Jonas Vingegaard’s bike received a few subtle changes on the first rest day at the Tour de France. He raced stage 10, for example, with a 1x arrangement as well as yellow SRAM graphics on what appears to be an updated Red lever configuration…

 

Tour Tech (photos: Stefano Sirotti)

First it was Rival, then the shape of the SRAM Force brake/shift lever was also revised when the latest iteration of the AXS groupset was launched in March this year. And so it should be no surprise that the top-of-the-line Red groupset will also soon make the switch.

In contrast to other product updates, the SRAM approach has been to go from the bottom to the top. And in the Tour de France of 2023 there are strong hints that a new Red release is imminent.

Jonas Vingegaard has been riding a range of different bike setups during the Tour. Clad in the yellow jersey since stage six, the defending champion raced the 10th stage with new yellow SRAM graphics on the levers, which are marked as ‘Red’ but the shape is akin to Force/Rival groupsets.

With a flat top section rather than the more rounded hood shape of the existing Red levers, Vingegaard’s bike is different to others racing with SRAM groupsets, including those of his Jumbo-Visma team-mates.

While Wout van Aert continues to race with old-style levers, Vingegaard had SRAM graphics in a gloss chrome/silver finish until stage 10 when the company branding (a feature of sponsored teams’ bikes) was switched to yellow, matching the leader’s jersey he continues to hold at the halfway point of the race.

The crankset of the TDF leader also has some yellow branding added for stage 10, when Vingegaard raced with a 1x arrangement with only a small addition of a chain guard (rather than a front derailleur).

With undulating terrain better suited to van Aert – who continues to chase his first stage win in the Tour of 2023 – the green jersey winner from last year also raced with a 1x set-up on his Jumbo-Visma team-issue Cervélo. The Belgian used a 54-tooth chainring, while his Danish team-mate raced stage 10 with a 52.

Jumbo-Visma is one of three teams in the TDF using SRAM components, the others being Lidl-Trek and Movistar.

With 10 stages raced, the only rider from these three teams to have won a stage is Lidl-Trek thanks to Mads Pedersen’s sprint win last Saturday. He achieved this also using a 1x set-up combined with a 10-33 12-speed SRAM cassette.

Below is a sequence of images by Stefano Sirotti from recent days showing the variations to Vingegaard’s bike as he makes his way to Paris.