The tech on the women’s side of the Tour de France continues to grow, almost universally matching the men’s side (especially on the WorldTeams list), which is awesome to see. I checked out two stages this week to see what bike computers they were riding with, as well as a quick glance at power meters and smart trainers. In general, these results probably won’t surprise too many, as most of these teams are sponsored for almost every component.
Still, it’s interesting too see what preferences the riders have around areas like bike computers (where Wahoo/Garmin generally let the individual riders choose), as well as how the teams decide which trainers to take with them. In the case of the 2025 edition of the women’s tour, there is no time trial stage. That generally makes the teams lives *far* easier (not having to carry two full sets of bike types/etc…), and also means teams tend to carry lighter/smaller trainers, which are only used briefly before some stages, and often by only a few riders.
Whereas for time-trial days, teams tend to carry their premier trainers as supplied by Garmin-Tacx/Elite/Wahoo/etc… Nonetheless, almost all of the teams had riders warming up before the stage on Wednesday, which marks a bit of a departure from the past. Especially given some teams had the entire team riding. Historically, it was pretty rare to see anything more than a random rider doing a pre-stage warm-up on a regular non-TT day (or some other short stage).
In any event, on the bike computer side, it was the Garmin & Wahoo sponsorship festival that we’ve come to know. The singular exceptions being Canyon-SRAM’s Hammerhead Karoo 3, given the SRAM ownership of Hammerhead. And then St. Michel was on iGPSSport.
In the UCI pro cycling scene hierarchy, the WorldTeams (previously called ‘WorldTour’ teams) are the highest with the most money and points. These are basically guaranteed slots to the Tour de France (on mens and women’s side). The next level down are teams that can get an invite, called ProTeams, and are usually more regional in nature. I suspect this will be the last year we see any of the invited ProTeams not having complete sports tech sponsors (which is a massive upgrade from years ago, where almost none of those teams had any standardized sports tech).
On the bike computer side, virtually all of the riders on the Wahoo sponsored teams were riding Wahoo BOLT 3, with just a few ROAM 2 units (I didn’t seen any ROAM 3, but with 154 riders, it’s very likely I didn’t see some (pro riders tend to hold onto their bike computers at all times, taking it off the bike when they aren’t on it).
Meanwhile, on the Garmin side, almost all riders were on the Edge 840, with a sprinkling on the Edge 1050. Again, this is rider choice here, Garmin lets the riders choose whichever unit they want from the list.
Both companies have special sticker schemes for their teams, though not all teams took advantage of it.
Even a Garmin Edge 1050 in either a shell or stickers, it’s unclear to me exactly. But this was the green jersey variant:
Hammerhead also equipped their riders with some of the colorful accessory shells. These appeared to be from the stock set of colors, though I suspect they have special jersey ones as well.
And here’s the iGPSSport iGS800:
Finally, on the power meter front, it’s a pretty solid blend of Shimano, SRAM, and FSA. Shimano as always sponsors the most teams (or, has bike frame sponsors that equip the bikes with Shimano), though we continue to see the FSA PowerBox (which is powered by Power2Max) on a number of pro teams. We do also see LOOK power meters on Cofidis, as well as Favero on Winspace.
And finally, a full chart of everything:
In any case, check out the above video for all sorts of sports tech goodness, including that awesome cat ear case for the Wahoo BOLT. I’m hoping we’ll see Wahoo & Garmin get into the animal case accessory market soon. So much potential.
With that – thanks for reading!
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They are using whatever they are paid to use.
As Ray said though, they get to pick what product they use from the sponsor, so it’s kind of interesting that the Wahoo riders almost all picked the Bolt over the larger computers, and not a single Ace.
Which is a substantial step forward from Ray’s review of women’s team’s tech a few years ago which had a random assortment of computers, cracked screens, etc.
It’s good to see serious sponsorship of women’s cycling, and increasing professionalism that goes with it.
Interesting to see some power meter pedals here. I’ve never understood why they aren’t used more, and I don’t thinks there any in the men’s pelaton?
Sponsorship deals, mostly.
Ray we definitely need continued attention to the Femmes TDF, and this is great coverage!!
Have you noticed wearables? Whoop? Core temp? Etc?
You didn’t tell us who had the cat shell from the headline picture, or how they got it!
Looks like it’s available on Amazon (AU at least) – link to amazon.com.au
Too bad – still no signs of Garmin Edge 850 😢
Desperately needed – my trusted 510 finally completely “died” last week 😩
Does Garmin have design/production issues that are delaying launch?
Can we expect launch in 2025, or is 2026 a more realistic guess?🫣