Prototype wheels, unreleased tyres, and gravel tech for the road - Men's Tour of Flanders Tech Gallery
More new tech than usual on show at Belgium's finest Big Day Out
The Tour of Flanders (or Ronde van Vlaanderen, for all you purists) is about as big as one-day races get, perhaps rivalled only by Paris-Roubaix. As such, the pit area, a fenced-in town square on the edge of Bruges, is always frantic. Team buses try to park as crowds of VIP spectators try to get a glimpse of their favourite riders, stewards try their best to direct things with shrill whistle blows, and all of this was magnified by the fact that it was both unseasonably warm on race day, and the fact that so many names turned up to try and knock seven bells out of each other up the hardest cobbled climbs in northern Europe.
For my part, I spent an hour and a half darting around the paddock like a frantic mouse, sniffing out new and interesting tech. Flanders used to be a race where unusual setups would be used, but with the proliferation of disc brakes and the adoption of wider tyres, most racers just use their normal setups.
Despite this, alongside all the custom paint, I managed to tease out more than the usual amount of new, or at least novel tech. We've got two unseen new wheelsets, both of which have very novel features, alongside a veritable smörgåsbord of details, cool bits, and pro-tier mods.
It only seems fitting to begin with the overall winner, Tadej Pogačar. Here is his Colnago V4Rs as it arrived in on the team car. Don't worry though, I got a full gallery of his bike at the finish to run separately, so stay tuned.
Pro bikes often stand out by the little details. Here Pogačar's Shimano Di2 cable is routed through his aftermarket derailleur hanger to avoid any chance of it snagging.
We have seen UAE Team Emirates-XRG riders on unreleased Enve wheels with silver hubs, but the whole team were on standard SES4.5 wheels for Flanders...
... though of course, Pogačar gets rainbow decals on his.
While the team is officially sponsored by Shimano this year, this doesn't seem to stop the world champion running aftermarket CarbonTi chainrings, complete with his 'TP' logo laser cut into them.
Given he was one of a small handful of riders who could have won, I had this bike on my hitlist, even on the roof of the car, in case I couldn't nab it at the finish.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG bus, despite playing host to the world champion, wasn't nearly so much a scrum as the Alpecin-Deceuninck or Visma-Lease A Bike team buses, which play host to hometown (or at least far more local) heroes.
The weather conditions were a stark contrast to last year, with everyone in shorts and short sleeves except for the team presentations at the start.
Mikkel Bjerg checks the Cyclingnews Instagram feed to see if he's made the highlight reel.
Racing in alarmingly expensive watches has become a new trend in pro cycling, with Pogačar rolling out onto the cobbles in a Richard Mille number.
Lidl-Trek had a really wild build to try and smooth out the cobbles (we make this joke every time we see this bike and it never gets old - this is for the bus driver and other staff to zoom around on)
Is this a new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt? Honestly it's hard to tell, but it definitely might be!
I think it might be, but it's also 7pm while I write this and I've had about fifteen bottles of cola and no food so you're going to have to make up your own minds on this one.
Mads Pedersen's race notes are pleasantly colour coordinated to the team kit and bikes. Details, details, details.
He also had aftermarket lockrings on his brake rotors from Tripeak, which could have been red, blue, or even yellow, rather than this non-team-issue green.
Yet again we saw Pedersen opting for a 1x13 SRAM XPLR 'gravel' groupset, which clearly didn't hold him back. Can we still call it a gravel groupset now?
Here's one of my favourite bits of the day from Matteo Trentin of Tudor Pro Cycling. The satellite shifters are interesting, but that's not what I'm getting at here... Any guesses?
Ok, here's the mini story for you. Trentin is old school, and he insists on using traditional curve bars, which when he joined Tudor weren't an option for the team's BMC bikes, in the past, I've seen him using a standard stem and classic drop bars. Now, though, it seems BMC has made him a special integrated cockpit with the drop profile he likes, presumably at massive expense, given the cost of moulds for manufacturing carbon fibre components.
Bigger tyres are par for the course now, but I think these were only 30c Schwalbe Pro Ones.
Quick release levers for the thru-axles were on the back of every Tudor rider's seat post, given that at times there is little to no immediate vehicular support on the course.
Tudor riders were also all using DTSwiss GRC 1100 gravel wheels, which have a 24mm internal width to better support the wider tyres and perhaps be a better aerodynamic match.
Here's Trentin's 3D printed saddle, with a axle key taped beneath in case of emergencies.
The now rather ubiquitous team edition of Roval's Rapide CLX wheels. The silver hub is the giveaway.
At Soudal Quick-Step the tyre strategy was very mixed. We saw some riders using Specialized's latest RapidAir tyres, which are claimed to be aero optimised but lack a puncture protection strip.
What's this though? It's tubeless, as the valve shows, but it's a cotton sidewall. The old Turbo Cotton isn't tubeless ready, so are we about to see a new tubeless version of a very good, but now quite old tyre?
Roval's Rapide integrated cockpit only goes down to a 38cm width, and only if you want a distinctly non-pro 70mm or 90mm stem, so plenty of Soudal's riders opted for a separate system to allow them to get as long and narrow as they'd like.
Custom K-Edge 'Wolfpack' branded computer mounts for the whole team.
While some Soudal riders certainly used separate bars and stems to get long and narrow, I think Yves Lampaert is just old school, because those bars ain't narrow.
Here's that tubeless cotton tyre again, with what is quite a fetching silver valve so as to be 'accidentally' spotted by magpie-esque tech journos. If they didn't want us to spot it they'd probably have made it black.
XDS-Astana's X-Lab bikes are still quite novel to see, as they're the first Chinese brand to break into the WorldTour peloton.
Sometimes it's not about finding new tech, at least not for me. Sometimes bikes just look great, and Israel-Premier Tech's Factor Ostro VAM bikes do just look great when the sun hits them.
At this point I closed my eyes and it was easy to imagine I was in central France in early summer rather than Belgium in the spring. That's climate change for you, I guess.
Before I headed to Flanders I spent a few days with Ridley testing out the new Noah Fast that's in use under the riders of Uno-X. I was assured that the team only uses the separate stem to dial in their fit, but the season has been going for some time now and riders are still using this setup.
Jonas Abrahamsen however is at least using the sponsor correct Ridley cockpit. The Noah Fast 3.0 has a steeper seat tube angle than is usual, putting riders more over the front wheel and as such the length of the team's stems are whopping.
Continental's Aero111 front tyre was also in use here, which seems fitting for a bike that's all about aerodynamics.
As well as massive stems, the head tube of the team's bikes is absolute gargantuan.
Ceramicspeed is a team partner, and so oversized pulley wheels are the order of the day on all Uno-X bikes.
At Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe some riders were at least using Specialized's new tubeless Turbo tyre (not the cotton one, the one that's already been released, please keep up). Some, however, were not as we can see in the bike behind.
Sorry, I'm a magpie, and these silver hubs absolutely POP when the sun hits them.
Over at EF Education-EasyPost, we saw Neilson Powless rocking Vision's new Metron RS 45 wheels.
Though other riders in the team had the older 45 SL versions, with special silver decals.
Powless opted for 30mm tyres, which is starting to look a little narrow by modern standards. However, it's also what Pogačar ran, and it clearly didn't hurt his chances...
Aerodynamic Wahoo Speedplay pedals for Powless too, with a dimpled underside that meshes smoothly with the cleats for improved airflow.
If you are wondering what Powless ate and drank, or at least planned to over the course of the Flanders route then feel free to try and decipher the lightening bolt and water droplet symbols.
At Groupama-FDJ, I saw one rider running 62mm deep Miche wheels, while everyone else was on shallower rims. I suspect this rider's job was to have his nose in the wind for the first 100km or so before the route gets particularly spicy.
More and more teams seem to be using the Aero111 front tyre nowadays.
A small square of bar tape in the computer mount to stop things rattling loose over the cobbles. Pro move, that.
Intermarché-Wanty's Newmen wheels are tubeless, but have an invisible valve system for improved aerodynamics. No pros spend time at the side of the road with a mini pump, so this is actually a pretty neat idea in my book.
Mechanic's notes on each rim show the date and volume of sealant added.
Jonas Rutsch is long stem royalty, having previously graced many of my tech galleries in the past in his time at EF. I know he used a 170mm stem there, but I think this is a more modest 150mm or so.
Alpecin-Deceuninck's Canyon Aeroad's are all a lovely metallic teal, this time with Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR RS tyres rather than Vittoria Corsa Pro options.
Mathieu van der Poel naturally gets a special paint job though, which is mostly white save for some VERY subtle green on the downtube.
In the photos, it just sort of looks like a stain, but in reality, it does look decent. Trust me.
More importantly, Van der Poel was using prototype wheels, likely a new Dura-Ace model from team sponsor, Shimano.
Both front and rear wheels had what looked to be spoke nipples at the hub, but on closer inspection these turned out to be just the anchor ends for the carbon spokes.
The wheels also use bladed carbon spokes, which is a departure for Dura-Ace wheels.
Over at Movistar, instead of taping a lever to the seat post, the team bikes simply had the lever set in place on the rear axle, where it's probably most useful. Aero be damned!
Again, wider tyres. These were 30mm.
They are plumped up very wide though, could it perhaps be something to do with the rim? What's that black bit of tape near the Zipp logo?
Here it is, a new Zipp wheel with integrated TyreWiz. The TyreWiz is already part of the SRAM family and is a real-time tyre pressure sensor. We have no clue as to a release date on these, but they've been in use since Strade Bianche.
Curiously, not all Movistar riders were using the 'Pro Base' cockpit n their Aerod bikes, opting instead for the core model, complete with neatly integrated computer mount.
Other riders were though, and instead use a 13g 3D printed computer mount.
At Q36.5 the team were all riding the aero Scott Foil, but also using the new Zipp wheels. The juxtaposition of a very aero bike and relatively shallow wheels is a slightly odd one to see nowadays.
Having ridden over the cobbles of Flanders myself early this week I have no idea how any rider is expected to make sense of this volume of notes in the heat of a race.
Shallow wheels X aero bike aside, I think the Q36.5 team bikes have some of the classiest paintwork of the lot.
If there's raw, glossy carbon I'm in. Throw in a few intriguing details and it's a winner in my book.
More TyreWiz action, paired with Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres in this case.
Now I love a pro touch, but the mechanics at Jayco-AlUla probably need to chop this down.
Garmin's latest and greatest Edge 1050 was on show at the Jayco bus, and while I think this one was receiving a system update, there's enough screen real estate for all the stats you could possibly eat.
Kelland O'Brien heads to sign on.
Campagnolo is back in the WorldTour this year, and I'm always glad to see glossy carbon with an unusual lacing pattern.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike) opted for 30mm Corsa Pro tyres, which seemed to work for him until just before the final.
Wout van Aert however opted for 32c. Maybe this was what kept him in the mix a little longer. Imagine what could have been if he'd maxxed out the Cervélo S5's clearance and ran a 34c...
Danish champion Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen had a custom Van Rysel RCR-F, the latest aero bike from the French brand.
Every rider on Lotto also had a custom paint scheme, to commemorate Lotto's 40th anniversary in cycling.
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Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.