Lightweight-aero all-rounders dominate

By Simon von Bromley

2023-07-22 11:00:08

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The Tour de France is the most important race of the year, so teams and riders use the best and latest equipment.

Given that, you might think the answer to the question “How much does a Tour de France bike weigh?” would be a simple one – “Bang on the UCI minimum bike weight of 6.8kg.”

The halcyon days of sub-5kg off-the-shelf road bikes are long gone, however.

While many lay blame at the feet of things such as road disc brakes and tubeless tyres and wheels, another major culprit is aerodynamic drag – or, more specifically, efforts to counter it.

As we’ve seen with bikes such as the Specialized S-Works Aethos, it’s perfectly possible to build a disc brake road bike that weighs less than 6.8kg (at a cost, of course, but that’s no issue for Tour pros).

The problem is that bikes such as the Aethos would be slower than heavier, more aerodynamically efficient ones except on the steepest of gradients, for racing at the WorldTour level.

Though famous for its mountains, the Tour de France isn’t a simple hill climb race.

In fact, despite being one of the most mountainous Tours of recent years, the 2023 race is currently sitting on an overall average speed of more than 41kph/25mph.

The challenge for bike brands, therefore, is to build a bike that is both as aerodynamic as possible yet also light enough to hit 6.8kg in full race trim. As things stand, compromises have to be made somewhere.

So how much does a complete pro bike weigh in 2023? We got our hands on 11 Tour de France bikes and put them on the BikeRadar scales of truth.