Cooling hacks, prototype bikes and new TT groupset parts: Tour de France TTT tech gallery

After being refused entry at Ineos, we kicked off properly with a visit to Visma, where the team were happy to let us tour their pit; Vingegaard’s bike had this extra-tidy carbon-fibre computer mount. Probably the neatest we saw on the day.

Slightly less dialled was this Movistar shifter wiring; this wasn’t the cleanest setup on show, and exposed wires can still be seen on some bikes.

The Cofidis teams' Look time trial bikes had some new Campagnolo Super Record time trial equipment fitted, new 1x chainrings, and TT-specific shifters. This was a 64-tooth ring.

Here’s the prototype Specialized Shiv that was on the race; there were a couple of bikes for Evenepoel: one black, one painted in a kind of black-and-white camo.

A very neat sticker covering the pedal axle and, in theory, providing a tiny gain on this Uno-X Ridley; nice work.

We snapped the Lidl-Trek pit before things got crazy. Note the double row of Kickr Headwind fans and misting fans with water bottle feeds to keep the riders comfortable.

It’s always nice to see the mighty Campagnolo Boras at a race, especially in a deep-section version.

Not all teams fit their TT bikes with the same handlebars, but each of Lotto-Intermarche's Orbea bikes had these neat Speedbars installed; note the different ends of the extensions.

Who doesn’t love a rack full of matte black, aggressive-looking time trial bikes? Lotto-Intermarche has gone with Miche 1x chainrings for their Shimano cranks; the great Shimano 1X chainring search continues.

This was a spare Ineos time trial bike; note the modular extension risers, as opposed to a one-piece unit, and electrical tape over what looks like some bolt holes too.

We managed to get close up with the Ineos race bikes later on though, and noticed a couple were running SRM Cybrei carbon cranks with the SRM PM9 power meter unit. The claimed weight for a 170mm version is 340 grams. You're looking at about €2,100 for these, not including the aero chainring.

The non-drive-side crankset hole was taped over to smooth airflow.

There’s still some Ultegra in the race; Caja Rujal had an interesting mix of components on its bikes: Ultegra mechs with bling KMC chains.

This tape was starting to flap on the extension shifters. I hope the team corrected it before the race start.

Movistar bikes had these towelling-style pads velcro'd into their extensions. We initially assumed it was for sweat-wicking and grip when the going got hot, but when the riders arrived at the start ramp, the towels had been doused in icy water to help cool the riders' arms.

This was an interesting setup: a raceware computer mount, with what looks like some kind of heatshrink over the shifters. The computer certainly sat a little prouder than some other teams'.

Tom Pidcock had a custom black and gold Pinarello TT machine. This was his handlebar with what looked like some kind of 3d printed arm pads on the upper extensions.

This clock was set up at Jayco Alula, showing 39.4 degrees Celsius and 30% humidity.

Several teams had these fans that misted water; the cooling game is constantly evolving.

The Orbea Ordu has a modular-looking front end; spot the flat head screws on the upper base bar riser.

This is some of the new Campagnolo Super Record time trial equipment: the shifter pods sit against the brake lever units, and admittedly do look a little bulky.

This mono base bar riser over at Jayco Alula wasn’t one piece. Some teams taped these riser blocks up, but these were left. The computer mount is nice and recessed here; it’s neater than some teams' setups.

We saw a lot of Wattshop handlebars, the company owned by Dan Bigham. The satellite shifters are very neatly integrated here.

Here’s another look at the Campagnolo time trial brake levers. This handlebar had a few wraps of bar tape, not grip tape fitted.

The latest Cube bikes look very aggressive. Total Energies were happy to roll one out for us to have a look at. They also use Carbon-Ti 1x chainrings on their Shimano cranks.

Groupama had these silvery Tri-bar extensions: these could be 3D-printed, given the colour and finish.

Ben O’Connor had this Dash saddle fitted to his matte-black time-trial bike; it is a very light, TT-specific model.

Here’s the front end of another team bike; the hand holds are bolted on at the very ends of the extensions, and a lot are personalised to each rider now. A bit of gel wrapper has been added into the computer mount too - a common fix for rattly or loose computers.

This Movistar disc wheel had a Zipp Tyrewiz pressure monitoring unit; on the front, there was just a regular valve.

Despite using wired shifters, the Caja Rural team had done a fairly good job of keeping it out of the wind.

A similar solution was found here at XDS-Astana too.

Traditional bar tape on aero extensions isn't a common sight these days, but we did find some over at Cofidis, with little holes cut into it for the Campagnolo shift buttons.

Lab 71 denotes Cannondale's top-tier product line, and this bike certainly looked top-tier, although I might suggest they tidy up that seatpost dust cover.

The head tube of the Cube Aerium C:68 TT is unusual. It has a second strut behind the main head tube, presumably to add stiffness, or perhaps to aid airflow off the head tube.

I really like that TotalEnergies have their logo etched into the K-Edge chain catcher - a nice touch.

The Tudor BMC bikes looked dialled; these handlebars are the Wattshop ones that are used by a lot of teams.

I was drawn to this ‘aero fin’ on Marco Haller’s BMC Timemachine Mpc; there are so many cool things to look at on that bike.

The Groupama Wilier Supersonicas have a lot of Miche components fitted, including the tri-spoke and colour-coded aero chainrings.

Alpecin were keeping their bikes under wraps. They had these bikes out for warming up, but they raced on different ones. Van der Poel seemed to have some of the cleanest and most integrated bars on the team. The riders were all eating ice pops just before the start to cool off.

A Super Record 1x chainring is just cool to see; Shimano now stands alone as the last main groupset manufacturer without a big 1x aero ring.

It’s not pretty, but it worked: grip tape and zip ties to keep the satellite shifters in place for this bike. I hope the mechanics cut the ends nice and flush.

I liked these neat base bar grips over at Lotto; they were some of the best-looking and fitting I saw.

An inner tube and neat anti-valve rattle patch on one of the Caja Rujal wheels; the inner tube is alive and well.

Healy’s cockpit was looking pretty dialled, though the front end wasn’t the cleanest of the bikes we saw.

Ineos had smoothed over their thru axles with tape on the race TT bikes; I didn’t see this from many other teams. I doubt mechanics will have been stopping to change wheels mid-race; it would have been a full bike swap. That’s also a new tri-spoke wheel from Scope that was recently released.

The Total Energies Cube bars looked very neat and slick; note the one-piece extensions and lack of individual spacers.

Pidcock had a special black and gold time trial bike that was different from the rest of his squad; Olympic Champion Evenepoel won’t be happy.

Here’s another shot of Pidcock’s handlebars. It looks like the 3D-printed pads used in some helmets now. Perhaps Abus hooked him up.

A fun sticker for De Lie: ‘The bull of Lescheret’

Caja Rujal also use Bikone components and bottom brackets, the same as Team UAE; this isn’t the ‘aero’ bottom bracket Pogačar uses, though; this one has quite large splines.

Even more electrical tape over the squad's riser spacers to neaten things up.

These carbon extensions at Movistar looked neat, but the angle of the bottom riser spacer caught my eye when I saw a gap.

At first I thought this was a problem, but I believe it’s set up deliberately to achieve the desired handlebar angle.

Here’s the inside of that Campagnolo TT shifter again; it’s a little on the chunky side, but look to offer multiple shift options for 1x configurations.

Stockings filled with ice cubes were utilised by lots of teams; and since they were banned by the UCI, they littered the start area floor once squads rolled out.

Pogačar arrived at the warm-up area behind the start ramp in an ice vest, but also in a new helmet from his sponsor MET, and I'm reliably informed he's in a new skinsuit too.

It's not the first time we've seen the helmet, but it's yet to be released by the Italian brand. Interestingly, as he warmed up here, he had an ice sock compressed between his wrists - an efficient area to cool since the veins sit so close to the skin.

Nils Politt had chalk paste on his hands, presumably to help grip when the going got sweaty. He's not the only one...

Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling used it too, but since they applied it to wet hands (see below for why), they needed to use the nearby fan to dry it off. Also notable in this image is their differing skinsuit fabrics.

This helmet also caught our eyes for obvious reasons! It's the new Ultimate Race X from Uvex. The Cofidis rider hadn't yet put the visor on properly, but since this was around 10 minutes before their start, we'll let him off.

I'm told that Evenepoel was also in a new skinsuit. Notice here how the trip strips in the fabric are more closely spaced than those of his teammate next to him.

Victor Campenaerts took the 'pour water over your head' approach to staying cool, but he was also wearing a cut-off pair of aero arm sleeves which were soaking wet. He removed them before the race, though.

The UAE Team Emirates squad all wore these Pissei-branded overshoes, which look really well-fitted to this rider's feet.

I really liked how these Q36.5 overshoes shimmered in the sunlight.

Here's another view: the white fabric is stretched so thin that it's almost become see-through

While most overshoes' trip strips run vertically, those on Paul Seixas's Swissside overshoes ran the opposite way. If you look closely, you can see that he also has socks underneath that do the same.

At Tudor, there was a mix. On the left, a smoother but double-layered fabric, and on the right, a more traditional vertical trip design.

The Visma-Lease a Bike team also used double-layered overshoes, branded up with Nike and Nimbl.

I really liked the design of this Total Energies skinsuit too, with the trip strips forming a V shape behind the helmet.

Five members of the Netcompany Ineos staff rocked up at the start with a trolley cart full of gear, and proceeded to unfurl these folding tables and place these tubs on top. Everyone watching on was confused.

They were subsequently filled with cold water, and all of the riders sat for a few minutes with their arms submerged before they set off to race.

The temperature was measured here at 8.8°C, but I expect the target was more of a broad range.

Ganna and Tarling had a brief chat, but mostly sat in silence. Interestingly you can see here that the two riders were using different visors on their Kask helmets

Ganna looked super focussed thoughout his time in the start area, and he very nearly delivered his team the yellow jersey come the finish, losing just eight seconds to Jonas Vingegaard.