Tour de France tech in August? Yeah, I know, not only has the Tour de France been over for weeks, but so too has the Olympic road race come and gone. But such is life when there are simultaneous print and Internet deadlines on top of last minute trips to Europe that weren't on the schedule until they came up. Sometimes life at RBA gets a bit hectic...just one reason it's so awesome to have the job - never a dull moment!

So here's another installment of some of the more entertaining sights I found while following the Tour.


In our last installment I gave you an inside look at the rolling kitchen used by the Garmin-Sharp team. Well, here's the version used by the Saxo/Tinkoff Bank team. While still nowhere as extravagant as the rolling kitchen that team Leopard ran with last year, the Saxo rig is still pretty big.


And as you might expect from a team run by the seemingly tightly wound Bjarne Riis, the interior of the team Saxo kitchen was beyond spic & span.


When every second counts with a wheel change the mechanics at Lampre are one step ahead of the game with all the spare wheels being pre-prepped for easy installation thanks to these handy portable dropouts (connected by a wire) that they use on every wheel before they get stored in a team car.

THE 2013 CANYON (U.S. Residents need not get excited!)

Spotted over at the Team Katusha bus was this pre-production Canyon road bike that will probably see the light of day next year, yet disappointingly, most likely not in America. The German brand remains a top seller throughout Europe, but they have yet to find a U.S. distributor which leaves American cyclists without the opportunity to ride some of the more exciting bikes found in the Pro peloton.



As is common with all of Canyon's high-end road bikes, they simply nail the detailed elements of the frame design. 


This proto bike features a host of new frame tube shapes and internal cable routing, but the most interesting item is the “Flip Head” seat post which is intended to add some compliance to the ride. Unfortunately, no one at the truck was ready to talk about the bike – its official release will be at the Eurobike show in early September so stay tuned.  


The Saur-Sojasun bikes ran their Shimano Di2 batteries flat against the bottom of the downtube.


Without a doubt the Bont shoes are among the most popular in the Pro ranks. Equally so, they are the least technical looking as well. Is it a slipper or cycling shoe? These silver jobs were on the feet of Bradley Wiggins and would eventually be replaced with yellow versions for his ride into Paris.


Spotted inside the door of the Katusha team car was this stash of  when energy gels and, of course, the always useful can of coke.


Team Argos-Shimano's star rider Marcel Kittel showed up for the prologue TT wearing an ice vest to stay cool. Unfortunately both the team and Kittel had a pretty miserable Tour with the soon-to-be-a-star German rider pulling out early due to injury.


For three consecutive days I noticed that the Liquigas team relied a different approach to presenting their bikes. "This is our Moby Dick...we'll keep trying until we get it right!" said Cannondale Director of Sports Marketing, Rory Mason.


Alessandro Petacchi checks out the flavors of PowerBars that are available for the riders at the start of every stage.


Meanwhile, over in the Village Depart, the rest of us have a much wider selection of daily food items to choose between.


See above.


Yaroslav Popovych takes a minute to cater to a fan at the start of stage five.

A NEW DIRT WHEEL STANDARD?

And despite the on-going flip-flopping with the dirt set, there is no truth to the rumor that the mountain bike industry is ready to really go big and adopt yet another new & bigger wheel size…maybe something like a 869’er!