Tour de France Tech

 
Wheels
 
Wheels are also all carbon fibre in the Tour. As mentioned earlier, carbon can be made stronger and lighter than other materials and is therefore ideal for key rotating parts such as wheel rims. Most of the teams now ride the new wider section wheels which have a U-shape to them pioneered by Zipp with their Firecrest shape, which are some 28mm at their widest compared to 18mm for an older aluminium rim. This shape of rim, or rim profile as it is known, has been proven in wind tunnel testing to be more aerodynamic than the V-shape rims previously used, especially in cross winds.
 
A wider rim also allows the use of a wider tyre, again shown to be faster due to their ability to better handle deformation from the uneven road surfaces. On mountain stages the riders use shallower section wheels of 24mm to 40mm deep and will use much deeper wheels on flat stages of 50mm up to 90mm where high speeds mean aerodynamics are much more important – providing it’s not too windy that is.
 

 
Tyres
 
All of the pros use tubular tyres. These are tyres that are stitched closed around their inner tube. They are then glued directly to the rim. It may sound archaic but there are a number of benefits over the alternative clincher tyres that you may use on your bike. Tubular tyres roll along the road very well as, unlike the stiff walled clincher tyres we all normally ride, they can be made to be very supple, more readily absorbing road imperfections. The combination of tubular tyre and a wheel with a special rim onto which you can glue the tyre, equates to a very light wheel and low rotating weight is critical to high performance with bicycles.
 

 
Generally the same tyres are used come rain or shine. Bicycle tyres have a very narrow contact patch with the road and do not suffer the same water clearance issues as wide car or motorbike tyres. Therefore few manufacturers make special rain tyres. Riders do use different, wider tyres for handling very rough surfaces such as the pave (or cobbled roads) we saw on Stage 5 of this years race.
 
Helmets
 
If you think helmet design seems to have taken a backward step recently, it’s because the pro peloton is obsessed with aerodynamics. Aero helmets are all the rage at present after riders discovered that they can save vital energy during a stage. To begin with sprinters started adding aero covers to their normal, vented helmets but then these were outlawed by the UCI, cycling’s governing body; to get round this rule, the teams simply started gluing them in place.
 
So then Giro released a completely closed in aero road helmet called the Air Attack and every other manufacturer soon followed suit with an aero helmet of their own. They are still able to keep riders cool by utilising vents which force air over the head at the high speeds that the pros maintain; that is the reason you don’t see them in the mountain stages.
 
Just to further confuse the issue, and keep themselves ahead of the game, Giro recently launched a new fully vented helmet, called the Synthe, claimed to be even more aero and cooler than their groundbreaking Air Attack lid…
 

 
Clothing
 
As well as aero bikes, wheels and helmets the riders also use aero clothing for all riding, not just in the time trials. New advanced materials are better at helping a rider cut through the air and the clothing is more figure hugging than ever before, with laser cut sleeves and shorts longer than before so as to better blend in with the arms and legs.
 
Drinks
 
It may surprise you to hear that, even in such a gruelling event as the Tour de France, the riders are using drinks which have no or very little carbohydrate (sugars) in them. A lot of this is down to nutritionists such as Dr Stacey Sims who founded Osmo Nutrition. Her research demonstrated that carbohydrate rich sports drinks can actually dehydrate a rider, as the liquid carbs actually inhibit fluid absorption by the body. This is important as she reports that a 2% reduction in a rider’s level of hydration over the course of a stage can lead to a 10% reduction in that rider’s power output. Based on this she produced a new drink formula, as used by the Tinkoff-Saxo team, which aids hydration and can be used effectively with solid food to keep riders at their best throughout even the hottest of stages.
 

 
On the subject of hydration and Tinkoff-Saxo, getting bottles of drink to riders during a stage is tricky. Riders can collect bags, called musettes, that are full of food and drink at specific feed zones during a stage, collect bottles from soigneurs on hilltops, or drop back to a following team car. However, you need a lot of drink on any stage of the Tour, so teams usually send one rider back to the following team car to collect bottles for all of the team, meaning that the other riders can maintain their position in the bunch.
 
With each team comprising 9 riders, that’s a lot of bottles and carrying them from team car back into the peloton at over 30mph is no mean feat when a bike only has two bottle cages. Most riders therefore put 2 bottles in the cages, then 3 in their jersey pockets before being forced to cram as many bottles as possible into the rear of the neck of their actual jersey. Obviously this is tricky, dangerous when done at speed and uncomfortable for the poor water carrier. Therefore, ex-Tour winner and manager of Tinkoff-Saxo, Bjarne Riis has teamed up with clothing manufacturer, Sportful, to create the first bottle carrying vest. This allows the rider to easily and safely transport 9 bottles up to his team mates.
 

 
And finally that Tape…
 
If you see riders sporting tape, usually coloured blue and positioned on their legs, it is called Kinesio tape and is a special tape used by team physios to provide support and thereby help treat overuse injuries that the riders may develop during the Tour.