The Tour de France kicked off again today, this time in Bilbao, Spain, with 176 riders and 22 teams. And thus begins the annual tradition to ferret out not just the sports tech gear these teams are sponsored to use, but the gear they’re actually using. And there’s some interesting tidbits this year!
First up, best I can tell this is the first year that SRM is not sponsoring a TdF team. Obviously, as always, sponsorship doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but in the case of SRM specifically, I think this marks the end of an era. While one unsponsored power meter team did have a handful of SRM units on-hand, they also had a collection of single and dual-sided Stages units.
Meanwhile, on the bike computer front, we see more of the same from last year. There aren’t any major shifts, with the camp split roughly evenly between Garmin and Wahoo sponsorship fronts, along with Hammerhead and Bryton each sponsoring a team. Giant/Stages has left that scene from the one sponsorship last year. Still, it was notable to see how many teams had the just-released Garmin Edge 840 units on-bike. Typically teams don’t tend to put brand new tech on bikes this quickly, but they were today. In fact, I even saw Team Jayco carrying around a Garmin Edge 840 box to the starting area, with less than 30 minutes to the start of the stage. Unclear what the final destination of that was, but, I found it notable.
I’ll be adding the full galleries of everything here this evening, but you can find all the same goodness up above in the video, and of course the details down below. First up, the power meters:
UCI WorldTour Teams:
AG2R Citroën Team: Power2Max
Alpecin–Deceuninck: Shimano R9200P
Arkéa–Samsic: Shimano R9200P
Astana Qazaqstan Team: Shimano R9200P
Bora–Hansgrohe: Shimano R9200P
Cofidis: SRM & Stages
EF Education–EasyPost: Power2Max
Groupama–FDJ: Shimano R9200P
Ineos Grenadiers: Shimano R9200P
Intermarché–Circus–Wanty: ROTOR Inspider
Lidl–Trek: SRAM Quarq/AXS
Movistar Team: SRAM Quarq/AXS
Soudal–Quick-Step: Shimano R9200P
Team Bahrain Victorious: Shimano R9200P
Team DSM–Firmenich: Shimano R9200P
Team Jayco–Alula: Shimano R9200P
Team Jumbo–Visma: SRAM Quarq/AXS
UAE Team Emirates: Shimano R9200PUCI ProTeams:
Israel–Premier Tech: FSA PowerBox (P2M)
Lotto–Dstny: 4iiii & Shimano R9200P
Team TotalEnergies: Shimano R9200P
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: Shimano R9100P
For those trying to keep score at home, here’s how things landed:
Shimano Teams: 14 (10 sponsored + 4 free-styling)
SRAM Teams: 3 (All sponsored)
Power2Max Teams: 3 (All sponsored, including via FSA)
4iiii Teams: 1 (Sponsored)
ROTOR Teams: 1 (Sponsored)
SRM Teams: 1 (Unsponsored portion of team)
Stages Teams: 1 (Unsponsored portion of team)
Next up, we’ve got the bike computer front, where things are a bit messier. Actually, they’re both cleaner and messier. As a rule, all Wahoo teams can use either the BOLT V2 or ROAM V2, per rider preference. Thus, for all the teams I saw, it was a mishmash of the Wahoo units within the team – perhaps just barely favoring the BOLT V2.
Meanwhile, on the Garmin side, it’s basically the same story. The Garmin sponsored teams have access to whatever units they want, and in most cases that means riders choose what they want. It tended to be a blend of Garmin Edge 1040, Edge 840, and Edge 830. In non-sponsored teams (like Team Bahrain), you saw some flyers, such as the Garmin Edge 130. Undoubtedly, because bike computers are usually held by the rider till the last minute (inside the team busses), it’s hard to capture all 176 riders within the very short handful of minutes they ride by. Thus, it’s plausible some Garmin-sponsored rider is also doing something quirky too.
In any case, here we are:
UCI WorldTour Teams:
AG2R Citroën Team: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Alpecin–Deceuninck: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Arkéa–Samsic: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Astana Qazaqstan Team: Garmin Edge 840/1040
Bora–Hansgrohe: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Cofidis: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
EF Education–EasyPost: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Groupama–FDJ: Garmin Edge 830
Ineos Grenadiers: Garmin Edge 840/1040
Intermarché–Circus–Wanty: Bryton GPS
Lidl–Trek: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Movistar Team: Garmin Edge 840/1040
Soudal–Quick-Step: Garmin Edge 830
Team Bahrain Victorious: Garmin Variety Box (Edge 130, 1040, 830)
Team DSM–Firmenich: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2
Team Jayco–Alula: Garmin Edge 530/1040
Team Jumbo–Visma: Garmin Edge 830/840
UAE Team Emirates: Wahoo ROAM V2/BOLT V2UCI ProTeams:
Israel–Premier Tech: Hammerhead Karoo 2
Lotto–Dstny: Garmin Edge Series
Team TotalEnergies: Garmin Edge 830/840/1040
Uno-X Pro Cycling Team: Garmin Edge Series
And like above, here’s where things landed in the totals department:
Garmin Teams: 11 (9 sponsored + 2 free-styling: UAE/Bahrain)
Wahoo Teams: 9 (All sponsored)
Hammerhead Teams: 1 (Sponsored)
Bryton Teams: 1 (Sponsored)
For the Bryton units, I’ll have to get specific models tomorrow at that start. All the Bryton units had special (colorful) covers on them, making it near impossible to get specific exact models because some of the models are virtually identical without seeing the model number. Generally speaking, finding the right person at the team area that actually knows what bike GPS models are is near impossible. There is *someone* that does know that, but historically speaking, finding that exact someone is a literal needle in a haystack. And usually the riders are inside.
In any case, stay tuned for more digging into sports tech from the start of tomorrow’s stage. Or, check out the video above where I see which GoPros the teams and organizers are putting on riders, as well as plenty of other sports tech (and non-tech) tidbits!
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First time for you in the Basque Country?
Make sure you enjoy the land.
I think so – super pretty area!
Sad to see no Polar… Even Bryton produces bike computers…
Yeah, I suspect the cost structures of Polar vs Bryton are vastly different…
Many ppl using Polar would kill for new cycling computers with navi. Even sigma produces rox with mapping
Polar totally lost that market. So sad. I doubt that we see any new bike computers by Polar.
I use my Vantage V2 as a bike computer (mounted in the handlebar). When I need routing I use a Wahoo Blot (maybe a Roam2 in the future)
I bet the riders with Edge 840s were thrilled to get the Climb Pro fanfare every time they reached the top of a climb!
That’d be amazing to be at the top of a Climb and record the audio.
Even more if they were getting it a couple of minutes after they reached the top, considering the bugs still present in ClimbPro
My understanding of the multi-minute offset though is that’s from Strava Routes (and maybe some Komoot routes), where they’re sending over the elevation wonky.
Curious that so many teams are rolling with Shimano power meters. Aren’t they notoriously terrible? I’ve seen both you and GPlama tear them apart.
Also, why no pedal power meters?
Yeah – I was wondering this.
Shimano sponsors the team so they use Shimano power meters. I think Ray said during training they may use other power meters. They also probably have a decent idea where the Shimano PMs are deficient and know how to account for it.
Sadly, there’s not much you can do to account for it – mainly because it’s specific to gearing combinations and pedaling style. So, unless you know which gear the rider was in (e.g. which front chainring), it’s incredibly difficult to backwards compute.
Is it likely or possible that shimano teams use a left side PM (eg stages or 4iiii) within the DA crank arm, but without any logos? Then just ignore the notorious shimano one?
Bought a Garmin 840 when it came out, to have one run/bike ecosystem, after owning both iterations of the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. And as much as I like the unit: Man, it makes a lot of noise! The Climb Pro summit fanfare made me turn off all sound…
Somone please record some sound, when the peloton crosses a summit!
Totally agree on the noise of a Garmin head unit. I have an edge 530 and I turned off the sound years ago, the thing just does not shut up!
dcr, are Israël already riding with a Karoo 3?
They’re riding the Karoo 2.
Nice try!
Given the inaccurate Shimano power meter, do you think those teams use a different PM for training and just ride with these on the bikes in public races?
Yup, they definitely do. Not all of them, and not all riders. But some of them do indeed.
Hero Session 5 for the win! GoPro missed the mark with the “mini”
Ray do you think that these have been supplied/refurbished by GoPro, found in an old storage locker or have just been looked after to stay alive?
I’ll ask around, but I suspect these are largely the same cameras that are carefully looked after, or occasionally re-sourced. I know the GoPro people still know that crew, but I can’t imagine GoPro has many of those cameras lying around.
Noticed the same aspect that has already been raised by others: many of them are using the Shimano Power Meters, which are known (here) to be very unreliable.
Are they managing to add some additiona source of PM reading, or are they simply ignoring it (or doing the best that they can with those unreliable units), as far as you know?
Thanks for this post. It must have been exciting to be in the middle of all that! Looking a the photo you have of cav, my first question was “what watch is he wearing?”
Wonder if Wood’s actually used the climb feature on the Karoo 2 to win Stage 9 up the Puy de Dôme? Now that would be a great piece of marketing for Hammerhead.
Interesting to hear Victor Campaernants from Lotto Destiny saying that his power meter doesn’t work because of the heat. I’m wondering if it’s the 4iii or Shimano one…
Do you know what camera they use for on bike footage during the race.? Those mounted at some of the rider’s saddle?