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 to 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 that 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 the men’s 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 them.
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.
Which Ray acknowledged in the opening paragraph. Excellent, constructive commenting.
Yeah, it’s hard to put in words just how far things have progressed in the last few years.
Consider this post of La Course from 2014 I did: link to dcrainmaker.com
In particular, check out the mostly rented motorhome (if you were lucky), or rented sprinter van situation. Now, one might say “Oh, but that was a one-day event”, except, the motorhomes were the same for the women’s Giro too back in that timeframe.
From a tech standpoint, it was equally random. Many teams didn’t have standardized gear beyond the bike frame, no power meters, no bike computers, no standardized trainers, etc…
At this stage, from a bike tech gear side, the teams are effectively equal on men’s/women’s teams (comparing WorldTour to WorldTour, and ProTeam to ProTeam). There are still some differences in total vehicles the teams have, though sometimes that’s also just logistics (the men’s and women’s TdF overlapped, and some teams have both sides).
And any interesting quirks (e.g. some women’s teams choose smaller trainers), in my conversations with both the teams and trainer companies is the same: The team mechanics simply prefer to deal with lighter trainers. These teams all have the top-end units from Tacx/Garmin/Elite back at home. And even on the men’s side, we see some using Suito trainers during events simply because it’s lighter/easier to pack.
Why do they need Ace when the route is set by the organiser? The smallest meter is enough here to view power and distance.
Most riders do actually use routes loaded on their units, during the race. They want the mapping data for upcoming sharp turns (to see the mess that lies ahead), and they want the upcoming climb/etc data. Regardless of vendor.
There was a close of, I think, Anna van der Breggen showing her Garmin 10xx series solar on map view with 2 fields at the bottom
Thanks to Zwift for pushing to create the TDF Femmes, which has been a big part of the growth of women’s cycling.
Not true, I care.
Ahh, I missed John’s comment earlier. That’s actually not his real name, just his half-assed troll name. He tries changing the names all the time, but still isn’t smart enough to know that I still see it’s him everytime.
I’ll zap it. No use for that garbage around here.
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.
In a single word: Shimano.
They specifically/explicitly restrict teams using other power meter pedals (during races) if they have a groupset sponsorship. SRAM does the same, except SRAM’s power meters actually work.
Ray we definitely need continued attention to the Femmes TDF, and this is great coverage!!
Have you noticed wearables? Whoop? Core temp? Etc?
Almost all the teams use CORE. I saw them (staff) floating around checking on teams. I think I got a press release that it was something like 17-19 teams used it here.
A number of teams are also sponsored by Whoop, so that drives some adoption there. But I simply saw many riders using Garmin watches (which, if they were a Garmin-Tacx sponsored team, they also receive their choice of a wearable, usually a Fenix device).
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?🫣
Thanks for all your great content. What are the “special stickers”?
Mostly to match team colors/bike paint jobs.
And for some of the specially jerseys holders (GC/KOM/Sprint/Young Riders).
Surprised to see Shimano power meters being used considering their poor performance in your testing. I would expect the need/desire for accurate data would override sponsorship concerns. Maybe they would throw on power pedals?
They often use external power meter pedals during training. But the Shimano contract states that for races, they can’t.
Both mens and women’s teams are super frustrated with it, in my conversations, but Shimano pays big.
I watched the video on this last night. What really intrigued me was the portable compressor. I have never seen one that clamps onto a presta valve without an adaptor, and without having to screw it in, even though I have been looking. Do you think the team mechanic changed the hose himself to one that does presta, or are these kind of compressors available, and I just have not found them?
Hmm, I don’t know there. interesting point!
Great coverage. Always interested to see this side of the tour de femme.
Thanks, and thanks to all above who are DCR Supporters!
Thanks for the coverage, very nice!
One of the most interesting things for me was that one team was sponsored by Winspace. a growing good-quality Chinese independent bike manufacturer. _Do you think we’ll see more “new” brands, even on the men’s races, moving forward?
In general, when it comes to the non-WorldTour teams (the ProTeams, which is a level down), you tend to see ‘new’ brands being sponsors. Sometimes, as those brands grow, they can make the jump/leap to WorldTour teams. But that usually requires a @#$#@-ton more money, so it doesn’t often happen.