Time trial tech from the streets of Monaco

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Some of Agritubel's riders ran a rather unusual aero bar setup for Stage 1 with very short and low-mounted straight extensions.(Image credit: James Huang)

Cervélo's P4 hits the road en masse

Another potential sticking point is the P4's unique integrated water bottle. Though not explicitly banned by the UCI, Rinard and the team preferred not to take any chances, instead using a customized aero cage and bottle from team sponsor Elite. Rinard says the cage modifications are easy to perform in case current P4 owners are concerned about scrutiny from their local federations, requiring just one additional hole in the cage and a short aluminum plate.

Most of the team P4s were also fitted with special versions of Rotor's new 3D crank. In contrast to the road-going 3D's external channels and five-armed spiders, this one sports smooth crankarm surfaces, solid-skinned outer chainrings as well as a complete chainring 'disc' for slightly reduced drag. Team leader Carlos Sastre's cranks were further customized with special graphics to commemorate his status as reigning Tour de France champion.

Garmin-Slipstream's riders had among the most diverse array of aero bar setups in the field and the team mechanics and sponsors had to employ some out-of-the-box thinking to get everything to work, especially given the relatively last-minute swaps to 3T's Mistral bar in order to satisfy the recently 'clarified' UCI technical guidelines. Most of the riders preferred to run their base bars low and their extensions high - plus elbow pads mounted further back under their arms - and though the Mistral offers a reasonable variety of armrest width options, custom clamps and fittings were still the norm rather than the exception.

The narrow positions of time trial specialists such as David Zabriskie, David Millar and Bradley Wiggins seemed fairly easy to accommodate but setting up others such as Julian Dean and Ryder Hesjedal wasn't nearly as straightforward. Their extra-wide arm spacing and rearward elbow pads required additional plates mounted atop the base bar for more mounting stability plus custom clamps all around for the extensions and elbow rests.

Unfortunately, those low base bar positions also forced the mechanics to get creative with the brakes, too, given the tight constraints for cable housing. Team mechanics hacked off the upper arm ends - including the barrel adjusters - and drilled new housing stops in the newly truncated stubs. The altered brake geometry surely affected the stopping performance, but it all seemed to work well enough to get the job done.

Even grips weren't ignored. Millar's base bars had rubber mountain bike grips slide over the ends for a surer purchase while Wiggins' setup was a custom hybrid of Dura-Ace 7900 Dual Control levers and Di2 integrated units. Mechanics gutted each 7900 lever - leaving just the body and hood - then slid the whole thing around the base bar and filled in the gaps with some silicone. Though the end product wasn't particularly pretty (or light) it was definitely one of the grippiest base bar setups we've come across.

In contrast, the team's Felt Bayonet fork assemblies have gotten decidedly cleaner and more elegant. Felt supplied custom forks with shorter external steerers plus more aggressively proportioned upper caps to match, thus doing away with the doubled-hinged stems of earlier setups needed to accommodate the ultra-low base bar positions. Most of the caps on the team bikes clearly came off of the CNC machine so it's unclear at the moment whether or not the revised front ends will be offered for consumer sale.

Though Shimano's new Dura-Ace Di2 system still isn't ubiquitous in the peloton on the road stages, nearly the entirety of the Rabobank, Garmin-Slipstream and Columbia-High Road TT fleets were so equipped. Speedy shifting, ultra-short button throws and fancy auto-trimming front derailleur aside, Di2's biggest draw here was perhaps the multiple sets of shift buttons - one pair out on the aero extensions as usual but another neatly integrated into the brake levers mounts on the base bar.

As such, riders could easily upshift as they accelerated out of the start house or shot out of corners, or downshift in the midst of tight turns. While other riders could be seen getting in an out of the saddle just to reach their standard extension-mounted shifters, Di2-equipped riders could more easily keep their rhythm and maintain their preferred position. Even so, it still wasn't enough to keep Swiss beast Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) from pummeling the field to take the first yellow jersey of this year's Tour.

For the former, Prologo uses a set of uniquely raised and textured grip strips called 'Slide Control' to securely plant the rider in place, thus eliminating the need for add-ons commonly used by much of the peloton (Menchov's saddle had some additional stick-on foam strips when didn't seem to work very well). In addition, the forward section is especially wide and well padded to provide enough comfort to stay in that position without grimacing plus the nose is also shortened in order to more easily satisfy UCI guidelines for saddle setback.