More unreleased bikes than ever before in tech rehearsal for the Tour de France – Mega Dauphiné tech gallery

Naturally, the talk of the town was the new Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9, which was at the race but was not actually being ridden. It turns out it was Remco Evenepoel’s bike, causing much confusion as to whether the Belgian was about to make a surprise appearance.

The SL9 is much the same as the SL8, but with deeper, wider fork legs and now a curved seat tube.

Here you can just make out the ‘Remco Evenepoel’ name sticker under the down tube. Note the gold SRAM chain too, which seems to be reserved for world and Olympic champions.

Here you can see the deeper fork legs, and the top of the curved seat tube.

Over at Tudor, I always enjoy seeing these neat saddle height stickers so riders maintain the exact same position every time.

The raw carbon has a lovely sheen through the clearcoat.

The fork looks very wide, but the tyre clearance is relatively modest.

Yannis Voisard was riding a ‘Masterpiece’ edition of the team’s BMC Teammachine R, which has the paint stripped back to save some grams; a theme of many teams.

The team also runs Schwalbe tyres and the brand’s Clik valves.

Unlike the Giant of Luke Plapp, which we will get to later, the BMC still has a sheen from a top coat over the carbon.

With head tubes looking somewhat similar across many brands now, this MMR does stand out.

Over at UAE, another raw carbon machine, a Colango Y1Rs, for Isaac del Toro, complete with a 3D-printed computer mount.

As is becoming almost ubiquitous now for the team, Del Toro was running time-trial tyres.

While it’s become normal now, it’s easy to forget how mad this seat cluster looked on release.

Slammed stems are becoming less common, and his cockpit was jacked up by 20mm of spacers.

Like Tadej Pogačar, Del Toro uses lighter Elite Legerro Carbon cages rather than the aero-integrated ones that come with the stock Y1Rs.

Enve SES 4.5 Pro wheels, easy to spot with silver spokes and hubs, which, it must be said, look absolutely fantastic in contrast to the matte black.

Aftermarket thru-axles from CarbonTi, front and rear.

Curiously, the team does have an aero bottom bracket (no, really) available from Bikone, but none of the team was using it.

Look past the aftermarket mech hanger for a sec and see the black tape where the Di2 cable comes out… When testing, I found there was no bung to keep the cable from pulling out entirely and had to tape it in place, and it seems UAE have the same issue.

This looks to be a new Orca Aero from Orbea, seen on the Lotto-Intermarché team bus. The current one is quite old, so well due an update.

Handily, presumably to draw attention from the media, paint pens had been used to highlight certain areas. The forks and headtube have been reshaped.

The seat stays are lower and more heavily sculpted into the seat tube.

Here’s that deeper head tube again.

Tyre clearance looks to be increased from the quite limited 30mm on the current model.

Holy Garmin mount, Batman!

The old Orca had the option of a downtube storage aero canister, and the blanked bosses under here show it’s probably going to remain for this model, although it’s illegal for UCI use.

Here’s a better look at the rear triangle- the horizontal-ish chainstays with the upward kink to the axle seem to be remaining.

It certainly looks like a purposeful machine, though curiously it appears to have a setback seatpost, which is against the trend of riders using zero offset ones to get more over the bottom bracket.

Another prototype, this time from Cube: a new Litening Aero. This is easily differentiated from the current model by the chopped-off seat cluster design.

Room up front for modern road tyre widths, even for the cobbles.

The bottom bracket is chunky, as expected. The chainstays look to meet it at the sides rather than the rear, though, potentially keeping the shell narrower in the frontal area.

A different machine, but the latex tube transponder holder in full effect as it is with most teams.

This is the new-ish 3D-printed version of the new-ish Selle Italia SLR Superflow saddle.

It’s certainly a more modern looking machine than the brand’s current aero bike. There were two on show, though this race was their very first use I believe.

Over at EF there wasn’t anything drastically new, but these bars are really very pretty. Ben Healey also uses the old Velcro-in-the-computer-mount trick year-round it seems.

Decathlon CMA CGM had a mobile cryotherapy unit at their team hotel this year.

Paul Seixas also had what looks to be a new lightweight aero jersey on his back on a pre-race training ride.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this might be a new Deda x Van Rysel cockpit.

As well as a new prototype machine, Paul Seixas had an aero RCR-F stripped back to raw carbon on the roof of the team car.

You can see the weave, especially where the seat stays clearly join the main part of the frame.

Daan Hoole also had the biggest head tube we’ve seen in a while, along with a monster 150mm cockpit.

Many of the team, not just Seixas, were rocking the new prototype all-rounder.

It looks to be deeper up front than the current RCR-Pro, but remains svelte at the rear to keep the weight low.

No Tarmac SL9 to be seen at Soudal, but sprint wheels in evidence despite the hilly stage profile on day one.

Not a new bike, but it must be said that the Scott Foils of NSN still look incredibly up to date compared to aero bikes of a similar vintage.

They have many of the modern tropes, and while it’s probably due for a refresh soon, our own testing shows it’s still got the aero chops.

Nope, no SL9 here either.

Ineos have been using Scope wheels for a while now, and these Artechs look great.

Now sponsored by Netcompany, the new livery basically amounts to a big logo on the current machines. Expect these to get a refresh in due course, though.

Ineos, formerly Team Sky, pioneered marginal gains, and that still goes on today with this neat race transponder placement.

Oscar Onley has strips of sandpaper in his bottle cages for extra security, something we usually only see in the Classics.

Here’s the back side of the transponder, mounted directly into the fork tabs.

I think this is new paint on the Canyon’s of Movistar, but it’s hard to keep up with Canyon paint as there are about ten thousand different editions now.

Cian Uijtdebroeks had no paint on his machine, though, again to save weight, and the new Zipp 202 lightweight wheels.

Some Look bikes at the Cofidis bus had these seatposts that look like they’ve been reversed. I don’t think they are, but they’re certainly a novel take on zero offset.

It seems that if you’ve got a GC contender and they don’t have a paintless bike, you’re lagging behind. Luke Plapp had the most extreme example I saw with his Giant Propel.

You can just make it out at the back, hiding behind the much more eye-catching purple and silver machines.

I’ve not seen this SQ Labs saddle before; It’s quite an unusual shape.

Plapp had an even lighter-looking saddle on his machine, and by the looks of the finish on the frame, it doesn’t even have a clear coat over the raw carbon.

The raw carbon underneath really pops in the sun.

This is mirrored pleasingly by the carbon hub flanges on his Cadex wheels.

Unlike most teams, Jayco seemed to use fabric tape to secure the race transponders.

It’s those Elite Leggero bottle cages again to save more weight.

The team paint is cool, I think, and it’s a bit of a shame that more and more machines are ditching livery for performance gains, but it’s a performance sport, and every gram counts.

Still, with the tan Cadex tyres, it does look pretty cool. I think black tyres would look better, but that’s just a personal preference.

The new Propel looks pretty similar to the old one, but it’s a machine that’s been around long enough to have the weight of iterative history on its back when it comes to new designs.

It’s not just new bikes on show either… A stand of vintage race machines was erected at the start. Imagine racing for hours on these!

As a fan of classic bikes, this really tickled my fancy. 650b wheels, because France, and gorgeous bags with matching piping.

This classic Lemond with THAT handlebar was on show too.

And the best-looking rim brakes ever made, the Campagnolo Delta.

Picnic-PostNL had new Michelin Power Cup S tyres. These have been seen for a while but are still yet to be released.

Custom 3D-printed race number holders for Uno-X.

On a custom 3D-printed computer mount, some riders were using the Garmin Edge MTB computer to save a few grams over the road versions.

A new Ridley prototype, likely a replacement for the Falcn RS, was on show on the stands.

While it’s clearly a climbing bike, aero shapes can be seen at the fork and head tube.

A neat seat clamp is integrated into the seat tube.

The fork looks able to accommodate a 36mm, perhaps even a 38mm at a push. The head tube has a distinct ridge on the upper portion, though, likely an aero feature.

Here’s a better look at that head tube profile. It’s not quite a Speed Sniffer, but it’s on the same track.

The bosses on the down tube suggest the battery is mounted low down in the frame for better weight distribution.

Elsewhere, a paintless Noah Fast was also in evidence, as is the fashion.

To be fair, the Noah Fast has a lot of surface area, so ditching the paint here probably saves more than on most frames.

While many teams are going for minimal paint, I love the fact that Groupama-FDJ has this gorgeous red.

Aero bottles aren’t everywhere yet, but they’re growing more common. While they’re faster, they aren’t often supported by neutral service bikes, though many aero cages nowadays also accept standard bottles.

This bike needed a last-minute pad-spread minutes before the stage start.