00:00The Tour de France is absolutely filled to the brim with very cool, but very expensive
00:05tech.
00:06There's also a lot of kit out there that teams are definitely only using because they're
00:10getting paid to do so.
00:12So after a few days scouring the team's setups, here's 7 Tour de France products that I'd
00:17actually spend my own money on.
00:22When it comes to bikes, there's some absolute stunners in the World Tour Peloton, but for
00:26my riding I think I'd have to choose an all-rounder bike, rather than one of the pure climbing
00:31or aero steeds.
00:33Having used bikes such as the S-Works Tarmac SL8 and the Trek Madone, you might think that
00:38I'd go for one of those.
00:40But when you take value for money into account, I think I'd have to go for Intermarche Wonti's
00:46Cube C68X Lightning Air.
00:54It is a brilliant bike, and it's almost half the price of some of its World Tour competition.
01:00For example, this Dura-Ace build with Newman carbon-spoke wheels, and a very similar setup
01:05to the ones being used by the pros, has an RRP of £7,499 or $8,500, that makes it the
01:13cheapest bike in the Pro Peloton.
01:15I've used one, and it is very good, and it can also be built up easily under the 6.8kg
01:21UCI weight limit.
01:22However, I'm a bit of a bike nerd, and so I probably wouldn't keep the wheels that
01:27come on the bike, on the bike, and instead try and make it my own by switching out the
01:32wheel sets.
01:33So which wheels from the Tour de France Peloton would I go for?
01:37Well, probably none of them to be honest, but I have sat down and kicked some ideas around
01:41with Andy, Cycling Weekly's tech editor, and we've come up with some sort of conclusions.
01:46We were in agreement that when spending our own money we want something around 50mm deep,
01:52fairly wide, and preferably with hooked rims.
01:56That discounts quite a lot of the options, especially as we then decided that for UK riding, we'd
02:01probably forgo carbon spokes due to their increased price for only a small weight advantage.
02:07The only wheelset that we could agree on, that weren't ridiculous money, are the reserves
02:12that adorn team Visma Lisa-Weiksteeds.
02:15The 52-63 wheelset can be specced with multiple sets of DT Swiss hubs, we'd probably go for
02:21the 240 option for the best mix of reliability, weight and price, and yes, the team do use
02:27those, not just the 180s.
02:29We found them to be properly stable, and at £1,999, they're about half the price of
02:35Pogaccia's new NVs.
02:38Not everything that the pros use is financially out of reach, and one of the products that
02:42I absolutely swear by features on many of the team's bikes.
02:46These Superleggera bottle cages have an RRP of £23.99, and in my opinion outperform most
02:53of the much more expensive options.
02:55We'll pop the link to some deals on all of the products featured here down in the description
02:59below, and make sure you're subscribed to the channel if you want to see lots more of
03:03the latest bike tech.
03:04It also helps get me out to the Tour de France, so please do.
03:09There is loads of nice tyres being used here at the 2025 Tour de France.
03:13There's the new 30mm only Continental Archetype, there's Hutchinson's Blackbirds, and even
03:19funky Aero tyres.
03:21The pick of the bunch for me, though, is probably the Pirelli P0 Race TLR-RS, pictured here on
03:28Matteo van der Poel's Canyon Aeroad CFR.
03:31For me, they just narrowly edge out Continental's GP5000 STRs and Vittorio Coursers because, despite
03:39their name, they're actually slightly harder wearing than many of the tyres here at the
03:42Tour, thanks to a slightly deeper tread.
03:45And trust me, if I'm spending Tour de France level money on tyres, I want them to last more
03:50than £1000k.
03:52When thinking of which Tour de France helmet I'd buy with my own money, it was probably
03:57the easiest decision of the lot.
03:59I like the look of plenty of the helmets.
04:01The Juvex lid on Binyam Gamay is tempting, as is the Specialized Evade III, but only one
04:07helmet makes commercial sense to me.
04:09The Van Riesel RCRF.
04:11This is a helmet being raced at the highest level, being worn by some of the world's fastest,
04:17and yet it costs a third of the price of nearly everything else at the Tour de France.
04:22It's also received some great reviews, so it's pretty easy to recommend.
04:27To complete the look, there are a few other things being used in the 2025 Tour de France
04:32which I'd be tempted to purchase.
04:34A set of funky tubeless valves from Muckoff, for example.
04:38The same ones that EF Education first used on their Vision wheels.
04:42You can get them in all kinds of colours, and I think it's one of the classier ways of
04:47adding a bit of bling to your bike.
04:50One product that we would spend our own money on, though, is the Spatz Overshoes, as worn
04:54by Mathieu van der Poel.
04:56They're fast, they stay up, and they're not ludicrously expensive.
05:00And in fact, for the aero advantage that they'll give you, they're probably one of the better
05:04value upgrades that you can make to your bike and clothing as a whole.
05:09When it comes to most bike components, I'd usually recommend not going for Shimano's
05:14top tier option, Dura-Ace, for the simple reason that it rarely offers much more than
05:18a few grams saving for quite a lot more money over the Ultegra or, for example, 105 Di2.
05:25Don't get me wrong, Shimano's Dura-Ace pedals don't come cheap, but it is actually something
05:30that I would spend my money on, maybe.
05:34You see, Dura-Ace pedals do actually have some advantages over the lower tier options.
05:38They've got a really low stack height, they've got a really low weight, they last for ages,
05:44and have an additional set of needle bearings when compared to the Ultegra ones.
05:48For once, this isn't just a few expensive materials with no noticeable gain.
05:54If I had to choose one set of pedals from the Tour de France, then it would undoubtedly
05:58be these, so if you want the ultimate pedals for your bike, then this pro level option is
06:03well worth a look.
06:05Let us know if there's any that you think we've missed in the comments below.
06:08As always, make sure you're subscribed to the channel for lots more bike tech and Tour
06:12de France stuff, and check out some deals in the description below.
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