Tech Talk: Facts and Figures in the 100th Giro D'Italia

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With the Giro a week underway we are diving into the tech used by the World Tour teams at a Grand Tour. We visited our sponsored teams to give you an overview of the components they are racing with. Scroll down to see our best products captured in combination with interesting facts and figures from our sponsored teams.

Bikes

In total a team carries around 50 bikes to a Grand Tour. The nine riders on a team have at least two fully build of road bikes. One they use in the race, the other one is on the roof of the team car. Besides their road bikes they also have two time trial bikes. Again one to race with and one as a back up at the team car during time trails. Besides the road and time trail bikes teams carry spare frames in their truck. 

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Wheel Sets

With that many bikes, team and riders need a hell of a lot wheels. Teams bring around 70 wheel sets. During each stage every team car takes around 10 wheel sets. 

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Riders prefer riding with tire pressure from 7 (101psi) up till 10 bar (145 psi). It's a personal choice but also depends on the weather.



Water bottles are not only used to drink. The mechanics use them to prepare the rim with two layers of glue before they put the tubular tire on.

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Cassettes

This might be the most mind-blowing figure. Teams carry around 160 cassettes in total. Besides all the prepared bikes and wheels sets they bring another 11 x 11-32 cassettes for climbing in the mountain stages.

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Chains

There are around 200 chains per team at a Grand Tour. For mountain stages team change cassettes (for instance to the 11-30T cassette) so mechanics will change the chain to make sure the chain length and tension is perfect again.

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Shoes

Every sponsored rider has three pairs of shoes for a Grand Tour. With no incidents or damage most riders only use one pair. 

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