Plus, this week’s news and reviews from BikeRadar <\/p>
If I said Kraftwerk hit upon a fundamental aspect of the Tour de France, you may laugh or wonder what I was on about.\u00a0<\/p>
But listen to their album Tour de France<\/em> and you might get what I mean. I\u2019m not talking about the repetitive beats, the continuous pumping noises, evoking the machinic qualities of riding a bicycle. Instead, the lyrics relayed over the second track: \u201cRadio Tour information, transmission t\u00e9l\u00e9vision \/ Reportage sur moto \/ Cam\u00e9ra, vid\u00e9o et photo\u201d.<\/p> Kraftwerk understood that the Tour de France, launched by the newspaper L’Auto<\/em>, whose yellow paper led to the maillot jaune<\/a>, has always been about the spectacle and the media coverage. What would a three-week long, 4,000km race across France, fleetingly visible from the roadside, be without it?<\/p> With this in mind, we\u2019ve been full gas this week at BikeRadar bringing you that coverage, in our unique and \u2013 okay, maybe I\u2019m biased \u2013 standout way.\u00a0<\/p> Alongside bike checks, including Geraint Thomas\u2019 Pinarello Dogma F<\/a> and Remco Evenepoel\u2019s Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8<\/a>, Simon von Bromley asked why pro teams are divided on chain waxing<\/a> and Jack Evans delved into the complicated world of fuelling for the race<\/a> (spoiler: it involves a lot of rice).\u00a0<\/p> Meanwhile, Oscar Huckle compared the weights of nine team\u2019s bikes<\/a> and James Witts explained what it takes to win at the Tour<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p> We also shared our predictions for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a>, which thankfully has the media coverage Kraftwerk spoke of, unlike some other women\u2019s races that don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p> And be sure to check out our Tour de France hub<\/a> for all of the coverage, with more to come over the race\u2019s closing weekend.\u00a0<\/p> It hasn\u2019t all been Tour de France, though. We rounded up our picks of the best endurance road bikes<\/a> and best electric bikes<\/a>, alongside reviews of two rather special mountain bikes, the Mason Raw<\/a> and Rob\u2019s Pivot Firebird<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>