2025 Tour De France Tech Trends | What the Pros Are Riding

The Tour de France is always a showcase for the latest cutting-edge trends in pro cycling and 2025’s edition has been no different.

In this video, Simon von Bromley discusses how an increasing number of riders are turning to shorter crank lengths in the name of efficiency, while wider tyres have definitively become the norm, offering better grip, comfort and aerodynamics across a wider range of terrain.

But as these developments push the limits of performance, safety is becoming an urgent topic of discussion, especially in light of the UCI’s upcoming rule changes and trials aimed at reducing peloton speeds, which have been met with widespread consternation.

Alongside the rider choices this year, we also discuss the industry’s reaction to these changes, and ask whether another rethink is due.

Image Credits:
Pool / Pool
Dario Belingheri / Staff
Tim de Waele / Staff
LOIC VENANCE / Contributor

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As we head deeper into the final week of the tour to France, it’s time to look back this year’s race and analyze the key tech trends. Now, Ted Pagata looks set for another dominant win in the race for the yellow jersey and has been at the forefront of this year’s key trends. And as with previous tours, we’ve weighed and measured a number of probikes at the Grand Depart and almost every rider will be affected by the incoming changes to the UCI’s technical regulations for 2026. And while safety in pro cycling has been in the spotlight again, this year’s tour has shown that those who govern the sport ought to put their own house in order before hanging the riders out to dry. While we got all hot under the collar about Tatty Pagacha’s sub6.8 8 kg colongo V5 RS and an unreleased SEL R5 at this year’s Grand Depar. Neither bike has seen significant action at the front of the race so far and instead the race’s two main protagonists, Pagata and his great rival Yonis Vinkor have been riding their aerobikes on practically every single stage except of course the two time trials. Now, in Pagata’s case, he rode a white world champions Fiend Konago Y1 RS for the opening two weeks of the race before switching to an unpainted weight weeny build for the mountain time trial on stage 13 and then a gloss black version for the Vonu stage and beyond. Now, the latter is claimed to weigh a little more than 7 kg, although it’s not clear if that includes pedals, bottle cages, a bike computer, and so on, but it is in any case impressively light. Set up in full sprint mode, we weighed Vingerg’s new Sevel S5 at 7.385 kg before the race started in Le. Now, that is more than 500 gram above the UCI’s minimum bike weight limit, but there was plenty of room to go lighter with only minor equipment changes. For the stage 16 Summit finished mon 2, for example, Vinger swapped in lighter wheels and tires, and he even kept his one by drivetrain. All of which raises the question yet again about whether the UCI ought to lower its minimum bike weight limit of 6.8 kilos. Now, as things stand, there appears to be little reason for riders like Pagatcha or Vigard to opt for a lightweight climbing bike if their aero bikes are only a few hundred grams heavier. if that even dropping the weight limit by just a few hundred grams, for example, might make climbers think twice about which bike to use on mountain stages and could spur greater innovation in an area that has felt increasingly irrelevant to pro racing in recent years. It might also help smaller riders for whom 6.8 kilos makes up a larger percentage of their overall system weight. And this would be especially helpful in the light of the recently announced changes to the minimum handlebar widths. More on that later, which many in the sport feel will unfairly penalize smaller riders. On the other hand, Dan Bigum, the head of engineering at Red Bull Bora Hanser and a key voice in the debate about safety in pro cycling has previously said that he thinks the UCI should consider raising its minimum bike weight limit to allow for greater factors of safety. Any change would therefore need to consider exactly what makes a bike safe to ride and race and whether changing the regulation could affect those characteristics. [Music] After a number of years of seeing Tad Pagatcha and many other riders on increasingly wide rims and tires at the tour, things have begun to level off in this area. Overall, the median nominal or labeled tire sizes were 29 at the rear and 28 up front with the average measured widths coming up slightly wider at 30.23 mm at the rear and 30.01 mm at the front. However, while Pagata’s Konago Y1 RS was equipped with Continental’s new 30C archetype tires at this year’s Grand Depar, the world champion has actually used 28C Ki GP5000 TTTR time trial tires for practically every stage. In fact, a close look at photos from this year’s race suggests that the GP5000 TTTR is an extremely popular tire amongst Continental sponsored teams, which is currently only available in a 25 and 28 C size, whilst other teams have also frequently turned to 28 and 29 C time trial tires such as the Victoria Corser Pro Speed TLR. If we had to guess why tire and rim whips appear to have plateaued or in some cases got narrower, we’d put our money on riders perhaps reaching the limit of how much weight they’re willing to carry for the sake of improved aerodynamics and rolling resistance. Now, the key selling point of Paga’s new Envy SCS 4.5 Pro wheels, for example, is that they are lighter and help get his bikes that little bit closer to the UCI’s minimum bike weight limit. Similarly, the recently launched Reval Rapid CLX freewheel set retained the same 35mm external rim width on the front wheel at its widest point as on the outgoing model and instead focused on cutting weight through the use of updated hubs, carbon spokes, and a shallower rear rim. Now the likes of Remco, Venipole and Primos Rugglitch were also using unreleased Specialized Turbo Cotton TLR tires in a nominal size 30C, but these actually measured around 29 mm wide on the bikes of those two riders when we saw them at the Grand Depart in Le DT Swiss’s latest Ark 1100 wheels also remain fairly narrow as used by the likes of Julian Alfallete and Tobias Johannison with external rips ranging from 26 to 29 mm on rims designed for mass start road races. Now that said, we only saw one 25c tire on a road bike at this year’s Grand Aar on the front wheel of Garren Thomas’ Pinella Dogma F. So it does seem that the days of narrow tires at the tour are largely behind us. Short cranks have been a notable trend amongst high-profile riders for a while now with the likes of Tatty Pagata and Remco Veniple using 165 mm cranks for the last few seasons. Yonas Finger also caused a media frenzy earlier this year when he was spotted triing tiny tiny 150 mm cranks at the Valta Algav. Yet while he didn’t bring those to this year’s tour, Vinger Sevel S5 was nevertheless equipped with the shortest cranks we saw at this year’s race at just 160 mm. Perhaps more surprising though was Matteo Jorgensson who stands at 190 cm tall according to Pro Cycling stats who was using 165 mm cranks which just goes to show it’s not just the shorter riders experimenting with reducing their crank lengths. Overall, the median crank length at this year’s tour was 170 mm, but the two most popular sizes were 165 and 172.5, which suggests there might be a bit of a split occurring in the Tour Pelaton between the riders who are convinced of the potential benefits of shorter cranks and those who perhaps prefer to stick with what they know. [Music] The UCI recently revealed that it would be cracking down on narrow handlebars, super deep rims, time travel helmets, and potentially big gears in road races next season. And our measurements at this year’s Grand Depar show that a vast majority of riders might need to change their bike setups. Of the 16 bike setups that we measured, for example, only three bikes met the proposed limit of 320 mm in between the tips of the brake hoods. The average distance between the tips of the RERS’s brake hoods, however, was 30 cm. And there were a number of bikes set up at 28 or narrower between the hoods. Now, the tips of the brake hoods on Tobias Yahannison’s Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, for example, were just 26 cm apart. Likewise, every rider using a Stram drivetrain was using gear ratios that would see them full foul of the maximum roll out of 10.46 m proposed by the UCI’s upcoming trial, which is reportedly due to take place in October. A number of Shimano sponsored riders were also using chain rings bigger than 54T, which would also be banned under the trial regulations, assuming they stick with 11T sprockets on the cassettes. Less attention has been on the incoming changes to maximum rim depths, which will be limited to 65 mm from 2026, but Spar fought for Swiss side, which sponsored the Decathlon AG2R London team. Felix Gaul and his teammates were running the brand’s latest Hadron Ultimate 680 wheel set on their Van Risle RCRF Aero road bikes, which was launched just two weeks after details of the UCI’s proposed regulation changes were revealed in the press. As its name suggests, the new wheel set features 68 mm deep rims and will therefore not be allowed in massart road races from next season. Riders would still be able to use them in time trials, of course. But in a open letter published last week, Swiss side claimed that it had received no warnings about the incoming rule changes and called the six-month notice period for changes to be implemented inadequate. It also challenged the UCI’s assertion that limiting rim depth to 65 mm would improve ror safety, as it claimed that rim height has a limited impact on stability, predictable handling, and safety. Now, according to Swisside’s own measurements of what it calls steering moment, rim depth has far less influence than rimshaped, tire choice, and frame geometry. And whatever we might think of the proposed regulations, all of this adds further evidence to the claim that the UCI has failed to properly engage with key stakeholders during this process. Although the UCI stated goal for the updated regulations is to ensure ever safer and fairer competition, riders at this year’s tour have still been faced with courses that at face value appear to contravene the UCI’s very own safety guidelines. The flat fast running into Dunkirk on stage three, for example, saw two major crashes in the Pelaton that look to result from poor course design. One of the pre-race favorites, Remco Venipole, hit the deck alongside a number of other riders with 3 km to go in a crash during a sudden narrowing of the road that seemed to catch many in the Pelaton out. Then with 1.6 km to go as riders were gearing up for a sprint finish, there was a 90° right-hand bend and then the road twisted and snaked all the way to the line with another high-speed pileup occurring during the last 250 m. Now, the UCI’s organizers guide to road events handbook states that in flat stages, the final 500 meters should as far as possible be straight, or at least there should be no dangerous bends. And the fact that most riders escape without serious injuries from those crashes is besides the point that if a course doesn’t follow the governing body’s own safety guidelines, then surely it shouldn’t be approved or raced on, especially at the tour where there is so much at stake and the riders are all at the peak of their powers. It is of course fair to say that crashes during bike races simply happen sometimes and there’s not always someone or something specifically to blame. Yasper Philipsum for example abandoned the tour with a broken collarbone earlier that very same day following an unfortunate crash on a wide straight road in the run-up to the day’s intermediate sprint. However, rather than just blaming the riders for crashes or enacting new equipment and regulations without input from key stakeholders, which some believe will have little impact on safety anyway, those that govern cycling and organize the tour should ensure that their own houses are in order as well. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And if you want to see another video from this year’s tour to France, why not check out this