ESJonas and Jumbo Win Yellow
Ciccone in Polka Dots
There are few things more difficult than defending a Tour de France title, but Jonas Vingegaard proved up to the task. The quiet Dane showed up in Bilbao prepared, fended off two weeks of attacks from the explosive Tadej Pogačar, and proved strongest in the decisive third week of the biggest race on earth. A stage win in the hilly Stage 16 time trial, followed by a massive time gain on the Stage 17 climb to Col de la Loze, saw Vingegaard win the Tour by 7 minutes and 29 seconds. Team Jumbo-Visma also wins the overall Teams classification by over 13 minutes.
Vingegaard took advantage of the gearing versatility of RED eTap AXS to optimize his setup for specific stages. In all, the yellow jersey rode four different gear options over three bike models. His time trial bike was set up with 56/43 chainrings and a 10-33 cassette, and his lightweight Cervélo R5 had 52/39 rings and either 10-33 or 10-36 cassette, depending on the mountain stage. On many lumpy and flat days he even had an aero S5 built with a 1x drivetrain, using a 52T chainring and 10-36 cassette. The 1x build allowed Jonas to have his aero bike as close to the UCI weight limit as possible, while rivals had to switch to climbing bikes as the road went up.
The Tour de France is about so much more than yellow, and Giulio Ciccone spent the final week on the attack in the mountains, grabbing the polka dot jersey on Stage 15. In the break over every mountain, he secured the points to stand on the podium as the Tour’s best climber. Lidl-Trek also comes away with a stage win with Mads Pedersen victorious on a hard uphill sprint on Stage 8.
Our professionals race on RED eTap AXS. Featuring accurate and reliable power measurement, powerful and smooth disc brakes, and the most intelligent gearing combinations available, it’s the choice of winners everywhere.
