Climbing bikes are dead, and aero is king! At least, that’s what the bike choices made by the top riders at the 2025 Tour de France suggest.
Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and heaps of other climbers and GC riders used their respective sponsor’s aerodynamic bikes for every stage of the race, even in the high mountains. Pogačar’s Colnago Y1RS, Vingegaard’s Cervélo S5, and Ben O’Connor’s Giant Propel are just some of the bikes that proved aero bikes can be faster even on brutal mountainous stages at the toughest bike race in the world.
As speeds across the Tour de France reach record highs, are we witnessing the end of the lightweight climbing bike in road races?
Image credits:
Jean Catuffe
Luic Venance
Syzmon Gruchalski
Dirk Waem
Luc Claessen
ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / Contributor
Jeffrey Coolidge
Tim De Waele / Staff
Dario Belingheri
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Climbing bikes are dead. Arrow is king. The 2025 Tour to France stood out for many reasons. For me, one of the most interesting trends we noticed was that so many of the top GC riders chose their sponsors arrow bikes for every stage, even in the high mountains. Yes, I know. We made a top five climbing bikes of the Tour of France video just last week. Here are five you need to look out for in this year’s race. and I picked out Pagatcha’s UCI illegal Konago V5 RS as top of my list. Well, Pogy decided to mug me right off and decided to use his Y1 RS for the rest of the race. Every stage of the tour to France that Pagata won was on board his Karago Y1 RS aerobike. In the Helilia first week, we saw Tad using his pearlescent white world champions colorway, but from the mountain TT up Paragu UAE Emirates XRG wheeled out a strip back raw carbon bike. We weighed his standard build at just over seven and a half kilograms. And with frame paint adding up to a good few hundred grams on most bikes, there’s no doubt that this black version was lighter. For the TT, he didn’t even run bar tape. Fair enough. Pagatcha is the best bike rider in the world, maybe even of all time. He could probably win on a Brmpton. But it’s not just Pagatcha. His main rival, the valiant runner-up Yonas Vinger, used the Sevel S5 on every single road stage of the 2025 race. We weighed his bike at the start of the race at 7.3 kg with bottles and a computer with a one by drivetrain and deep section wheels. With a few choice equipment changes, we know his bike can be made lighter. Voss and Provo are putting the S5 to good effect over at the Tour to France firm as we speak, and I haven’t seen them using anything other than the S5 so far. [Music] But Yonas didn’t win anything. All right, fair enough. Jonas didn’t win stage this year and was better by Pagacha on all but one of the uphill finishes but Simon Yates won stage a very very hilly one on an S5 not to mention the Jirro datalia back in May the hardest stage in the race stage 18 from Vif to Korchaval the queen stage that saw riders battling over three absolutely disgustingly hard HC climbs the Clandon the Kella Madalan and finishing up the brutal Cella law 5 and a half thousand meters of climbing over just 171 km the winner Australia Alien Ben O’ Connor. The bike, a giant Propel Aero bike. Again, like Pagatcha’s Y1 RS stripped of paint to save even more weight, but the Propel has always been regarded as a pure aero bike. Okconor’s average speed over the stage was 33.87 km an hour, easily fast enough to benefit from meamic equipment. Sure, he would have been going much slower than that the final climb, but saving Watts all day saves energy. And saving energy throughout the stage and the 17 stages that came before it meant he can really push harder when it matters. Okay, but what about the actual KM jersey? The polka dots were held by four different riders during the race. Benjamin Tamar of Confedies and Tim Wellins of UAE Emmeritates XRG each had a turn in the Maya in the early stages of the race. But come the mountains, we saw a great back and forth battle between the plucky French climber Lenny Martinez of Bone Victorious and the eventual polka dot jersey winner Talia Pagatcha. Now Martinez is the purest of pure climbers. He basically only wins races with summit finishes. And although he didn’t take a stage win this year, he was there or thereabouts over pretty much every call of the race. His bike of choice, the unreleased Marita that we believe is the new Reacto Aerobike. Marita’s climbing bike, the Sculura, is super light. When we reviewed a Sculura with Durace back in 2022, it came in at 7.1 kg in 56 cm. Martinez is just 168 cm tall, so it’s on a much smaller frame, which will be lighter still. Why wouldn’t Martinez choose one of these over the likely slightly heavier Reapo? So, why is this? Why are pros choosing aerobikes at virtually every opportunity? Well, bike racing is only getting faster. This year’s tour was won with an average speed of 42.8491 km an hour across 21 days of racing. That’s a new record by.7 km an hour over the previous years. Riding bikes fast gets exponentially harder the faster you go. As the power required to overcome drag increases at the cube of velocity, the jump from 30k an hour to 40k an hour is demonstrabably easier than the jump from 40k an hour to 50k an hour. Despite both being an increase in speed of 10k an hour, this means the faster you go, the more energy you need to expend just to overcome the air pushing against you. Racing hundreds of kilometers every day for 3 weeks burns an absolute shedload of energy. So if a rider can save even a little bit every day, this stacks up to race winning differences when the racing really kicks off. Okay, so what about Ty and Ironsman and Valentin Parapontra? Aaron won two summit finishes and Parapontra won up the iconic Monton 2. Riding for Inos Grenaders on board the Pinella Dogma F and Quickstep on board the S Works Tarmac SL8 respectively. Is it fair to lump these all rounder bikes in with the pure aerobics? Pinella and Specialized are both brands who only produce one road racing frame for all of their riders. From the sprinters to the domestics, from the climbers to the groupetto is an all round bike faster overall. Is Aero everything? Should you put your climbing bike in the bin? Personally, I think that’s it for lightweight climbing bikes, at least as far as the Propelon. If the UCI weight limit stays at 6.8 kg and modern Aerobikes can be built pretty close to that, why would you want to ride a climbing bike that weighs pretty much the same but is less arrow than an Aerobike? But what do you think? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. And whilst you’re down there, remember to subscribe and click the little bell icon so you get notified every time we upload a new video. Missed our video on the best climbing bikes of the tour to France? It’s right here.
34 Comments
I don't get the point of aero bike dominate the tech, maybe you focusin on athlete instead average cyclist
But climbing bikes help some people to reach top without spend that much
All those bikes are dead at my budget.
People are forgetting that after the ascent there’s a descent. If the aero bikes are faster there, particularly at the speeds they’re descending, then any advantage on the climb is quickly eaten up.
Vélo aero plus efficace quand on grimpe a 25km/h
WTF is specialized thinking?!? Bring back the Venge!!!
The only reason “climbing” bikes ever made a come-back is because disc brakes and electronic shifting increased overall bike weight and teams needed a lightweight option for the hilliest/most mountainous races.
Once teams are able to get the full aero race bikes down to the minimum weight limit, they will have no use for the dedicated climbing bikes anymore. This is already starting to be seen to some extent and will only become more widespread.
Do the pros use weight-selected materials? For every tire, rim, frame, fork, seatpost, etc., there are individual weight differences of several grams. If you weigh all the parts that have passed quality control and build a bike from the lightest, you should be able to save at least 100 grams.
I believe climbing bikes would still shine if the UCI removed the weight limit
Ben Healey seemed.to.do well.on his supersix evo as well.as Oscar Onley on his lapierre.More.like a.marketing ploy.The top riders.get told what to ride.All about marketing
Of course climbing bikes are dead in the pro peleton. They are going 45km/h average in the mountain stages😂
Aero and light, time to ditch the UCI 6.8kg limit then everyone's happy , no ? (except the marketing people perhaps !)
If I am right, Pauline Ferrand Prévot won Col de La Madeleine with a climbing bike today, at the TDF🤔
find some new video ideas cuz this is getting old
So here are my 2 cents on this topic. Climbing bikes, by definition, are for climbing and climbing can be (very) hard. Whether or not you are better off with a light or aero bike depends on the speed you are going at. If you're strong and fit and usually climb fast – the aero bike could be quicker. If you are fighting for your life at 7-10 kph – aero becomes virtually irrelevant and you would probably benefit from a lighter bike. And when I say lighter – assuming that you are barely going up while fighting for your life – I would imagine you are not participating in any UCI events, meaning that there's nothing stopping you from going under 6.8 kilos. Other than money, that is. 😅
Ziemlich beschissen synchronisiert….
Climbing bikes aren’t dead they are for the more experienced cyclist who does not feed into the BS we’re being fed all the time. Who wants to ride an aero bike that costs $10,000 dollars mid tier group set shit wheels and weighs over 7.5kg
A bike should not weigh more than 7kg if it’s over 7kg it’s too heavy….
SL7,SL8, Cervelo S8, Trek Domane etc feel dead lack any feel and worthless in a few years
Pogi did not decide anything, he had to ride Y
New bikes. specially aero are so boring, heavy, uncomfortable to ride
Nah, LOVE my Aethos.
무게가 같다면 오르막도 에어로가 더 빠르다.
The title should be, "Aero is Cheating!" People should boycott the UCI organizer, the team sponsors & the teams who ride Colnago Y1RS at any tour. Colnago Y1RS is the time trial bike not the UCI road legal race bike. The definition of a diamond-shaped road bike frame made of two triangles: a main triangle & a rear triangle which required the seat tube directly mounted from the bottom bracket continuously align with the seat post angle up to the seat clamp. Notice the Y1RS design, the seat tube now disconnect from the seat post & it now wraps around the front side of the rear wheel. It’s now become part of the wheel airfoil cover. The problem is UCI does discriminate people based on their color & on bike manufacture based on their origin. Imagine if Giant came up with this bike design originally, UCI would immediately ban the Giant Company & would calling Giant the cheater. But when Cervelo, Trek & Colnago came up with radical design which was clearly illegal based on the UCI rule, then UCI would call their design, genius.
Giant company should sue the UCI organization because they banned the original TCR back in the early 90's when Giant was the first company who designed the compact airfoil frame which was used by the ONCE team in the Tour de France. But the TCR stayed within all the UCI’s rules. UCI knew there was no rules breaking. Finally UCI allowed the TCR to race in all major races just because TCR would benefit their French riders & teams with many winnings. Later other bike companies sponsored & replaced the TCR, UCI immediately banned the airfoil tube which the TCR had. When that didn’t work too well, UCI changed the rules again to all rounded tubing only including the seat post & no bent seat tube covering the rear wheel. You can clearly see the double st&ard there.
Aero bike makes no difference when you go as slow as me.
What were the sprinters using to meet the cutoff times on the mountain stages? That may be more relevant to us
What marketing crap🎉
In short needing multiple bikes is a scam
I think Pauline was riding an R5 to a convincing win on stage 8
Gearing is still climbing. 😂😂
Jan Christen was second in San Sebastian race on a climbing bike. Industry/Teams pushing their leaders on these expensive aerobikes because this is the best marketing. Now every amateur wants to climb on aerobike.
Give it a year or two and climbing bikes are kings agian
A climbing frames can easily be built to 6kg (with 45mm deep rims) – UCI needs to free the tech (like they would) and we would see some interesting advances for the climbing frames.
Key takeaway was running 80 rpm uphill. So shimano needs to make 0.8 ratio race gear to make that happen for Amateurs. But nobody talks about that since bike manufactures all expect you should weight 60kg and push 5w/kg. This sport needs a amateur race groupset for 80% fun riders.
Lenny Martinez isn’t even in the same league as a climber as TP. Ultimately the best climber in the TdF got jersey.
Aero frame + fork + seattube is like 200g-300g heavier. If so, there is no point at chosing climinb bike. 1kg difference uphill is like 5w loss. 300g is like 1w. Difference is almost none. A climbing bike makes sense only for ride feel/comfort/snapiness (stiffness). End of the story 😀
I thought Tadej's bike weight was at the UCI limit. Some components on his bike were custom. It is a climbing bike by definition if his bike was as light as allowed.