Tour de France 2023 - Stage 7: Mont-de-Marsan - Bordeaux | 169.9 kilometres
The 7th stage has less than 1000 metres of elevation gain. It doesn't get any flatter in this Tour de France. The finale on the banks of the Garonne in the heart of Bordeaux is also perfectly flat. The arrival in Bordeaux is therefore a picture-book stage for sprinters. Mark Cavendish was the last rider to win here in 2010 and if he manages to do so again, he could claim his 35th Tour de France stage win and become the sole record holder after equalling Eddy Merckx's 34 victories in 2021.
Does Cavendish have the material to realise his potential? His Wilier Filante performed well in the Tour wind tunnel test. At 211 watts, it is not the fastest aero bike, but it is competitive and remarkably light for an aerodynamic road bike. That little bit less weight is a bonus for an explosive sprinter like Cavendish, as it helps him accelerate even faster.
We simulate a sprint over 200 metres and set the rider's weight to 70 kilograms, which Cavendish specifies as his racing weight. The initial speed is 60 km/h.
Number of the day: 3 hundredths of a second
Could Mark Cavendish save in the simulated finale of stage 7 of the 2023 Tour de France with the fastest bikes in the field - Cannondale System Six, Canyon Aeroad or Cervelo S5? This corresponds to around half a metre in our fast finale with a projected top speed of 68 km/h. Will this stop Mark Cavendish? Probably not. If in doubt, he will lean a little lower over the handlebars and challenge physics with his unrivalled body aerodynamics.
The (almost) entire field at a glance
What other factors could influence sprint performance from a material perspective?
The tyres
In our model, we normally use the same tyres everywhere. If we change the tyre model, there is of course an effect here too.
In a simulated sprint, a 10 per cent faster tyre adds around one hundredth of a second. Of course, this immediately raises the question of whether there are tyres that roll 10 percent more easily than others. According to our measurements, we can answer this with a clear yes. There are even greater differences. However, these are extrapolations. There is no rolling resistance data that was collected at sprint speed.
According to TOUR measurements, the fastest road tyre at the moment is the Conti 5000 S TR TT - the tubeless time trial version of the road tyre. This tyre would even save almost two hundredths compared to other fast road tyres in the outlined final. In contrast to many other TT tyres, the Conti TT tyre is a fully-fledged racing tyre with good puncture protection and good grip. Only the tread is thinner and the durability is correspondingly lower.
This tyre has therefore already been spotted many times at this Tour de France, with Tadej Pogacar riding on it, for example. Our reporters have even spotted the tyre on teams that are not sponsored by Conti. Will Cavendish, whose team rides on Vittoria tyres, also use them? We'll be watching closely.
*) The calculations are based on the bikes tested by TOUR in the laboratory and wind tunnel. The bikes at the Tour de France may differ in some details. Of course, we have not yet been able to analyse last-minute prototypes. Background to the simulation.
Our expert
Robert Kühnen studied mechanical engineering, writes about technical and training topics for TOUR and develops test methods. Robert has been refining the simulation calculations for years and they are also used by professional teams.
