Gear ratios in the Tour de France
 

I started watching the TDF at the end of the Bernard Hinault era. I watched the Armstrong years, and have never missed a Tour. I was at the finish of the 2002 TDF in Paris.

Recently I watched the Armstrong podcast, where he was talking about the large rear sprockets being used today by the likes of Froome - he had a 28 tooth cassette on the desk, commenting that this would have been unheard of a decade ago or so.

I was wondering, what was a typical chainring/freewheel setup used in the Tour in the late 1980s/early 90s ....?

80s 52/42 and 12-21 freewheel
90s 53/39 and 12-23 or 25 cassette.

In 2002 when I did my first 3State3mountain I mounted a 12-27 cassette with a 53/39 crank. I couldn't believe I would need such a low gear. It felt like riding a granny gear on a mountain bike.

You forgot to mention there'd only be six cogs on that freewheel.

During the early eighties, I was in my lbs talking bikes or buying stuff or something. I was friendly with the owner's son who used to commute on a typical roadie. He mentioned that he replaced the freewheel with a racing freewheel for his morning commute... and it darned near killed him.

Yes, that's true.

Thanks for the replies.

I wonder what sort of freewheel they'd have on something like the Galibier...?

I have a 52/39 and 13/26 on my road bike and a few weeks ago did the Col de la Madone with a mate... think I could have done with that 28 T cog of Froomes..

(The Madone is a regular training run of Froomes, as it was for a certain Lance Armstrong, for those interested.)

In a recent GCN video, they mentioned that Tony Martin runs an 11-32 cassette so he never has to get out of his 58T big ring. Yeah. 58 tooth. Also mentioned that with the newer derailleurs that can handle big ranges, riders can do pretty much the whole tour on one bike, just with cassette changes. Riders in the 80s simply didn't have the option for those gears-- they most likely would have ridden them if they had them.

One of my favorite articles on gearing is about Giovanni Battaglin's custom Campy triple chainring:

Giovanni Battaglin?s Giro d'Italia winning ?Tre Cime? Pinarello - Cycling Weekly

But like was said above, its was in the days of 6 and 7 speed freewheels. So less range in the back as compared to the 11 speed cassette we are spoiled by having now. Slightly OT since he used that rig in the Giro d'Italia. But thought it was worth a mention...

This is an older article about Chris Froome's Pinarello F8:

Tour Tech 2014: Chris Froome's Team Sky Pinarello Dogma F8 | road.cc

It talks about his funky 52/38 oval chainrings and the 11-28 cassette. I doubt that the oval chainrings really do that much. Shimano had the biopace eons ago. I think we all have a dead spot in the pedal stroke and cannot fully get rid of it. Clipless just lets you push and pull in different directions to engage different muscles and give the others a break. Smoothness and/or suppleness is good for pedaling. But noone will get that "perfect pedal stroke" and that's ok.

“Originally Battaglin was using a Campagnolo Record groupset, with 13/14/15/17/19/21 sprockets and 53/44 chainrings...."

Blimey... cannot imagine climbing the alpine cols with that setup.

For the Peyragudes stage the announcers were talking about Froome busting out a 32t cog. Did not help him that day though.

In the LA days, didn't Tyler Hamilton run a compact crankset? Or was that just the one year he rode with a broken collarbone (and however much dope he needed to keep going)

They did, they just chose not to use them.

Huh. I wonder why the mfrs. chose to wait 25 years to give 11-speed to the rest of us, when they apparently had 2x11 in the '80s. :rolleyes:

What does 11-speed have to do with lower gear ratios? 32T cogs are nothing new.

I mean they had the option to use drivetrains with similar low gears, with very little compromise elsewhere in the system. It just would have meant drilling for an extra small ring, and using a rear derailleur that wasn't a Nuovo Record or some close variant thereof.

Ugh, pedants. Almost nothing worse.

They didn't run a 32T in the 80s because that had 5 or 6 cogs on the cassette. The spacing would be ridiculous. Tony Martin can pair an 11-32 with a 58T and run a 1X11 TT bike, because there are 11 gears in the back and not 5 or 6. He has a bigger gear range as they did in the 80s... only he shifts through them with little buttons.

Yep. Works fine if you're cool with half-step or 1.5-step, but a lot of people aren't.

They used to change freewheels to suit the stage more than they do now. With 11-speed an 11-28 works for most stages. I remember reading about Andy Hampsten being superstitious about using only odd number low gears,except for the 28 on mountain stages. As for Armstrong's opinion, I would guess Barry Bonds is suprised by the light weights the current players deadlift too...

Armstrong was a serious spinner on the climbs, though.

Would like to see an old timer dropped in recend tdf.

He would probably laugh at the gearing.....until he gets smashed by the gc guys.

Grinding is slow.

I haven't seen the bikes but I recall a comment by a NBCSN announcer...that some of the riders are on compacts for the steepest stages. Just like rider strength and weight varies quite a bit in the peloton...have to believe gear ratios follow that trend.

When Barry and tour riders are on the same juice, their deadlift is surprisingly similar. Bonds on steroids turned into a refrigerator.

I remember when the Angliru debuted in the Vuelta there was talk of riders using triples and mountain bike freewheels just to survive. By contrast, Lucien van Impe's mechanic supposedly used to boast that "his 22 was clean as a whistle," meaning he had won mountain stages in the Tour never bothering to even shift lower than a 19 or 20.


I remember when I bought my first bike with a triple, I pleaded with the guy in the store to take the 30 ring off so I could just ride a 42-52 with the 12-25 at the back. Now, if I were to ever switch from a 34-50, it would be to pair something smaller with any cassette that has an 11.

EPO tends to have that effect

I remember that to. I think it was about that time when the compact started to become "standard".

I love my set up of mid-compact with 11-30 cassette. I have that on both my road bikes.