How the pros set up their stems and handlebars

How the pros set up their stems and handlebars

A cockpit photo gallery from the Tour of Turkey peloton

Luca Paolini (Katusha) had a Shimano Dura-Ace climber shift button mounted for the stage to Elmali. Got a decent degree of negative rise in that stem too

Sam Dansie/BikeRadar

Sam Dansie

Published: May 4, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Luca Paolini (Katusha) had a Shimano Dura-Ace climber shift button mounted for the stage to Elmali. Got a decent degree of negative rise in that stem too - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Nicolas Lefrancois (Novo-Nordisk) has Type 1 Diabetes and carries a computer on his stem to closely monitor blood sugar levels - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Robert Förster (United Healthcare) likes an aggressively low position aided by the negative rising Ritchey WCS stem - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Combined stem and bar combos were rare but Barry Markus (Belkin) uses a set of FSA Plasma bars with a compact drop. - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
We had to include Kris Boeckmans’ (Lotto-Belisol) forward slanted Selle San Marco Regal-e saddle. It had been in the wars too - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Boeckmans’ track-style bars are wound with Lizard Skins tape - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Turkey’s roads can be as rough as, and Petr Ignatenko’s (Katusha) bars looked plush with double-wrapped tape - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
A tidy looking cockpit on Floris Goesinnen’s (Drapac) Swift Ultravox - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) taped over some of his SRM numbers – distraction not needed when trying to help his leader Rein Taaramäe claim back the leader’s jersey - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Andrea Guardini (Astana) goes for track bars that slope immediately after the flat. Levers mounted good and low too – it’s all about being aero - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Guardini blocks out distracting SRM numbers too - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Guillaume Bovin (Cannondale), we’re guessing is pretty flexible: stem slammed and bars displaying a massive drop - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Alan Marangoni’s (Cannondale)back must be as sore to need all these spacers under his stem… - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
…But Marangoni had nothing on Adrian Kurek (CCC Polsat Polkwice), who really should be reported to the spacer police - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Some say anatomic bars have no place on a road bike, but John Murphy disagrees. Classy use of a K-Edge Garmin spacer mount just for spacing purposes too - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Alessandro Petacchi’s (Omega Pharma QuickStep) cockpit: tidy. Plus he uses a Zipp bar with plenty of reach - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) might be tall and relatively burly but he uses narrow bars – 38cm centre to centre – to help him thread through the peloton - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Race leader Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) stem marked with his rival’s position on GC. All the team’s bikes carried it on the penultimate stage - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Lampre-Merida riders had brake cable adjusters to allow them to wider to fatter aero wheels without messing about with the cable tension at the Shimano Direct Mount brakes - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Track bars on Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert)’s bike. Good man - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Guillaume Bovin (Cannondale), we’re guessing is pretty flexible: negative rise stem slammed and bars displaying a massive drop - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar
Jetse Bol (Belkin) is a rider who likes a bar with a massive drop - Sam Dansie/BikeRadar

Road bike cockpit set-ups are an intensely personal thing. Stem length, reach, drop, lever position – even handlebar tape – all require some consideration.

We checked what some of the pros were doing at the Presidential Tour of Turkey and saw a huge variety in the cockpit set-up. Scroll through our gallery to check out some extreme variation: from Guillaume Boivan's (Cannondale) highly aggressive position with a huge degree of drop to Adrian Kurek's (CCC Polsat Polkowice) crazy spacing.

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