Tadej Pogačar’s heavily modified 6.9kg Colnago Y1Rs for his Tour de France mountain time trial domination

The stage 13 mountain time trial is absolute heaven for tech nerds, with riders throughout the billing showing off a real variety of setups. We’ve seen road bikes with time trial wheels, time trial bikes with road wheels, aero helmets, pure lightweight setups, and the growing trend of ‘road mullet’ wheel setups with a deep front and shallow rear.

Much of the buzz around the stage has focussed on what the GC contenders are doing. We’ve seen Remco Evenepoel riding a modified time trial bike with deep road wheels, and the race leader and now overwhelming favourite to take the overall victory in Paris is riding a stripped-down hill-climb modified Colnago Y1Rs that I have been told tips the scales at a mere 6.9kg, just 100g over the UCI’s minimum weight limit. His normal, white team bike normally weighs just shy of 7.5kg, meaning the team has managed to remove 600g.

How have the team managed this? Let’s dig into it.

1. No paint

The most obvious change is the removal of the paint. Pogačar usually runs a white bike, and white paint is often the heaviest colour due to the use of titanium-based pigments. Stripping that all back and replacing it with a simple, matte clearcoat over raw carbon will have removed a significant chunk of weight.

2. Smaller parts