Five road bike tech trends spotted at Opening Weekend

The Spring Classics are finally underway, and Opening Weekend didn’t disappoint with emphatic wins by Mathieu van der Poel and Demi Vollering at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Matthew Brennan at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. As expected, the team paddocks were awash with fans and cycling royalty, not to mention mechanics frantically prepping bikes ahead of the start. We were fortunate enough to be on the ground at both races, camera and notepad in hand, meticulously searching for new tech and trends.

While there’s still no sign of a new Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, there was plenty of groupset experimentation behind the scenes, along with some common themes explored by most teams. There was an even split between Shimano and SRAM components (Cofidis was the only team running Campagnolo groupsets), with further subdivisions in drivetrain specifications.

One-by setups were commonplace given the nature of the punchy parcours. As such, SRAM-sponsored teams such as Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Unibet Rose Rockets employed mullet configurations, categorised by SRAM Red AXS front ends, Red AXS XPLR cassettes, and direct-mount rear derailleurs. This move allowed the teams to safely run the brand’s aero-optimised 54T chainring.

Chain guides were standard fare on all one-by setups, with Wolf Tooth dominating chain keeper duties. Tim Wellens of UAE Team Emirates XRG was seen aboard a Y1Rs with a Shimano Dura-Ace 1x setup, complete with a Carbon-Ti ring and a K-Edge chain keeper.

The humble butyl inner tube still had a small role to play, used on forks to hold the timing transponders.

Race profile stickers were seen in various guises, from beautifully printed glossy decals to handwritten paper and fabric adhesives. Stem lengths were pretty long, too, with nothing less than 120mm fitted. Most riders opted for 130mm while others were seen using stems as long as 145mm.

There was a mix of handlebar configurations, too, with both traditional stem-and-bar clamps and integrated one-piece arrangements. This was used by Lidl-Trek, with rider Kragh Andersen no doubt using a Bontrager Aero RSL bar and stem to find the right combinations before settling on an integrated setup. Most Lidl-Trek riders were using the fully integrated RSL setup.

While we were at it, we weighed as many bikes as we could get our hands on to get a sense of the Classics-spec race rigs, which averaged around 7.5kg. The lightest bike was Tom Pidcock’s 7.18kg Pinarello Dogma F, while the heaviest was Cole Kessler’s Factor One of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling. His bike tipped the scales at 8.39kg, granted it was outfitted in SRAM Force AXS.

There was a fair bit of mixed-and-matched components on show, too, but this is nothing new owing to sponsor obligations or rider preference. As such, Shimano Dura-Ace SPD-SL pedals lead the charge and were also seen attached to many SRAM crankarms. There were Look Keo Blade Ceramic Ti and Time XPro SL pedals also on display, but the latter was used on SRAM-sponsored teams only – we didn’t see any Time pedals fitted to Shimano-equipped bikes.

Among the drivetrain component combinations, Bahrain Victorious paired regular Shimano cranksets and Chinese Elilee carbon cranks (with power meters in some configurations) with their Dura-Ace groupsets.

Mathieu van der Poel went on to win Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on a two-by Shimano Dura-Ace Di2-outfitted bike, proving 24 gears are still a no-brainer for most race situations. With over 1,600m of vertical ascent to negotiate across the Flanders landscape, van der Poel‘s 56-44T, 11-34T gearing setup proved a successful recipe for the Dutchman.

There was a lot on display, but there were several clear trends seen on the bikes of all the major WorldTour teams – and we’ve compiled our findings below.

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