Choosing gears in the Tour used to be easy, a standard crankset was the only way to go, and cassette choices were limited at best. However, these days, with 12-speed options from Shimano, Sram and Campagnolo all represented in the peloton, there are more choices than ever. We’ve been curious about the pros’ bikes to see what they’re using this year.

> Suffer on the hills? Find out how to get lower gears to make climbing easier

Peloton gear choices differ from many mainstream bikes simply because riders run at very high speeds and therefore need larger gears to maintain a comfortable cadence. While most bikes you can buy come with a compact 50/34t or 52/36t crankset (or 48/35t and 46/33t on Sram 12-speed groupsets paired with starter cassettes with 10 teeth), you will usually find the peloton powering along cranksets with larger chainrings.

(If you need an introduction to the basics of gears and all the jargon, check out this article).

Cassettes have varied a lot more over the years, largely due to the steady increase in gears, from the old days of 5 and 6 speeds to the 12 speed setups that are currently used in the pro peloton.

As the number of gears has increased so has the range, with larger cassettes becoming more common, partly in response to race routes becoming increasingly difficult as race organizers racers are trying to find even more cruelly wild mountains to send the runners to. Take Stage 18 with an intimidating finish up the Hauticam, to give a brutal example.

The increased number of gears also means that riders can get away with a longer range cassette because the jumps between the number of teeth are much more manageable.

We’ve also noticed that many pro racers use non-standard chainring sizes, especially sprinters, which gives them a bit more punch in the last 200 meters of a sprint finish. For example, below is an example of a Shimano Dura-Ace 54/42 crankset that we broke on Peter Sagan’s defunct Venge in 2019. At the time, the largest size offered by Shimano to the public was a ” standard” 53/39, the latest generation Dura-Ace is available with a 54/40T.

A 42 tooth inner ring seems a bit strange these days, but 20-30 years ago a 52/42 tooth crankset was quite popular. Another place where you will find absolutely huge plateaus is during time trial stages. For example, during Stage 1 of this year’s edition, Stefan Bissegger was spotted using this 64T chainring which is not available to the public.

The most commonly used cassette size in the peloton is an 11-28t. This is really huge compared to the 11-21t cassette that was common a few decades ago when you would be lucky if you had an 11-23t for the mountains. Since Shimano switched to 11 speeds, the 11-28t cassette has become popular.

With many riders using the same cassette size, this means a lot less work for the mechanics and wheel swaps are less troublesome. Of course, we see some runners bucking the trend.

Speaking of cassettes, another trend we’ve noticed in recent years is the increased use of Shimano’s 11-30t option. It’s the kind of cassette size you only once saw on hobby bikes, not pro race bikes. Above is Kasper Asgreen’s Specialized Aethos he used on last year’s mountain stages he chose to race with a 54/39t crankset coupled with the 11-30t cassette. We’re sure more riders will follow this year, but we haven’t reached the high mountains yet.

Shimano Dura-Ace now offers an 11-34t cassette, Campagnolo offers 11-32t cassettes on its high-end Super Record EPS, and SRAM’s 10-33t for Red eTap AXS goes even lower. With some of the steep climbs on the course this year, we expect to see plenty of riders opting for these wide-range cassettes.

The number of gears on a road bike has increased over the years, with the cassette going from 6 speeds back then to the 11 and 12 speeds of today’s modern groupsets. For Trek-Segafredo, Movistar and other Sram-sponsored teams, it seems the SRAM 12-speed gearing provides enough range for both mountain and sprint stages, with many riders using the same gearing for both types of rides. ‘steps.

> Which crankset suits you best?

As we mentioned before, SRAM is bucking the big chainring trend these days with the 10-tooth cog on its 12-speed cassettes. However, while last year the biggest it offered as standard was a 50/37t, this year we saw the introduction of 52/39t, 54/41t and 56/43t trays . As the previously available 50t chainring mated to a 10t cassette sprocket results in gearing directly equivalent to a 55×11 gearing (larger than the 53×11 ​​used by most pros) this is likely to improve the line of chain rather than increasing the largest gear.

Campagnolo sponsored riders will have the same choice of gears to choose from. A 53/39t crankset is common, with a smaller 36t inner chainring available for mountain stages. Cassette options include two choices, an 11-29t and an 11-32t.

Campagnolo’s latest groupset is 12-speed, and one of the benefits is that the first seven cogs go up in single increments. This is great for finding your perfect cadence.

What about 1x?

The front bot’s death has long been speculated in parts of the bike world, but it’s rarely spotted in the pro ranks. A few riders tried 1x, with varying levels of success, and of course there was the ill-fated Aqua Sport Blue team who only used 1x drivetrains on 3T Strada bikes – the team boss at the time was pretty scathing either the drivetrain or the bike, or maybe both.

There are advantages to a 1x system. There’s less gear duplication than you get with a 2x groupset, it can be lighter and more aerodynamic, and it’s arguably one component less likely to fail, making it popular with counter specialists. -the-watch who run on flat courses (here the lower plateau will simply be abandoned however). But he didn’t understand where wide range is needed for variable terrain, mostly because while the range offered with current groupsets is nice, the jumps between gears aren’t.

One solution to this is the Classified system which essentially relocates the front mech into the rear hub, this could also bring aero benefits, but so far we’ve only spotted it being used by one pro team – Uno X, they are not in Le Tour de France and the system also raises some questions about wheel changes. Could this be something we will see in the Tour de France in the future?

> Discover Classified’s innovative powershift transmission

Summary

Professional road racers today have vastly more gear than they did 10-20 years ago, but it’s the gear range that has been the most interesting trend as the groups have evolved. As the number of sprockets increased, the range of gears increased. Do the riders get slack, do the courses get tougher, or does the higher number of gears make it possible?

The big three groupset manufacturers always focus on the needs of professional riders and provide groupsets to meet their needs and then sell them to the public, but there just aren’t many normal people out there who need a equipment 54-11. The requirements of pros are very different from those of people like you and me.

This is slowly changing though. Outside of the pro peloton, we’re starting to see a shift in focus from OEMs to cater to the growing diversity of modern cyclists who are influenced less by pro racers and more by their ride, whether long-distance on road or adventure and gravel bike. Largely thanks to adventure riding, we are now seeing much wider range groupsets with more realistic gear ratios for the many people who don’t race every Sunday, but want some gearing to help them out. over difficult terrain and let them conquer every hill.