On which bikes will the "Big Five" conquer the final climb from Saint-Estève to Mont Ventoux, which is almost 16 kilometres long and has an average gradient of 8.8 percent?
Before the stage started, TOUR took a close look at the racing bikes of the following riders:
- Tadej Pogačar (currently 1st place overall)
- Jonas Vingegaard (2nd place, 4:15 behind)
- Florian Lipowitz (3rd place, 9:03 behind)
- Kevin Vauquelin (slipped to 6th place after the stage, 13:20 behind, he was overtaken by Primož Roglič)
The Lapierre Xelius DRS by Oscar Onley
The man from Scotland is Lipowitz's fiercest rival in the battle for the podium so far. Onley from Team Picnic PostNL only has one racing machine at his disposal, the Lapierre Xelius DRS. TOUR recently tested the road bike. The French model is characterised by a distinctive seat knot. Compared to the competition, Onley has aerodynamic losses: a comparable bike "only" achieved 217 watts in the TOUR test. A whopping 13 watts more than the Colnago Y1Rs, for example.
Oscar Onley from Team Picnic PostNL is currently in fourth place overall, 11:04 minutes behind Tadej Pogačar. Florian Lipowitz is currently 2 minutes and one second behind third place.
No experiments for Mont Ventoux
The rider in fourth place overall did not experiment with the drivetrain on stage 16. The mechanics bolted the Dura-Ace groupset with 54/40, 11-34 teeth to his bike.
To save weight, Onley uses a flatter version of the wheels from Italian manufacturer Ursus.
Julian Schultz
Editor
