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I've been looking at a lot of the coverage of the Tour de France. All of the attention is on the cyclists, and no attention whatsoever on the cycles. Even in photographs or videos, they are so far away, or the bikes are moving by so fast, you can't tell what they are riding.

I know I definitely can't afford whatever kind of bike they are using, and it would be horribly impractical for me to ride one since I'm commuting, not racing. I'm just very curious as to what is the top of the line in terms of bikes. When I look at high end bikes in shops or online I can't tell if they are actually superior or if they are just loaded with expensive gimmicks.

What frames, brakes, seats, gears, tires, etc. are the world's top competitors using?

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  • Awesome ones! Ridden by amazing machines!
    – geoffc
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 20:36
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    @Apreche - Are you interested in current riders and equipment, or a historical overview? Also, this question would be more instructive if people were to focus on the why instead of the what (which can probably be found via a few minutes' Googling).
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Jul 6, 2011 at 23:06
  • Expensive ones.
    – Daniel R Hicks
    Commented Jul 7, 2011 at 2:31
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    Here is an overview from bicycling magazine of the different bikes used in the 2010 tour
    – David LeBauer
    Commented Jul 7, 2011 at 14:34

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The focus is on the riders, because the bikes are just not so different from one another. The UCI (international cyclists' union) tightly regulates what shape and weight the bike must be, and what technical solutions are acceptable, so the sponsoring manufacturers can only compete on relatively minor features such as aerodynamic tubing or frame stiffness. These are of no practical importance to an everyday cyclist.

A typical racing top-level bike nowadays will have

  • an aluminum or carbon fiber frame, with increasing focus on aerodynamics over weight (because it's relatively easy to achieve the UCI minimum weight of 6.7kg regardless)
  • always a carbon fiber fork
  • either super light or aerodynamic wheels, depending on the type of rider and needs of the particular stage
  • either Campagnolo Super Record, Shimano Dura Ace, or SRAM Red component set, depending on who's the sponsor
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    Correct. Years ago, the UCI decided that the race would be about the riders rather than the machines. Bike manufacturers have actually complained that Le Tour is so influential it has put a brake on design... Advancements are allowed only grudgingly. Greg LeMond won his first Tour using the just-approved "aero" helmet in the final time-trial, winning by a margin that the helmet may well have contributed.
    – M. Werner
    Commented Jul 7, 2011 at 0:47
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    A typical racing bike these days will be made of carbon. Full stop. Aluminium hasn't been used in top bikes for years. And carbon is used for most parts: frame, forks, handlebars, components, seatpost (usually always integrated as in Wilier Cento 1 for instance), seats...
    – Robert Koritnik
    Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 10:21
  • "either Campagnolo Super Record, Shimano Dura Ace, or SRAM Red component set, depending on who's the sponsor": Not entirely true. Some riders may choose their own set based on their preference and what they're used to. It's rare but exists.
    – Robert Koritnik
    Commented Jul 8, 2011 at 10:24
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    The UCI minimum is weight is 6.8kg not 6.7kg.
    – e100
    Commented Jul 25, 2011 at 15:32
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    @Robert: Alumininum bars and stems are still very common for pros. One other item that's becoming fairly standard on pro bikes, but is still rare off-the-shelf, is a power-meter built into the cranks for real-time output data.
    – e100
    Commented Jul 25, 2011 at 15:48
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The Trek Madone 6 Series is pretty typical...US teams have ridden these for numbers of Tours and other famous stage races as well. You can buy essentially the same bike; it's a top of the line carbon frame with the top-of-the-line components installed.

Many of the "team" bikes are made by other manufacturers and simply painted with appropriate team colors. Bikes are of course built up to the individual rider's specifications so that fit is perfect. For many years, it was no secret that many of the team bikes were Lightspeed frames fitted with top-level Campy components and simply painted appropriately.

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Check out this site, they have detailed articles and photos of actual pro bikes. There are even a few bikes from this year's TDF already up there.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech

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One thing I didn't know is that today's top pro riders (especially UCI pro teams) are often "billboards" of the bike industry as a whole. They are supplied by companies with framesets, groupsets, wheels and others. Not necessarily do they believe their bikes are the fastest available, nor even fit them the best. Is Trek, Specialized, Pinarello or Canyon selected because of their performance? No. Those are used because those companies ask riders to 'advertise' their bikes.

As such, most of their bikes aren't custom-made, just as the same ones commercially available in your local shops. Perhaps with the exclusive painting, but even those 'pro color' models are (if limitedly) released to us.

I've been collecting information on bikes of the all Grand Tour winners, but as for Tour de France, here's the list of the past 15 years. Technically speaking, 1999-2005 should have no winner, but still for reference.

    | Framesets & Manufacturer      | Groupset & Manufacturer  |
----+------------+------------------+------------+-------------+
2014|Specialized |Tarmac S-WORKS    | Campagnolo |Super Record |
2013|Pinarello   |Dogma 65.1 THINK2 | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |
2012|Pinarello   |Dogma 65.1 THINK2 | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |
2011|BMC         |SLR01             | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |
2010|Specialized |Tarmac S-WORKS    | SRAM       |Red          |
2009|Trek        |Madone 6          | SRAM       |Red          |
2008|Cervelo     |R3-SL             | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |
2007|Trek        |Madone 5.2        | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |    
2006|Pinarello   |Dogma-FPX         | Campagnolo |Record       |
2005|Trek        |Madone SSLx       | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
2004|Trek        |Madone SL         | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
2003|Trek        |5900              | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
2002|Trek        |5900              | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
2001|Trek        |5900              | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
2000|Trek        |5900              | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     | 
1999|Trek        |5500              | Shimano    |Dura-Ace     |

Some random notes...

  • The first carbon winner bike appears in 1986, and since then the material of racing bicycles have been gradually replaced by carbons.
  • Although now bikes are well recognized as their 'bike names' and 'manufacturers', such notion was less apparent until around 1980s. We can still know what companies manufactured those bikes (e.g. Gitane or Peugeot) or what companies manfactured tubes of framesets (e.g. Reynolds or TVT), but I think who made them also did matter at that time, while most stuff are now mass-created in Asia.
  • The list is pretty Shimano-dominated, but it's actually where they finally started doing so.
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    There's a rule in the UCI that parts must actually be commercially available, so by definition, they have to be riding stuff that's available in bike shops. However, you'll only see them riding the top end stuff, and if you were to buy the same bike from the shop, it would probably cost you $10,000+. I personally think the only reason these bikes are sold in shops is because it's required the pro parts be available for sale. The bikes they ride in the TdF are way more advanced than most people would get from a shop. You won't see the pro's using Shimano 105, even though it's quite good.
    – Kibbee
    Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 15:22
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This year Bradley Wiggins used the Pinarello Dogma 2 (frame only)- which costs just under £4k. Found this cool article on what bikes the Olympic gold medalists use that you might find useful...http://www.theranktank.com/blog/2012/08/deciding-which-bike-to-get-look-at-what-our-olympians-ride-/

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  • That's one sweet looking bike.
    – GordonM
    Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 20:32
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Team NetApp has an article about their Bike sponsor Simplon for Giro d'Italia:

The best german professional road race team Team NetApp rides race-ready prototypes of SIMPLON’s new aero-roadbike NEXIO during the Giro d’Italia. Conceptually the NEXIO combines the best of both worlds in the present professional bike yard of the team. It shares top class aerodynamics of SIMPLON’s MR.T time trail machine as welll as exceptional lightness and stiffness of the more traditionally shaped PAVO roadbike.

Source: http://www.teamnetapp.com/en/news/detailview/news/team-netapp-rides-simplons-new-nexio-aero-roadbike-at-the-giro-ditalia-2012/

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