Winning Bikes of the 2025 Tour de France | Weekly Rewind Ep. 31

The 2025 Tour de France is a wrap, and while we saw incredible performances from dozens of riders, only three took home a coveted jersey. In this special edition of the Weekly Rewind presented by 99 Spokes we’re taking a closer looks at the bikes they rode along the way. Let us know which one you like best in the comments!

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:31 Milan’s Trek Madone
03:04 Pogacar’s Climbing-Specific Colnago Y1RS
05:32 Lipowitiz Specialized tarmac
07:31 Pogacar’s All-Purpose Colnago Y1RS
09:05 The Goat’s Take

#tourdefrance #cycling

The Tour to France isn’t just a test of human endurance. It’s a proving ground for the most advanced bikes on Earth. And while these might look familiar, the truth is that the bikes these riders use are a far cry from what you or I could pick up at our local bike shop. So, in this special edition of the weekly rewind, we’re taking a closer look at the machines that delivered the green, polka dot, white, and of course, yellow jerseys. But before I get started, let me know in the comments what your favorite tour bike was and why. We’ll kick things off with the green or sprinters jersey, which is awarded to the rider who accumulates the most points throughout the tour. These points can be earned both at stage finishes as well as intermediate sprints. And riders looking to accumulate said points need a bike that can deliver explosive power in the final couple hundred meters before the line, but also remain efficient and manageable over long distances and rolling terrain. This year’s winner was Jonathan Milan, who impressively took home the green on his debut tour, and the bike he did it on was the Trek Mone SLR Gen 8. The Mone has historically been Trek’s dedicated arrowike, but with the latest generation, the brand has taken a more all-around approach. The eighth gen Mone still has the same stiffness and aerodynamic prowess you’d expect from an arrowike, but is now light enough to still be able to drag up to the top of the steepest mountain stages. And actually, the Little Trek team used the Mone for all but the time trial stage this year. This trend of a one-sizefits-all race bike has been growing increasingly common over the past few years, and we’ll actually be talking about another such bike a little later on. As for Milan’s bike, though, it got the full arrow trim with Bon Trackger’s one piece AOS cockpit and Aololis RSL 62 wheels wrapped in 28mm Pirelli P 0 Race RS tires. Lastly, Milan and the rest of the team are using a 2×12 Stram Axis group set. In addition to the beautiful metallic green livery that Tre gave Milan to celebrate the green jersey during the last few stages of the tour, one of the more interesting things about his bike comes down to his sizing. At 6’4 or 1.9 m, Milan is among the tallest riders on the tour, which means his framing cockpit needs to accommodate his long torso while maintaining control and sprint power. According to Trek, Milan rides a massive 60 cm frame paired with the 120 mm stem. But of course, he still needs to wiggle his way through at the line. So, he runs some relatively narrow, at least for his height, bars, coming in at 39 cm wide. One thing I couldn’t track down, but I’d love to know, is what crank length he’s riding. A lot of riders are running shorter and shorter cranks, but at 6’4, I imagine this wouldn’t work well for Milan. If you happen to know what he’s using, then let us know down there in the comments. Unfortunately, one other thing I couldn’t find was any released weight of Milan’s bike. But other team builds have come in around 16 lb or 7.3 kg, which is on the heavier side. But clearly that wasn’t holding the Little Trek team back, who collectively had an impressive go at it this year. Up next, we have the Polka Dot jersey, which is earned by accumulating the most mountain points on categorized climbs throughout the race. Riders targeting this jersey need a bike that’s as light as possible for those long, grueling, often solo efforts. This year’s polka dot jersey winner is actually the same dude who won the yellow, and that is of course Kade Pagacha. Interestingly though, despite having a dedicated climbing bike, which is the allnew Konago V5 RS, Pagacha opted to use the more aerof focused Y1 RS on every stage but the stage 5 time trial. But when you’re the greatest cyclist of the modern era, you do get spoiled just a bit. Konago actually made him two different variants of this bike. One used on the steeper climbing stages and one used basically everywhere else. Since we’re talking about the Polka Dot here, we’ll go ahead and talk about that climbing specific bike in this section. Now, let’s be real. Even when spec with the hottest new cycling tech, the Y1 RS isn’t exactly easy on the eyes. But its unique disrupted seat tube and Y-shaped cockpit make it the most aerodynamic road bike Konago’s ever made. All while keeping the frame set at a claimed 1415 g. But the UAE Emirates team wasn’t happy to leave things at just that. So they took things a step further for stage 15, which was the individual hill climb time trial. For that effort, Konago went all in on weight savings, leaving the frame unpainted and without any bottle cages or even bar tape. Pagotcha also switched to the narrower, shallower Envy SCS 4.5 wheel set for better climbing acceleration. These are wrapped in 25mm Continental GP5000 TT tires rather than his usual 28 mil setup. Don’t worry though, the Hulk sticker was still present. In total, this resulted in a reported weight of just 15.2 lb or 6.9 kg, which is pretty incredible for something classified as an era bike. Pog used the same frame and wheel set combo for a couple other stages in the tour as well, including stage 18, the queen stage, which featured a whopping 5,642 m or 18,510 vertical feet of climbing. Speaking of climbs, Pag gotcha also swapped his typical 10 to 30 to cluster in the back for a 10 to 34 to cassette. But to be honest, after seeing him blitz past riders while staying in the saddle, I don’t think he really needed the extra gears. We’ll be circling back to the Y1 RS in just a bit. But first, let’s talk about the white jersey. The white jersey, also known as the young riders jersey, goes to the rider with the lowest overall time at the end of the tour, who’s also under 25 years old. A lot of these guys go on to win the yellow at some point later on in their career. So, it’s a good way to kind of see who the up andcoming talent is. And this time around it was Florian Leapowitz who was actually invited to the tour as a domestig for Primo’s robge but emerged three weeks later not only wearing white but also in third place overall. The bike that got him there was a 54 cm S Works Tarmac SL8 which he rode on all but the time trial stage. Like Milan’s Trek we talked about earlier, the Tarmac SL8 is designed to be a oneizefits-all road bike. It’s aerodynamically efficient enough for the flat or hilly stages, but also light and responsive enough for the summit finishes. In terms of components, the bike rolled on Roval Rapid CLX Sprint wheels with a 63 mm depth in front and a 58 mil in the rear. Unlike a lot of riders who choose to go for a shallower wheel on some of the steeper climbing stages, Leapa used these same aerodynamic wheels just about every stage. Wrapped around these was a pair of 28mm Specialized Turbo Cotton TLR tires. As for the group set, Leapowitz was running a Stram Axis 12-speed drivetrain with 172.5 mm cranks, spinning a 56 and 43 to chain ring up front and a 10 to 33 to cassette in the rear. Other touches include a 3D printed titanium derailer hanger by Sila, a custom S Works power saddle, and a white Garmin head unit integrated into the decals for a seamless look. Sadly, I couldn’t find a specific weight figure for this bike, but seeing as Primo’s Roads SL8 came in at 15.4 lb or 7 kg, it’s a safe bet that it’s in the same range. Speaking of safe bets, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be hearing a lot more of Lipitz in the future. And who knows, maybe one day he’ll be in our final classification to cover, which is, of course, yellow. The yellow jersey goes to the rider who after all 21 days of racing has been completed has the lowest overall time. And for the second time in a row, this rider was TAD Paga. Like I mentioned earlier, Pog used the Konago Y1 RS for all but the time trial stage, but he had various builds of that bike which corresponded to the train he was riding during each stage. This time around, we’ll take a look at the bike he rode on most stages as well as the four of his five stage victories at this year’s tour. Konago has their own unique way of sizing frames and Pagatcha is on a 485mm Y1 RS which is the equivalent of about a 52 or 54 cm frame. At the front of the bike is 120 mm stem and narrow 380 mil bars. For tires, the Gotachcha uses 28mm Continental GP 5000 TTS mounted to NVCS wheels with either the 4.5 or 6.7 cm depth depending on the stage. Group set duties were taken care of by Shimano with a 2×12 Dura Ace Di2 spinning 54 and 40 to chain rings up front and a 10 to 33 to cassette out back. Todd’s 165 mm cranks are a bit on the shorter side, but clearly he has no issue putting the power down. This painted more arrowenhanced version of the bike hovered around 16 lb or 7.3 kg. That’s about8 lb or 4 kg heavier than his stripped down climbing bike we talked about earlier. Other details include some pretty sweet elite carbon T-Ra bottle cages, a frames and gear direct mount derailer hanger, and of course his signature Hulk sticker. To me, if there’s anything we can glean from this year’s Torto jersey winners, it’s that gone are the days of hyperfocused specific bikes. GC riders are no longer switching back and forth between a featherweight climber and a windshielding arrow machine. This year’s winners all relied on a single platform subtly tuned from stage to stage rather than entirely replaced. Whether it was Bagotcha’s Y1RS, Leapawit’s SL8, or Milan’s Mone, each bike served as a do everything race tool rather than a new specialist. And while the cycling tech nerd enemy does kind of miss having the different bikes to compare, it’s also cool to see how each manufacturer seeks out marginal gains on each bike depending on the stage. Personally, I think my favorite bike from this list was Milan’s Trek Madome. I like the more traditional look of the frame. Of course, that metallic green paint is to die for. I’d love to know what your favorite bike is down there in the comments. Now, I know we’ve kind of had a bit of a hiatus from our typical cycling news coverage, but don’t worry, that’s all coming back next week. I look forward to seeing you there, and until then, remember that bikes are for everyone. Have fun out there. [Music]