PROS – Vision Wheels for Team Jumbo-Visma at the Tour de France

At the Tour de France, several teams use prototype and/or unmarked wheels, thus not respecting their official equipment. This is the case for Wout van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma team, which rides with Vision Metron wheels instead of the usual Shimano wheels.

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Some riders from several teams use prototype wheels, such as Alpecin-Fenix, Team DSM, or Groupama-FDJ. These teams are privileged partners of equipment manufacturer Shimano and could well be taking advantage of the Tour to test new high-end wheels from the Japanese manufacturer.

However, we know that for the Laval time trial, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) used a Princeton CarbonWorks Blur 633 disc wheel paired with an Aerocoach Aeox Titan 100 mm front wheel. In this specific case, such a combo was not necessarily available from Shimano or its sister brand PRO.

Other teams take other liberties on road stages, such as Ineos Grenadiers, who were seen last year riding with Lightweight wheels and now seem to prefer Princeton CarbonWorks Wake 6560 for the mountains, or Team BikeExchange and Team Jumbo-Visma, who use Vision Metron 55 SL Disc Tubular wheels on certain stages, or even some Israel Start-up Nation riders who ride Lightweight instead of their equipment supplier’s Black Inc. wheels.

This choice could be explained by the search for the best compromise between weight and aerodynamics, especially with the Vision disc and tubular wheels used by Jumbo-Visma, which weigh only 1380 g for a rim depth of 55 mm, and by less strict partnership contracts than a full sponsorship.

=> SEE ALSO: Pro Gear: The Bikes of the 2021 World Tour Teams