Photo gallery: custom bikes and kit at the 2017 Tour de France - Road Cycling UK

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Photo gallery: custom bikes and kit at the 2017 Tour de France

From custom-painted bikes to snazzy shoes, here's some of the one-off tech on show at the Tour de France

The Tour de France is the biggest bike race in the world and, as a result, an opportunity not only for the world’s best riders to show what they’re capable of, but for bike brands to put their latest tech in front of an audience of millions of fans.

Two of the biggest riders in the sport, Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan, arrived at the Tour with custom-painted bikes, with the former armed with a Cervelo S5 with a Formula One paintjob which added a scant 26g to the bike, and the latter riding a unique version  of Specialized’s brand-new Tarmac SL6.

Mark Cavendish arrived at the Tour de France with a custom-painted Cervelo S5 to ride

Cavendish and Sagan may have both left the race after stage four but their bikes are too good to get lost in the fog of a sprint crash and controversial disqualification.

What’s more, there’s plenty more custom tech on show at the Tour, from more one-off paintjobs to special shoes, and smaller details in between. Check out the photo gallery below for some of the custom goodies we’ve spotted.

Check out this fleet of BMC Teammachine SLR01s. Notice the odd one out? Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet's machine has gold detailing following the Belgian's victory in Rio de Janeiro last summer
Van Avermaet, or GVA, won a three-way sprint with Jakob Fuglsang and Rafal Majka to claim the Olympic title
Van Avermaet's SRM PC8 computer gets the golden treatment, too
And there's also a splash of gold for the two-time Tour de France stage winner's Fizik Antares saddle
Frenchman Adrien Petit rides for the Direct Energie team and is nicknamed 'El Bisonte', or 'The Bison' - perhaps due to the 26-year-old 6'2", 80kg frame and his penchant for the Classics, having powered to ninth at this year's Paris-Roubaix
South African national champion Reinardt Janse van Rensburg is riding his third Tour de France for Team Dimension Data
Mark Cavendish received this one-off Cervelo S5 ahead of the Tour de France, but the Manxman's race lasted only four stages after a crash on stage four left him with a broken shoulder
Cervelo teamed up with Silverstone Paint Technology, a company which typically works with Formula One teams, to develop the paint scheme
The paint is astonishingly light, with the metallic green and silver sections apparently weighing just 1g, while the complete finish, including decals, adds only 26g to the bike. You can even see the carbon weave underneath some sections
Cavendish won the Tour's green jersey in 2011, before going on to claim the world champion's rainbow jersey in the same year
The S5 cuts an aerodynamic profile, with the rear wheel tightly hugging the seattube
Green Chris King hubs match the finish on Cavendish's bike
Interestingly, Team Dimension Data use second-tier Shimano Ultegra cassettes, rather than Shimano Dura-Ace, but the gold KMC chain certainly adds a bit of bling
Cavendish hoped to add to his haul of 30 Tour de France stage wins at this year's race, with this oversized 54-42t chainset for company
Cavendish likes to have his Shimano Di2 satellite shifters mounted on the front of the drops
The S5 may be Cervelo's flagship aero bike but it still takes a generous wrap of electrical tape to keep the Di2 junction box hidden behind the saddle
Still, at least it helps keep the junction box out of harms way
Cavendish also arrived at the Tour with a pair of custom Nike shows, featuring the hand prints of his children, son Frey...
...and daughter Delilah
Cavendish's Dimension Data team-mate, Steve Cummings, won both the British national road and time trial titles on the weekend preceding the Tour. As well as getting a new stripey jersey, Cummings' bike received a Union Jack makeover
And check out these custom Union Jack Boa dials on Cummings' Gaerne shoes
Specialized unveiled the new Tarmac SL6 ahead of the Tour de France and, to mark the occassion, Peter Sagan received this custom-painted machine
Of course, Sagan was to only last four stages, having been disqualified from the race for his involvement in the crash which saw Cavendish abandon
The Tarmac is Specialized's all-round race bike but this latest version, the SL6, has had an aero update, with the dropped seatstays similar to those found on Spesh's aero bike, the Venge
A Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 chainset and 4iiii power meter provided the centrepiece to Sagan's drivetrain
Unlike Cavendish, who prefers his sprint shifters on the front of the drops, Sagan has them mounted in a more conventional position
Sagan uses Specialized's Aerofly handlebar but swaps in a super-stiff, oversized Zipp SL Sprint carbon stem, with the logo covered by electrical tape as Zipp isn't a sponsor of his Bora-hansgrohe team
K-Edge is an official sponsor, however, and the US firm provided custom Garmin mounts for Bora-hansgrohe at the Tour, featuring the nicknames of riders
PetoBomber's team-mate, Jay McCarthy, is known as Peanut
While the rest of his Ag2r La Mondiale team-mates are riding blue bikes, team leader Romain Bardet gets a white Factor O2 for the Tour de France
Bardet has impressed in the Tour so far with his attacking riding
The Frenchman finished second behind Chris Froome in last year's race and lies third overall after nine stages of the 2017 edition
Fabio Aru sits second overall and is riding a custom-painted Argon 18 Gallium Pro, which has been updated for 2017 and now has a claimed frame weight of 794g
Aru powered the Gallium Pro to victory on stage five, finishing solo atop the climb of La Planche des Belles Filles
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Topics:

Tour de France 2017 Tour de France 2017 Tech

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