1 July 2023
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 & 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 R9200P
UCI 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 V2
UCI 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: 10 (8 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 GoPro’s the teams and organizers are putting on riders, as well as plenty of other sports tech (and non-tech) tidbits!
