Riders within the Tour de France race on the easiest bikes out there. One of the perks of being an expert bike owner is attending to experience the perfect street bikes on this planet and have them maintained to perfection by skilled mechanics.
Top-end street bikes price quite a bit lately, however simply how costly are they? While we deal with the broader query right here, you may learn our Tour de France bikes information to see a breakdown of every squad’s full tools bundle if you wish to know extra about one crew’s tools. If you wish to know extra concerning the groups basically, verify our our Tour de France crew information for this yr.
Naturally, the price of completely different crew bikes varies. Some groups experience off the peg bikes and componentry that, stock-depending, you can add to an internet buying basket and order tomorrow. This could also be a harmful proposition in case you are fired up after watching a day’s racing and really feel like treating your self. Then there’s the prototype and pro-only componentry that’s issued to some groups, right here issues get slightly trickier to work out.
Within the 2024 Tour de France, there are 19 completely different bike manufacturers, every could have a barely completely different pricing construction for its vary of bikes. There are additionally three groups that experience the identical model of bikes. Those manufacturers are Canyon, Specialized and Wilier Triestina who all provide frames to 2 completely different groups every.
If you are after a ballpark determine for the bikes being raced within the Tour. The price of a crew race bike is within the area of £9,000 – £14,000 / €10k – €15k / $11k – $16k / AU$17k – $22k.
But let’s take a deeper dive into the price of some particular Tour de France bikes, together with the tremendous costly time trial bike class. We’ll additionally take a look at who precisely pays for the bikes, whether or not riders get to maintain their very own bike, and what number of bikes a crew will take to the race.
Tour de France bike price breakdown
Firstly, it is necessary to recognise {that a} bike is made up of varied parts. Starting with the body and fork, there’s then a groupset (or gear and brake system), wheels, tyres, cockpit parts such because the handlebar and stem, and the ending equipment such because the saddle, bar tape and pedals. There are then the small elements such because the bolts, bearings, inside tubes or tubeless sealant, lubricants, and even the paint. To quantify the price of the bike as an entire, it’s worthwhile to calculate the sum of its elements.
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It’s additionally price remembering that relying on the terrain of the stage forward, riders will usually experience completely different frames or use completely different parts to enhance the bike’s suitability to the course. Lighter wheels is perhaps swapped in for mountainous phases; extra aerodynamic wheels might be used for flatter days, and extra puncture-proof tyres would possibly get used if there are cobbled roads or poor street surfaces throughout a selected stage.
To calculate the true retail price of a Tour de France bike, we have picked a number of bikes getting used this yr and damaged down the price of every. We’ve checked out among the most well-known and fashionable bikes within the race, in addition to a newcomer to the WorldTour peloton this yr, that to a level, bucks the hyper-expensive pattern.
Soudal-QuickStep’s Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8
Belgian squad Soudal-QuickStep or the ‘Wolfpack’ as they prefer to be recognized as a result of their combating crew spirit race on the Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL8. A motorcycle which launched finally yr’s World Championships. It’s pretty straightforward to work out the crew bike price as lots of the parts come from Specialized themselves or its subsidiary model Roval and are simply out there to buy. Interestingly, and really unusually the latest SL8 mannequin at launch was really cheaper than the outgoing SL7 mannequin the crew had used. The ‘S-Works’ identify refers to Specialized’s prime spec frames and if you wish to experience the identical as the professionals, you may have to spend some additional money for an ‘S-Works’ mannequin over the common Tarmac SL8.
Aside from the paint job which is particular to the crew, the S-Works Tarmac SL8 may be ordered off the peg from the model’s web site for £12,000 / $14,000 / €14,000.00 / AU$19,900 with the identical Shimano Dura-Ace groupset, Roval Rapide carbon fibre built-in handlebar, seatpost and tyres the crew usually use and with Roval Rapide CLX II carbon wheels that are utilized by the crew relying on the stage and terrain.
There’s one part of the crew’s tools bundle that is not fairly as straightforward to get your arms on. The crew are at present racing on the Roval Rapide CLX II Team wheels which price £3,000 / $3,800 / €3,700 / AU$6,000. These wheels are in the stores however are restricted to 1500 units worldwide. What we do not at present know is what number of have been issued to professional groups. The crew version wheels which omit paint from the hub shells to avoid wasting weight are £500 / $1,000 / €1,000 / AU$1,600 greater than the usual CLX Team II wheels.
Approx whole price: £12,500 / €13,000 / $14,500 / AU$21,500
Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale’s Van Rysel RCR
French crew Decathlon AG2R La-Mondiale started 2024 with a completely new tools bundle, switching from BMC and Campagnolo tools to Van Rysel bikes, part of the Decathlon retail household.
The crew has loved a blistering begin to the yr, taking a number of victories and the Van Rysel RCR street bike they race on has been fashionable from the off.
The Van Rysel RCR is exclusive within the WorldTour and Tour de France peloton as being in the stores in precisely the identical spec because the crew race on for below £10,000. We assume this makes it one among, if not the most cost effective bike within the race. There you have got it, a Tour de France race bike and alter from £10,000 – a discount if ever there was one.
The crew races on the Van Rysel RCR carbon fibre body, the bikes are constructed up with Shimano Dura-Ace digital groupsets, SwissSide Hadron carbon wheels in a variety of rim depth choices and Continental GP5000 tubeless tyres. The bike’s handlebars and stem are Italian Deda built-in items. We even have it on good authority the crew is perhaps utilizing some new aerodynamic tyres from crew sponsor Continental through the race.
We assume that the crew have one of many quickest, and greatest worth tools packages within the WorldTour. Apparently, Van Rysel engineers examined a variety of competitor bikes and the RCR stacks up very properly aerodynamically towards the competitors. Jean-Paul Ballard the SwissSide CEO brings his expertise from Formula One to the biking world and the crew is unquestionably benefiting from this. If you completely had to purchase a quick Tour de France race bike, this one would most likely provide the perfect worth in comparison with the competitors.
Approx whole price: £12,500 / €9,000 / $10,999 / AU$ NA
Tadej Pogačar’s Colnago V4RS
Tade Pogacar is the general race favorite this yr after already taking general victory on the Giro d’Italia only a few weeks in the past.
His UAE Emirates crew races on Italian Colnago V4RS bikes, but it surely is not potential to buy Tadj Pogacar’s actual bike spec off the shelf, which makes issues trickier. You might purchase the person elements that make up the crew’s bike, and get actually near the identical construct the crew use, however might come unstuck attempting to get your arms on his handlebars.
On the Colnago bikes web site bike builder, the closest you may get to the Slovenian aces builds comes out at £14,143 / $17,919 / €16,763 / AUD $26,849.
This is with the identical body, Dura-Ace digital groupset and built-in energy meter. But as a substitute with a Colnago CC.01 cockpit, not the Enve built-in handler and stem the crew makes use of. The bike additionally will get specced with Enve SES 3.4C wheels, not the deeper profiled Enve SES 4.5 wheelset Pogacar tends to make use of.
Utah-based composites model Enve present the wheels and built-in handlebar on Pogacar’s bike. The handlebars particularly might be difficult to pay money for proper now and appear to be a {custom} model of the handmade SES AR handlebar which retails for a whopping $1,200, that is the price of some bikes. The curve of Pogacar’s handlebar drops is completely different to the inventory bar supplied on the corporate’s web site main us to assume it is a {custom} team-only possibility, at the very least for now.
It additionally is not potential to purchase the bike with the unique Carbon-Ti chainrings and disc brake rotors the crew makes use of to avoid wasting weight. The 55-tooth Carbon Ti CarboRing chainring prices €249.00, while the smaller 40-tooth Inner chainrings price €186. The X Rotor discs price €185 every and weigh 80 grams in a 160mm dimension. We have subtracted the tough price of the Dura-Ace equal elements to work out the whole price of Pogacar’s construct and used part RRP’s
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| Colnago V4RS frameset | £5,000 |
| Enve SES AR handlebar *Team version | From £947 |
| Shimano Dura-Ace groupset | £3,579 |
| Power meter chainset improve | £650 |
| Enve SES 4.5 wheelset | £2,249 |
| Carbon Ti CarboRing’s | £367 |
| Carbon Ti X Rotor discs | £312 |
| Continental GP5000 S TR tyres | £159 |
| Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 pedals | £235 |
| Prologo Scratch M5 | £186 |
| Extras (bar tape, laptop mount, bottle cages, and so on) | Approx £200 |
| Total | £13,479 |
There’s additionally the extra price of bar tape, laptop mount, bottle cages, and the possible addition of ceramic bearings so as to add on. We’ll estimate an approximate price of round £200 for all that.
We’ll waive the added price of the bottles since that is peripheral to the bike itself. Likewise his Wahoo laptop.
Approx whole price: £13,479
Currency conversion as of June 2024: €16,087. / $17,186 / AUD $25,794
The most costly Tour de France bike? Ineos Grenadiers’ Pinarello Bolide F
There’s no better arms race in biking than on this planet of time trialling, and as such, it is right here that the cash actually begins to stack up. Nowadays, we now have such a deep understanding of aerodynamics, rolling resistance and drivetrain effectivity, and the way all of them have an effect on the pace at which a rider will journey for a set energy. Therefore, the time and analysis going into creating time trial bikes, parts and clothes is rising exponentially because the out there features get smaller and smaller. The result’s the price of the merchandise which are created are fairly rattling costly.
The bike in query is the Pinarello Bolide F; launched shortly after the Tour de France in 2022. From the PinarelloRetailer web site, it’s priced at £12,000 for a body alone or a staggering £30,000 with custom-printed time trial extensions. You can guess that almost all Ineos riders will take the dearer possibility.
On prime of this, primarily based on latest races, riders are probably to make use of a pair of wheels from Princeton Carbonworks: the Blur 633 V3 rear disc wheel ($2,950) and Mach 7580 TSV2 entrance tri-spoke ($2,850). Total price $5,800 (Approximately £4,658 after conversion).
The crew has additionally used a Classied hub outfitted Parcours rear disc wheel this yr to additional improve 1x gear vary, accommodate the dinner plate-sized entrance chainrings riders are utilizing now and assist enhance drivetrain effectivity. This Classified hub gear-enabled Parcours Disc2 wheel retails for £1,099 / $1,449 / €1,429. But will then must be paired with the Classified Powershift wi-fi hub system at £1,096 / €1,299 / $1,388. We count on that the terrain of a time trial will principally decide when the crew makes use of this selection. We will worth up with the dearer Princeton wheelset possibility for the ultimate whole.
They’ll additionally want a groupset, and it is smart that they’re going to use the identical Dura-Ace R9200 as discovered on their street bikes. When factoring in an influence meter, that’ll price within the area of £4,200, albeit with small variations primarily based on the time-trial-specific brake levers and shifters. They’ll additionally nearly definitely swap the 2x chainset and entrance derailleur in favour of a 1x aero-optimised chainring. We calculate this to be round £200 cheaper than a 2x setup, so will deduct this from the whole.
Beyond these essential parts, there are different ‘ending’ parts so as to add on. Continental GP5000 S TR tyres will price £198 for a pair. There’s additionally a saddle, for which we’ll use the Fizik Transiro Mistica KIUM saddle – all £165 of it – as utilized by the crew’s greatest time triallist Filippo Ganna, plus roughly £50 for bar tape, chain lube, tubeless conversion. We additionally acknowledge there could also be new or secret prototype elements that we do not even learn about but, however it is a good estimation.
Approx whole price: £39,071
Approx foreign money conversion (June 2024): €58,127 / $62,110 / AU$93,266
A brand new rival to the Pinarello price ticket
Wilier Triestina launched a brand new time trial bike not too long ago that rivals the Pinarello providing in worth. The bike in query is the brand new Supersonica SLR TT.
The new bike has been developed alongside time trial ace and Groupama FDJ rider Stefan Kung after greater than 50 hours of CFD laptop simulations. Wilier provide a {custom} handlebar extension choice to non-pro riders too, so in case you splash the money you may take pleasure in near the professional therapy.
Price-wise, the Supersonica body equipment is €9,000, however just like the Pinarello Bolide F, add on {custom} tri-bar handlebar extensions and a Dura-Ace construct full with Miche disc wheel and tri-spoke and the value will get bumped as much as €27,400. You might simply head north of €30,00 right here with upgrades like ceramic bearings and different aero parts optimisations.
Approx whole price: £27,400
Approx foreign money conversion (June 2024): €32,455 / $34,673 / AU$52,095
How many bikes do groups have on the Tour de France?
Most Tour de France riders will normally have two bikes out there to them on any given day, with key riders having much more. Some groups may even have two several types of bike – one that’s lighter in weight for the climbing days, and one other that’s extra aerodynamic for the flatter, sooner days. They may even have one or two-time trial bikes per rider for the time trial phases.
If you extrapolate that out to eight riders per crew and keep in mind bikes which have been crashed out, it is not unusual for groups to have 60 framesets and over 100 wheelsets at race (and a whole lot extra again on the crew’s service course). Hunt Bike Wheels beforehand confirmed to Cyclingnews that it provided 115 wheelsets to Qhubeka Assos for the 2021 Giro d’Italia to provide you an thought.
Can you purchase a Tour de France bike?
The sport’s governing physique, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has a rule which means any product utilized in competitors have to be made out there for public sale. Article 1.3.006 of the UCI Technical Regulations states:
“Equipment shall be of a sort that’s bought to be used by anybody training biking as a sport. Any tools in growth part and never but out there on the market (prototype) have to be topic of an authorization request to the UCI Equipment Unit earlier than its use. Authorization might be granted just for tools which is within the ultimate stage of growth and for which commercialization will happen no later than 12 months after the primary use in competitors.”
To simplify, this implies groups can solely use know-how that’s out there to the general public or prototypes of tech that’s deliberate to make it into the general public area inside 12 months. Therefore, you may certainly experience the very same bikes because the WorldTour professionals… simply know you may want deep pockets.
If you wish to go a step additional and experience a motorcycle that has actually been ridden within the Tour de France, then that is potential too. Websites like Bike Room unload groups’ outdated bikes on the finish of the season as soon as they have been completed with.
What do Tour de France groups pay for his or her bikes?
This is determined by the sponsorship deal the crew managed to strike with producers of the frames and parts, however for essentially the most half, groups won’t pay a single penny for his or her bikes.
Understandably, we’re not aware of the ins and outs of those business negotiations, however the tough particulars are not any huge secret. The bike business is rife with manufacturers vying for consideration, and there is not any larger stage than the Tour de France. Be they bike manufacturers, equipment producers or shoe suppliers, all of them wish to put their merchandise in entrance of a worldwide viewers, they usually all have one thing to supply that the crew wants.
The forms of sponsorship agreements differ tremendously by crew, normally depending on the crew’s success – or probability thereof. A successful crew is healthier publicity, in any case.
Some offers might be for the frameset alone, that means the crew wants to move elsewhere for a provide of wheels, groupsets and every little thing else. Others will get full bikes provided by the model.
In addition, some sponsorship agreements are a easy handover of product in return for the publicity it’s going to garner, whereas others are absolutely built-in technical partnerships the place the 2 events work collectively to innovate, develop and market their merchandise, just like the AG2R Decathlon La Mondiale setup this yr.
Moreover, reasonably than paying for the bikes, some offers will really additionally contain a money injection alongside the availability of kit, that means these groups are given bikes and cash. Hands up anybody who’s ever left a motorcycle store richer than once they entered…? No, nor us.
Do professional cyclists get to maintain their bikes?
Usually not, no. In nearly all circumstances, the bikes are offered to the crew by a model by means of sponsorship. The model will provide sufficient bikes to produce the crew for the season, after which on the finish of the season – or contract interval, which frequently spans a number of years – the bikes might be returned.
Exceptions are typically made for key riders upon retirement, or bikes which are ridden to particular victories, however most often, the bikes are returned to the model after which bought, gifted, or in some circumstances even discarded.