Tom Dumoulin questions Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike’s equipment choice

Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike had to swallow a bitter pill on Thursday in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. The Dane lost 2 minutes and 40 seconds to his great rival Tadej Pogačar, with a large part of that gap opening up on the descent. During De Avondetappe, Tom Dumoulin questioned one very specific equipment choice made by Vingegaard and his team.

“At the top of the Tourmalet I actually wasn’t even that far behind, but yes, on a descent like that, it is not really to my advantage,” Vingegaard said at the finish. “It was clearly not the day I had hoped for, but sometimes that’s how it goes in cycling.”

Dumoulin had respect for the fact that Vingegaard immediately made time for the press after such a difficult day. “It is really something to see: straight after the finish, all the journalists were already gathered around him again. You can imagine that if you lose almost three minutes on day six of the Tour, in the first real mountain stage, you would rather head straight to the team bus. But he did not do that; he really took the time.”

As someone with a sharp eye for equipment, Dumoulin noticed one thing in particular during the mountain stage. “What especially stood out on the climb of the Tourmalet — where we briefly got a good look at it — was his equipment choice. He is riding up the Tourmalet on his big ring. Then you quickly think: ‘Wow, on the big ring?’ But this is the thing: he simply only has one chainring at the front.”

Dumoulin continued his explanation. “Jonas has specifically chosen a single chainring at the front. That automatically means you only have eleven or twelve gears at the back to work with. So that is what you have to make do with on the steepest climbs, but also in the fastest descents, where you actually want to be able to push a really big gear.”

“To be honest, this does not seem like a very sensible choice to me. If you are riding up the Tourmalet at 25 kilometres per hour and you feel you are just pushing slightly too big a gear, you want to be able to shift down smoothly,” Dumoulin argued. “But because you only have twelve gears in total, the steps between them are much too large. You cannot shift subtly; you immediately make a huge jump and suddenly ride a lot lighter. The result is that uphill, you are very often just a little too light or just a little too heavy in terms of gearing.”

Vingegaard’s setup therefore became one of the talking points after a stage in which Pogačar not only attacked on the climb, but also extended his advantage on the descent. For a rider who normally relies on efficiency, rhythm and control, Dumoulin found the choice particularly striking.

“And what is he doing all this for?” Dumoulin asked aloud, before answering the question himself. “To save a tiny bit of weight compared with a double chainring. We are maybe talking about 40 to 50 grams here. That is almost nothing, of course; spray your bottle one time less and you have already made up that saving.”

“On top of that, you are creating the risk of pure energy loss. Because there is no second chainring, the chain is more often running at an angle, and that creates extra friction in the chain. That is just a loss of power. Not all the energy you put through the pedals with your legs is transferred effectively to your rear wheel,” explained the former Giro d’Italia winner.

“It remains a remarkable choice for one of the best riders in the world. Apparently, he feels comfortable with it. One additional advantage, of course, is that your chain cannot drop off at the front while shifting, because it is simply fixed on that one chainring. Whatever his exact considerations may have been, in my view the disadvantages that come with this system absolutely do not outweigh that minimal weight saving,” Dumoulin concluded.

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]