Peter Sagan is riding today’s Tour de France stage, which features cobbled sectors from Paris-Roubaix, on a mechanical Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 groupset.
The Team TotalEnergies puncheur had been racing 12-speed Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 on his custom Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 for the first three road stages.
But he appears to have swapped to 11-speed mechanical Dura-Ace 9100, according to a Team TotalEnergies social media post.
???? Changement de vélo pour aujourd’hui ! #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/4nMdEG5pi1
— Team TotalEnergies (@TeamTotalEnrg) July 6, 2022
Prior to today’s stage five, which runs 153.7km from Lille to Arenberg over 11 pavé sectors, Sagan’s team tweeted a video of his bike.
The video shows his bike is fitted with a full Dura-Ace R9100 groupset. The rear derailleur is also mounted using a custom direct-mount derailleur hanger.
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This is not the first time Sagan has reverted to mechanical shifting for cobbled races – he won the 2018 edition of Paris-Roubaix on a mechanical groupset and reverted back to a similar setup for the 2021 race.
![""]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/21/2022/07/Peter-Sagan-mechanical-dura-ace-bike-101d78b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"\"")
It’s exceptionally rare to see anything but electronic groupsets used on WorldTour bikes. As far as we’re aware, the last WorldTour race won on a mechanical groupset was Sagan’s 2018 win.
Though some on the BikeRadar team would argue Paris-Roubaix tech has got boring in recent years, there’s no denying that the sight of cobbles seems to bring out the inner fettler in pro cyclists.
Lizzie Deignan notably used a SRAM Red eTap AXS groupset setup in a 1x arrangement on her Trek Domane SLR on her way to solo victory at the inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix in 2021.
New tyres to match?
The Roval wheels on Sagan’s Roubaix are also fitted with a set of unbranded tyres.
These feature a light file tread that looks similar to Specialized’s range of Turbo tyres.
As the team’s tyre sponsor, we expect these are new prototype Specialized tubeless tyres. We have contacted Specialized and Team TotalEnergies for comment and will update this article when we have more information.