GCN Tech Show: How powerful are Tour de France riders?

After plenty of excitement and buzz, the Tour de France got underway last weekend with a Basque Country Grand Départ which, on paper, was one of the toughest in recent memory. It didn’t disappoint, delivering an attacking feast of racing in which the race for the yellow jersey exploded into life. Some GC hopes have already ended while others are hanging by a thread after one the most action-packed starts to the race ever.

Only small groups of the strongest riders were left contesting the opening two victories which got us thinking: how much power did it take to win a stage in the Basque Country? In this week’s GCN Tech Show, Alex and Ollie unpack stage 2 winner Victor Lafay’s (Cofidis) power numbers after the Frenchman conveniently uploaded his ride data onto Strava.

There’s also a new feature in this year’s Tour de France coverage with certain snippets from the race radios played during the stages. It’s a cool new feature but Alex and Ollie haven’t been as impressed as they were hoping to be.

If they were a little disappointed by the race radios, the range of tech on display more than made up for it with lots of new and customised bikes, plus a familiar 1x setup for Jumbo-Visma. It’s something they’ve used multiple times this season and they’re back again as Ollie and Alex discuss.

Elsewhere in a jam-packed episode, Comments of the Week features a question from Phil Taylor. It’s not the darts player we don’t think despite Ollie’s hopes.

Before ending with Bike Vault and a lesson from Ollie on the correct way to present a bike - it could be the difference between a nice and super-nice vote.

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