As the 2026 Tour de France reaches its decisive phase, Movistar Team sporting director Jos Joaqun Rojas has delivered one of the strongest public criticisms yet of Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates XRG. Speaking to the media during the first rest day, the former professional argued that the Slov...

Matteo Jorgenson's 2026 Tour de France has gone from difficult to more complicated, with Team Visma | Lease a Bike confirming the American is now dealing with illness in addition to injuries sustained in a crash. The 27-year-old, one of Jonas Vingegaard's key mountain domestiques, has struggled thro...

Australian developers say their smartphone app can give your power and cadence as you ride and even broadcast the data to Garmin and Wahoo head units via Bluetooth but how close is it to the real thing?

Olav Kooij came within inches of claiming his second stage victory at the 2026 Tour de France on stage 11, but the Dutch sprinter admitted that a split-second decision in the closing meters ultimately cost him the win. Decathlon CMA CGM Team delivered Kooij into an ideal position with a perfectly or...

Vast improvements in tyre technology over the past decade have contributed to professional cycling's higher average speeds, as traditional tubulars have been sidelined by faster-rolling tubeless tyres. With the sealant requiring maintenance and teams often choosing the raciest and most fragile versions available, this is a recipe for regular check-ups and replacement. But how many tyres do teams use at the Tour de France? Are the stars lucky enough to ride a new set every stage? We asked Vittoria, Continental and UAE Emirates-XRG.(Image credit: Aaron Borrill)How Tour de France teams maintain tyresTyres are cleaned and checked every evening after each stage and replaced approximately every three to five days depending on the road conditions," says Tommaso Cappella, project manager and team liaison at Vittoria. "With the new tyre, sealant is also applied fresh, to guarantee the best safety and performance."The Italian brand supplies eight teams with tyres at the Tour de France. Each team has eight riders. If we exclude spare bikes from our calculations, that means one team is changing between 32 and 56 tyres during the race, and 256 to 448 Vittoria tyres swapped in total. Cappella says 90 per cent of the tyres Vittoria sent to teams this year are 700x30c. If we assume each gets 40ml of sealant, team mechanics will pour in between 10 and 18 litres of the stuff by the time the race reaches Paris. (Image credit: Aaron Borrill)Continental supports seven teams at the Tour, who can choose from the Aero 111, GP5000 S TR, and GP5000 TT TR. Despite nominally being a time-trial tyre, the latter is the most popular across all stages, as riders seek speed over puncture protection. This isn't a big concern on the race route, where riders often encounter freshly laid tarmac. A Continental spokesperson said: "For the TT TR, teams are mostly racing the 28mm and 30mm versions, depending on the preference of the athletes. The Aero 111 is being used least frequently, and when it is, it's the 29mm version.In terms of maintenance, a UAE Emirates-XRG mechanic told us they check sealant every rest day, and top up as required. The team is exclusively using the GP5000 TT TR in 28mm or 30mm width, depending on rider preference. We even saw Tadej Pogaar going as narrow as 25mm on his Colnago TT2 at the team time trial in Barcelona.(Image credit: Aaron Borrill)UAE Emirates-XRG doesn't replace tyres at set intervals. Instead, mechanics fit brand-new tyres at the start of the race, then change them based on road conditions, temperature, and any damage. They estimate they swap a total of 30-40 tyres in the race. This broadly corresponds to Vittoria-sponsored teams' practices and would require 240 to 320 tyres and 10-13 litres of sealant for all the Continental teams. combined.With that much work involving tyres to do alongside checking and changing other components, it's no wonder Tour de France mechanics work such long hours.