Ben OConnor and his Jayco AlUla team-mates will be riding the Giant Trinity Advanced SL time trial bike in the opening stage team time trial at the Tour de France on Saturday (3 July). But with the team trial rules changed, with individual times taken for each rider and feeding into the general classification, the team will be trying to get OConnor as the team leader to the line as fast as possible. The stage finishes with two punchy climbs, the Cte de Montjuic (1.1km long at 5.1%), followed by a short descent and the final 800m, 7% climb to the Barcelona Olympic stadium. That means O'Connor will probably drop the rest of the team and tackle the final climb solo to set the fastest time possible and this is the bike he'll be doing it on. O'Connor's frame has been almost completely stripped of paint or lacquer to lower the weight. Our Media Although updated in January 2025, the Trinity Advanced SL isnt the lightest time trial bike, with Giant claiming a 1,340g painted frame and 535g painted fork weight. Its a bike that does double-duty for triathlon, so its more designed for straight-line speed on flatter courses, rather than the technical, uphill finale of stage one, and the general trend towards hillier TT courses in professional cycling. More tech from the 2026 Tour de France Spotted! Remco Evenepoel will ride this prototype Specialized Shiv at the Tour de France We weighed Tadej Pogaars 2026 Tour de France bike and its heavier than you might think Jonas Vingegaards Cervlo S5 for the 2026 Tour de France is bang on the UCIs 6.8kg weight limit Here's every bike at the 2026 Tour de France CarbonTi bolts may save another few grams over the stock hardware. Our Media OConnors Giant Trinity Advanced SL TT has been stripped of almost all its paint to help lower the bike weight. More weight has been saved by switching to CarbonTi bolts and a Dash Cycles Stage G3 time trial saddle with a 130g claimed weight. O'Connor's 130g Dash saddle is pushed as far back as possible in its rails to keep it within the UCI's saddle position rule. Our Media The extreme saddle setback is required due to the Trinity Advanced SL's 77-degree seat tube angle. Our Media The saddle sits on a setback seatpost and is pushed as far back on the saddle rails as possible. Thats to comply with the UCIs saddle position rule, stipulating that the saddle nose must be at least 50mm behind the bottom bracket centre. The Trinity Advanced SLs seat tube has a very steep 77-degree angle, and O'Connor has to compensate for this. O'Connor is running 28mm Vittoria tyres on his Cadex Max Aero wheels. Our Media The Australian is running Cadex Max Aero wheels, which were launched along with the Trinity Advanced SL frameset. The four-spoke front wheel has an 880g claimed weight and the rear 1,000g. They're shod with Vittoria Corsa Pro Speed tyres in 28mm width. Vittoria is a sponsor for time trial tyres, whereas the team uses Cadex tyres for road stages. A 1x chainring with a chain catcher on O'Connor's bike. Our Media OConnor is running a monster single chainring with a chain catcher. We werent allowed to count the unmarked chainring's teeth or weigh OConnors bike. O'Connor's bike has Cadex Tri Evo bar extensions. Our Media The Cadex cockpit has extra padding for O'Connor's forearms. Our Media Low-profile grips on the bike's base bar. Our Media While OConnor's team has clearly gone to great lengths to shave weight from the Trinity Advanced SL, Tadej Pogaar has a bike that looks almost purpose-built for the 2026 Tour de France time trials, the just launched Colnago TT2. The TT2's frame itself has a claimed weight of 985g and the fork 393g, with Colnago saying that a complete bike with a disc rear wheel can be built to the UCIs 6.8kg limit. That low weight, alongside a geometry designed to be agile, could offer an advantage to Pogaar not just in the stage one team time trial, but also in the stage 16 individual time trial, which includes 500m of climbing.