While the Frenchman had opted for the Verticale SLR at the start in Italy (see photo gallery), which Wilier had presented shortly before the Tour of France, Gaudu was riding the Filante SLR in the Pyrenees and the Alps. The reason: the Filante is a classic race all-rounder that combines good aerodynamics with low weight. The Verticale, on the other hand, has not yet been tested in a wind tunnel and has been trimmed almost exclusively for lightweight construction by the Wilier engineers.
All-round model and mountain bike in comparison
We had both professional bikes hanging on the TOUR scales. The Verticale of Gaudu, who fell short of expectations after his top ten finish last year, weighed 7.1 kilograms. The Filante of his team-mate Lenny Martinez was 300 grams heavier. However, with an aero performance of 214 watts, the all-round model from the Italian manufacturer is likely to be significantly faster. The Zero SLR, which Groupama-FDJ also used until the introduction of the Verticale, provides an indication: the mountain bike needed ten watts more pedalling power to overcome its own air resistance at 45 km/h.
Other teams also rely on aero instead of lightweight construction
Other teams even dispensed with lightweight models altogether: Alpecin-Deceuninck, for example, left the Canyon Ultimate CFR at home and relied exclusively on the Aeroad CFR. Team dsm-Firmenich PostNL around John Degenkolb also had - as in the previous year only the fast Scott Foil RC included. Cofidis (Look 795 Blade RS) and Isreal-Premier Tech (Factor Ostro VAM) are further examples.
The fact that the use of lightweight mountain bikes is becoming increasingly rare was emphasised by none other than last year's winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike): The overall runner-up favoured the faster S5 over the lighter R5 from Cervélo on the final Alpine stages.
TOUR at the Tour de France: Exclusive blog
Julian Schultz
Editor
