Monster all-carbon chainring and custom bars among the smörgåsbord of bling on Remco Evenepoel’s time trial bike

While the bookies are leaning towards Tadej Pogačar taking the overall Tour de France victory, there are still decent odds on Jonas Vingegaard. In the time trial, however, at least the flat one on stage 5 – today, at the time of writing – Remco Evenepoel is the out-and-out favourite, and he will no doubt have been banking on this stage to claw some time back on his rivals after his team’s sleepy opening stage. It is perhaps disappointing for him that he’s already lost nearly a full minute to both Pogačar and Vingegaard.

On a time trial bike, Evenepoel is about as close to perfection as it’s possible to get. His position is superb, even going so far as to require a special cutout visor to allow him to get his head lower. He uses a massive chainring for aero and drivetrain efficiency reasons, and while his Specialized Shiv is quite old now as a bike model, it’s clearly not slowing the reigning Olympic and World Champion down.