France but that rule doesn’t come into effect until next year and from my informal survey of bikes that I saw before the race started none of the teams had paid any attention to that rule and were still running the same handlebar width and setups they’ve been running all year and hoods being angled over are less extreme than they used to be. They’re more kind of few degrees rather than a lot of degrees, but handlebars are still very narrow. 36, 37, 38, and a slight angle of the hoods, but the days of the hoods being angled loads that we saw for a while has definitely gone and now at a fairly modest angle. But yeah, the setups are still narrow and it doesn’t seem the teams have taken any notice of that user rule. Maybe they will for next year when it comes into effect or maybe by then the UCI might have done a U-turn and realized that it makes no difference at all. We saw no crashes in the first few stages as a result of those handlebar setups. So yeah, very interesting observation there in handle width and hood setup. Short cranks are still a popular trend. I saw 160s and 165 for Yonas and TAD and Remco, but not all rides are embracing the short cranks. Lots were still on 170, 172.5. I saw a lot of and even some 175 on bigger bikes as well. So, I probably saw more 172.5s and 160s or 165s in my very informal survey. So clear while the short crank trend is popular, it’s not a magic bullet that all teams and rides are embracing as a as a magic bullet to more performance. So yeah, very interesting um that not all riders are embracing short cranks, but lots are still doing short cranks uh with their setups. On a group set front, there was nothing new from Shimano or Stram or Campag. Didn’t see any camp bikes. I didn’t make it to see a camp bike and there’s no new Shimano Dur Di2 on show at all. No wireless durate. I didn’t see any sign of that at all. um sur red axis very popular of course but the big trend I saw on the opening stages was a lot of one by Jonas had his S5 set up one by with red axis but with regular cassette on the back and lots of little trek team had a one by setup with massive 56 to chain rings it’s just colossal so lots of one by for the flat stages claims you can save up to two watts by going one by two by got one chain ring versus two chain rings and no front derailer and also save a bit of weight as well and simpler shifting. So one by has had a funny history in the tour of France. It had a bad time six seven years ago with that certain team that you all remember of course but now with 13 speed and 12 speed one bite is definitely being taken more seriously and lots of riders are using it and I wouldn’t imagine a team like Visma liter bike would be forced by Stram to use one bite against their wishes against their will and a GC contender like Yonas wouldn’t use one by because Sam had told them to I wouldn’t I don’t believe that’s the case at all. So yeah, interesting to see the team. They have all the data these days. They have loads of data testing data on one bike versus two by and all the other metrics they tested bike on. So really interesting to see more rise on one by than ever before. And finally, marginal gains still live on. Margin gains were coined by uh Dave Brezford at team sky and it’s still an approach that the top teams take and clearly the wellfunded teams like Vizma Lisa Bike and UAE Emirates really employ that margin gains every detail every single detail is considered and I had some interesting conversations with mechanics and team personnel about the length they go to now so like for example and Vismo team they have data on where the arrow bike and the lightweight bike would be an advantage. They have all the data of stages, the gradients of every climb, the speed, the rise, go up, the climbs at and they know precisely which bike will be the faster bike over that course. They give that data to the riders. The riders are then free to choose the bike they want. Some riders have personal preference for a lightweight, but the teams and the brands have a data on which setup can be best. So they really are fine-tuning their bike setup based on all that data they have available. And another detail that stood out for me is Tally Pagatcha has bike set up with wide tires with flat stages on the aerobike and narrow tires for the mountain stages where weight is a focus. And also he has 11 spare bikes, 11 spare road bikes, the Y1 RS and the V5 RS as well as his time trial bikes. And also another detail the team shared with me, they have spare bikes set up for bad weather. So if the forecast is showing rain, they’ll have bikes set up for those conditions. So different tires and lower pressures. So for example, if it started raining during a stage, he can swap onto a wet weather bike. And that sort of detail I’ve never heard of before, having a bike setup with wet weather in mind when it comes to a bike setup, a tire pressure setup on that bike. So that really is showing how much a team are really paying attention to every small detail. Every detail if considered. They are a wellunded team and that helps but they are really putting that funding to good use and it’s clear UAE Emirates are really tech focused. They’ve apparently done their own area testing on wheels done all their own testing on tires. They really obsess around the technology and their technology partners and pushing the likes of Envy and the other technology partners to RU raise the game and deliver them products that can give Tally every possible advantage and edge over his rivals in a tour of France. So those my seven tech observations from this year’s taller France. Let me know what you think of the tech trends by dropping a comment down below. What do you feel on arrow on weight one by short cranks? Drop a comment down below. And if you want to see my video on riding part of the stage one with closed roads, then watch the video right up here.