Tech highlights from the men's and women's road races
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Custom accessories were the order of the day in the Olympic Games road races. Japan's Yukiya Arashiro would usually wear a helmet from Rudy Project, but instead was wearing this custom designed Kabuto(Image credit: Getty Images)
Likewise, Ineos Grenadiers' Adam Yates would usually wear a Kask helmet, but all of Team GB were supplied with Lazer Genesis helmets(Image credit: Getty Images)
We didn't manage to pick out all the custom painted bikes in our coverage ahead of the races, Cervelo was one that we missed, who supplied all of its riders with this shiny purple-green R5 - seen here ridden by Marianne Vos(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Scott was another, with Team DSM's riders given this stunning design, seen here ridden by Nikias Arndt(Image credit: Getty Images)
The third comes from Liv, who supplied Soraya Paladin and co with this multi-colour design(Image credit: Getty Images)
We did bring Van Vleuten's Canyon, but many more riders were aboard this anime-inspired design, including Alejandro Valverde and Chloe Dygert (pictured)(Image credit: Getty Images)
Pinarello stuck with the tried and tested design on the new Pinarello Dogma F, simply adding the country flag to the fork, and Japanese flag on the seat tube to this, Richard Carapaz's bike(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
After his crash, Geraint Thomas was forced to return to the previous Pinarello Dogma F12(Image credit: Getty Images)
His bike was fitted with these team-issue, but sponsor-incorrect wave-profile wheels from Princeton Carbonworks(Image credit: Getty Images)
Talking of non-sponsor wheels, many of the Team BikeExchange riders were still using the unbranded Vision wheels that help them to save a few hundred grams in weight(Image credit: Getty Images)
The same wheels were used by Simon Yates, whose Bianchi needed a little last-minute adjustment(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ireland's Dan Martin also used team-issue non-sponsor wheels with these Lightweight Meilensteins. He's also been given an Ireland-flag-designed CeramicSpeed derailleur cage(Image credit: Getty Images)
He's not the only one... CeramicSpeed went all in to support its sponsored riders(Image credit: Instagram: CeramicSpeed)
However, it's not all top-tier tech and sponsor appeasement. Here, Eritrea's Mosana Debesay is running this Race Ronin R2 from Japanese brand Kaze, with Polish 'No Limited' wheels, and second-tier Shimano Ultegra mechanical groupset(Image credit: Getty Images)
Here, Japan's Hiromi Kaneko is using a three-series-old 10-speed Dura-Ace 7900 crank on her Yonex, a brand more commonly found on a badminton court(Image credit: Getty Images)
Talking of mismatched components, the winner of the women's race, Anna Kiesenhofer used a SRAM Red chainset and SRAM disc rotors with her Shimano groupset(Image credit: Getty Images)
The amateur rider's set up is self-selected, with her Scott Addict RC bike paired with wheels from Austrian brand Xentis(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Tokyo Olympics have officially begun, the distribution of medals is well and truly underway, with the opening weekend seeing plenty of cycling. The men's and women's road races were decided in exciting fashion, the men's triathlon was eventually completed after a strange false start involving a camera boat, and Mathieu Van der Poel's disappointment led to joy for Tom Pidcock in the cross country mountain biking.
As we suspected in our Olympics cycling tech predictions, there were plenty of notable equipment choices that caught our attention, from custom paint, limited-edition components and non-sponsor tech on show for all to see.
For example, while we already rounded up a bunch of custom paint jobs ahead of the weekend, as the races rolled out we learned that we hadn't quite captured them all as Cervelo, Scott and others had supplied their riders with special designs, too. In addition, despite expecting the majority of the non-team-issue tech to come out to play during the time trials, there were still a few unexpected choices on the road.
For those and even more tech, check out the gallery above to see what we've found.
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Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
