Tour de Suisse massive race tech gallery

Tour de Suisse massive race tech gallery

Disc brakes, new bikes and chopped-up shoes

Josh Evans/Immediate Media

Published: June 18, 2018 at 6:00 pm

This article first appeared on Cyclingnews.

Richie Porte (BMC Racing) sealed the overall victory at the Tour de Suisse on Sunday and with it, one of the biggest stage race victories of the Australian's career.

The race featured a team time trial, an individual time trial, seven road stages and an equal measure of rain and sunshine. You can take a look at the time-trial tech on show here.

In the gallery above we take a closer look at all the road bike tech, clothing, footwear, helmets and accessories on display at Switzerland's premier stage race.

First spotted at the Criterium du Dauphine earlier in the month, Quick-Step Floors and Bora–Hansgrohe raced several stages of Tour de Suisse on an unannounced Specialized aero, disc brake-equipped race bike.

For several stages, nearly all of the Quick-Step Floors riders rode disc brakes on a mix of S-Works Tarmacs and an unreleased aero bike from Specialized - Josh Evans/Immediate Media

Also seen for the first time at the Criterium du Dauphine and again at Tour de Suisse, Trek Segafredo riders raced multiple stages on the again unannounced Trek Madone Disc. Alongside the Madone Disc, the team raced the majority of the race with disc-brake-equipped race bikes, also using the Trek Emonda Disc.

As well as the two new aero bikes from Specialized and Trek, three riders from Lotto-Soudal raced aboard a new aero bike from Ridley. Covered in red-and-black plastic wrap as an attempt to hide some of the design features, the aero bike appears to be an updated version of the Ridley Noah. However, unlike the new bikes from Specialized and Trek, the Ridley aero bike was only seen as a rim-brake model.

Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) finished in the top-three on two stages of the race and continuing the aero disc-brake bike trend, began several stages of the race aboard a Canyon Aeroad CF SLX Disc.

Wet weather during the first few stages of the race saw teams get their wet-weather gear out and a number of teams using chopped bidons as a storage device for rain capes for the beginning of stages.

Vanmarcke is another rider who makes fit adjustments to his shoes - Josh Evans/Immediate Media

More and more riders also seem to be taking chopping and modifying their shoes too. Pressure points — usually on the widest point of the foot — are the most popular location to add small slits to give extra room for feet in narrow shoes. Meanwhile Simon Spilak has taken a drill to his Sidi Shots in an attempt to improve ventilation.

Out-front computer mounts are common practice in the WorldTour peloton and American aluminium-machining specialists K-Edge are dominating the supply of the components in the WorldTour. The company provides the mounts for the likes of BMC Racing, Bora-Hansgrohe, Quick-Step Floors, Katusha-Alpecin, Team Sky and more, with specific mounts for both Garmin and Wahoo devices.

Click or swipe through the extensive gallery above for a look at all the tech on display at Tour de Suisse.