Freewheel brands at the Tour de France

We're pretty much a week into the Tour de France, and we thought this would be a good opportunity to have a look through the brands that we stock here on Freewheel and see what's being used in the race. The answer? Quite a lot, as it happens. Here's what's being used in the world's greatest bike race that you can check out right here on Freewheel.co.uk...

Shimano

One of the biggest brands in cycling and the groupset of choice for pretty much anyone who's anyone, it's actually easier to list the teams in the Tour that aren't riding Shimano (AG2R Citroen, Cofidis, Lotto Soudal, Movistar, Trek Segafredo and UAE Team Emirates) than those who are (all seventeen other teams). And before you think 'ah, well that's sponsorship for you' very few of those teams are actually sponsored by Shimano, they choose to ride the brand and buy their kit. 

Of those 17 teams, all of them are riding one groupset: Dura-Ace Di2, and almost all of them have chosen to run the disc brake version (r9170) rather than the rim brake version (r9150). On top of the components, 7 teams are riding Shimano Dura-Ace wheels as well making Shimano by far the most visible brand on bikes at the Tour de France. 

Vittoria

While you might think that the blue front tyre stunt from Jumbo-Visma was a bit odd (and we wouldn't disagree on that one), you can't argue with the quality of Vittoria's road tyres. Their Corsa tyre has been incredibly popular in the pro peloton ever since its release and this year you can see Alpecin-Fenix, UAE Team Emirates, Team DSM, Lotto Soudal and EF Education Nippo riding them in addition to the aforementioned Jumbo-Visma. 

With a super supple, high TPI casing, Graphene 2.0 technology and literally hundreds of thousands of race miles including wins in cycilng's biggest races, it's really not hard to see why so many teams entrust the safety of their riders to Vittoria's creations. 

Elite

While you might see riders warming up and cooling down on Elite's smart turbo trainers pre and post-stage, one thing you wont be able to miss is their Fly water bottles which are another thing favoured by the majority of the teams in the Tour. They're light, easy to drink from and feature a top that's designed to come off easily if they're run over - which is a massively underrated feature for something that would otherwise be one of the main crash hazards in a peloton. 

100%

As well as the favoured brand of the one-and-only Peter Sagan, 100% now provides the sunglasses to the entire Bora-Hansgrohe and Movistar teams, with both squads getting their choice of glasses in a special colourway made to match their teams' kits. Although they're still a relative newcomer to road cycling, 100% has built a big reputation and a large fanbase in a very short time, thanks to their unique styling and excellent range of models. 

The S2, S3, Racetrap, Speedtrap, Hypercraft, Speedcraft and Glendale models are all designed to meet the performance demands of road cycling and they all look great, too. And let's be honest, that's a big part of what you're thinking about when you buy sunglasses. 

Lazer

Sitting proudly on the heads of the powerful Jumbo-Visma squad, Lazer has been making helmets for the best cyclists in the world for years and their latest road lids are at least as good as anything out there. The Genesis (called the G1 in North America) is the lighest road helmet they've ever made at under 200g for a small, and combines that light weight with class leading safety, receiving the highest available rating from Virginia Tech University's independent helmet testing facility. 

 MAIN IMAGE CREDIT - JORIS KNAPEN