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Jetse Bol (Belkin) is a rider who likes a bar with a massive drop (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Luca Paolini (Katusha) had a Shimano Dura-Ace climber shift button mounted for the stage to Elmali. Got a decent degree of negative rise in that stem too (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Alan Marangoni’s (Cannondale)back must be as sore to need all these spacers under his stem… (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
…But Marangoni had nothing on Adrian Kurek (CCC Polsat Polkwice), who really should be reported to the spacer police (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Some say anatomic bars have no place on a road bike, but John Murphy disagrees. Classy use of a K-Edge Garmin spacer mount just for spacing purposes too (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Alessandro Petacchi’s (Omega Pharma QuickStep) cockpit: tidy. Plus he uses a Zipp bar with plenty of reach (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) might be tall and relatively burly but he uses narrow bars – 38cm centre to centre – to help him thread through the peloton (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Race leader Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) stem marked with his rival’s position on GC. All the team’s bikes carried it on the penultimate stage (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Lampre-Merida riders had brake cable adjusters to allow them to wider to fatter aero wheels without messing about with the cable tension at the Shimano Direct Mount brakes (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Track bars on Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert)’s bike. Good man (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Guillaume Bovin (Cannondale), we’re guessing is pretty flexible: negative rise stem slammed and bars displaying a massive drop (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Guillaume Bovin (Cannondale), we’re guessing is pretty flexible: stem slammed and bars displaying a massive drop (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Guardini blocks out distracting SRM numbers too (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Nicolas Lefrancois (Novo-Nordisk) has Type 1 Diabetes and carries a computer on his stem to closely monitor blood sugar levels (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Robert Förster (United Healthcare) likes an aggressively low position aided by the negative rising Ritchey WCS stem (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Combined stem and bar combos were rare but Barry Markus (Belkin) uses a set of FSA Plasma bars with a compact drop (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
We had to include Kris Boeckmans’ (Lotto-Belisol) forward slanted Selle San Marco Regal-e saddle. It had been in the wars too (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Boeckmans’ track-style bars are wound with Lizard Skins tape (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Turkey’s roads can be as rough as, and Petr Ignatenko’s (Katusha) bars looked plush with double-wrapped tape (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
A tidy looking cockpit on Floris Goesinnen’s (Drapac) Swift Ultravox (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) taped over some of his SRM numbers – distraction not needed when trying to help his leader Rein Taaramäe claim back the leader’s jersey (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Andrea Guardini (Astana) goes for track bars that slope immediately after the flat. Levers mounted good and low too – it’s all about being aero (Image credit: Sam Dansie/BikeRadar)
Road bike cockpit set-ups are an intensely personal thing. Stem length, reach, drop, where a rider mounts the levers – even tape - all require some thought.