Cycling | Pace-hunting at the Tour de France: People, technology, and records

The professional cyclists are on the hunt for speed. Tadej Pogačar is setting speed records on mountain passes. The three-time Tour champion is also pushing the boundaries of winning times: In 2015, Chris Froome won the Tour de France with an average speed of 38.72 kilometers per hour, while Pogačar triumphed last year with a time of 44.52. And among the ten fastest flat stages of the Tour of France of all time, six daily stages from the past three years are included.

The reasons for this lie in people and technology . One: the nutritional revolution. Instead of 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour, athletes now consume 120 grams thanks to a mixture of glucose and fructose supplements. "This allows riders to deliver their maximum performance for longer," explains Danish sports scientist Carsten Lundby to "nd." The result: While a few years ago, the 53-tooth chainring was considered the maximum, it is now 56 or even 58.

Crucial factors are the aerodynamic developments on the bike, the clothing, and the seating position. Optimization is particularly important for time trials . On Wednesday, the 33-kilometer-long, flat course around Caen became a racetrack for muscle-powered machines. "The rider's front end accounts for 75 percent of the aerodynamic drag, while the wheel accounts for only 25 percent," explains Jenco Drost, materials developer at Visma, the team of two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard , to "nd."

While, according to Drost, special fabrics are used in the shoulder and chest areas of jerseys, the goal in the wind tunnel is to find the rider's best position on the bike. There are now three types of bikes themselves: time trial bikes, which are extremely aerodynamically optimized but harder to control. The closest to these are aero bikes, which are also designed for good aerodynamics, as well as being extremely rigid and minimizing vibration losses. Cervelo and Canyon were the first manufacturers; Colnago released the fast Y1RS for Pogačar and his Emirates team this year. Faktor has developed a prototype approved by the world governing body.

Lightweight mountain bikes have evolved from conventional road bikes into a unique form. They dispense with a few layers of carbon and the aerodynamic, but more complex, teardrop shape of the frame. In the mountains, it's not the air resistance that matters, but the weight. The world governing body specifies a minimum of 6.8 kilograms. Aero bikes are also getting lighter and lighter. Vingegaard has already been seen climbing mountain passes in training on the new S5 from Cervelo. Perhaps he'll use it in the Pyrenees. Even the developers at Colnago consider a similar outcome unlikely for Pogačar. "We developed the Y1RS for sprinters and men who have to ride in the wind for long periods," engineer Filippo Galli tells "nd". A special bike for every task: it's quite possible that racing teams will soon be bringing monster trucks to the Tour instead of a kit van.