The Tour de France is the ultimate test for riders and their equipment, and wheels take some serious abuse over the three weeks. They have to be light enough to climb the highest peaks, and aerodynamic enough to gain those extra millimetres at the finish, which can make the difference between marking a rider’s name in history and getting a telling off by the DS (directeur sportif).
Riders switch between wheelsets as the Tour goes on, depending on the terrain and conditions, and here are some of the most noteworthy that we’ve spotted recently, most of them before hilly Stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, the traditional warm-up race for the Tour.
For flat stages, we typically see wheels of around 60mm in depth, especially for the sprinters who want every aerodynamic advantage when it comes to the finale (the UCI says the maximum height for wheel rims used in mass start road events will be limited to 65mm from the start of 2026). As a rule, rim depths tend to come down for lumpier stages where weight is more of an issue, although riders have different preferences here.
Double Olympic gold medallist, former World Champion, and all-round cycling superstar Remco Evenepoel rides for Soudal–Quick-Step, and he was using Roval Rapide CLX Team wheels for the first stage of the Dauphiné – 51mm deep at the front, 60mm deep at the rear.
Since then, Roval has officially updated its Rapide Range with the CLX Sprint III and the CLX III (which the pros have been using for a while). In an about-turn for the brand, the new wheels are deeper at the front than at the rear for aero gains while saving weight, and they’ll doubtless want Evenepoel on the new wheels as much as possible. The Tour de France is cycling’s biggest shop window, after all.
> Roval releases “the fastest road race wheels in the world”
UAE Team Emirates XRG riders use wheels from Enve, and three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar has an Enve SES 4.5 wheelset on this Colnago V5Rs, designed for rolling terrain, complete with a fairly subtle World Champion stripes on the logos. Well, a lot more subtle than the graphic on the frame and fork, anyway.
You get a 49mm-deep front rim and a 55mm-deep rear rim here – so deeper at the back, the opposite of Roval’s new approach – each with a 25mm internal width. Enve claims a wheelset weight of 1,452g.
Enve has just announced the new SES 4.5 Pro, which it bills as “the wheel that Tadej asked for”.
Enve says that the new wheel has been ridden to over 20 victories ahead of its launch, including Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Dauphiné (both by Pogacar).
The rims are slightly shallower than on the standard (non-Pro) SES 4.5, they’re made from higher modulus carbon fibre and have a slight hook, while the hubs spin on ceramic bearings. The claimed SES 4.5 Pro wheelset weight, including valves and tape, is just 1,295g, compared with 1,450g for the SES 4.5..
Some people might not be as familiar with Newmen, but this German company develops and assembles its own hubs rather than using off-the-shelf parts. This is a Streem wheelset on a bike belonging to Hugo Page of Intermarché-Wanty, with a 49mm deep rim at the front, 54mm at the rear.
This version, which Intermarché–Wanty riders use on undulating stages, comes with Vonoa Aerowide spokes and Newmen claims a total weight of just 1,305g.
Arkea–B&B Hotels rides use bikes from Bianchi and wheels from Vision. Clement Venturini mixes wheelsets on his Oltre here with a Metron 45 SL at the front and a deeper Metron 60 SL at the rear (the numbers in the model names refer to the rim depth in millimetres).
Why mix and match? It’s usually down to the fact that a shallower front wheel will save a few grams and can behave better in crosswinds, but it comes down to the rider preference.
For example, Harold Tejada of XDS-Astana Team is using Vision Metron wheels too, but here he has the 60 SL version front and rear.
Visma–Lease a Bike’s lineup for the Tour de France is an all-star cast, with two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Simon Yates… the list goes on.
The updated Cervelo S5 bikes that we saw at the Dauphiné (unreleased at the time, but officially launched since then) were fitted with new Reserve 57|64 Turbulent Aero wheels.
Cervelo and Reserve are owned by the same parent company, and the two brands worked together on these wheels, especially for the new S5. The rear wheel’s asymmetry is intended to match the S5’s seat tube to ensure smooth airflow.
Reserve says that the 57mm rim depth at the front provides “confident handling in crosswinds”, while the 64mm rear is designed to offer aero gains – so another setup that goes for a deeper rim at the rear.
Other riders go for equal rim depths at the front and rear. Israel-Premier Tech’s Jake Stewart was riding an unreleased Factor road bike at the Dauphiné – a bike that got everyone talking, largely thanks to its radical looks and super-wide fork.
This is the Black Inc Sixty Two wheelset, made with T700, T800, and T1100 carbon fibre rims and, as the name suggests, 62mm deep at both the front and rear. They’re built up with straight-pull aero carbon spokes, and Israel–Premier Tech runs them tubeless with Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT TR tyres.
Cofidis is the only WorldTour team that’s sponsored by Campagnolo in 2025, and this is a Bora Ultra WTO wheelset that you can see on Benjamin Thomas’ bike. This wheelset comes in various depths; this looks like the version with 60mm rims. Campag claims a wheelset weight of 1,395g.
The spokes are arranged in Campagnolo’s G3 pattern, meaning that you get groups of three parallel straight-pull spokes arranged in a 2:1 ratio – so one side of the wheel has twice as many spokes as the other.
“This allows them to counteract the asymmetric drivetrain and disc brake forces acting on a wheel, and to balance the effect of differing dish angles,” says Campag.
The fact that it looks distinctive can’t hurt, either.
Norway-based Uno-X Mobility has swapped from Dare bikes to Ridley this year, but the bikes still roll on DT Swiss wheels
This looks like the ARC 1100 DICUT in a 55mm depth that Markus Hoelgaard has fitted to his Ridley Noah Fast, paired with Aero 111 tyres that were developed by DT Swiss, Swiss Side and Continental.
This might be a feature devoted to wheels, but let’s just take a second to appreciate the depth of that head tube. Wow! It’s a monster.
Groupama-FDJ’s bike sponsor is Wilier and the wheels come from Wilier-owned Miche.
These are Kleos RD 50 wheels on Guilliaume Martin’s Verticale SLR, fitted with Conti Grand Prix 5000 S TR tyres. Riders use the RD 36 when light weight is important, and the RD 62 when aerodynamics is the priority, while the RD 50 is the all-rounder that sits somewhere in the middle. They all spin on ceramic bearings from CeramicSpeed.
Trek’s Bontrager brand provides the wheels for Lidl-Trek, and these are Aeolus RSL 51s on Edward Theuns’ Madone. Not surprisingly, Trek says that the current Aeolus wheels are the fastest it has ever made.
As the name suggests, the Aeolus RSL 51 has a 51mm rim profile, while the hubs come with DT Swiss 240 internals and a Ratchet EXP 36 freehub.
Lotto riders are on Orbea bikes fitted with wheels from the Orbea-owned Oquo brand.
The team use all of the wheels in the Oquo Ltd range. The RA57 Ltd (above) is designed to balance aerodynamics and weight, with a 57mm profile (front and rear) and a claimed wheelset weight of 1,460g.
The wheels use Oquo’s new Q10 hubs with a 45-tooth ratchet system providing 8° engagement at the rear when you start to pedal. Oquo claims the hubs weigh just 104g (front) and the 175g (rear).
We recently reviewed the Cadex 50 Ultra Disc Tubeless wheels used by Team Jayco–AlUla and liked them, saying that they offer “impressive stiffness and overall performance with the right tyres fitted”.
> Read our Cadex 50 Ultra Disc Tubeless review
The right tyres? Cadex is another of the brands that goes with hookless rims and it recommends running the wheelset with its own tyres – of course it does – but our man Matthew Page found they felt more stable with 28mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres.
At the heart of the wheels are Cadex R3 C-40 aero hubs, equipped with ceramic bearings and a 40-tooth engagement at the rear. Getting to the important stuff: the freehub is really, really loud.
Finally, there are quite a lot of wavy rims around these days.
SRAM owns the Zipp and Time brands, and you can see that all three are present and correct on this Canyon Aeroad belonging to Movistar’s Ivan Romeo.
> Fulcrum rides big waves for aero gains with new Sharq 57 wheels
The rims of the Zipp 454 NSW wheels vary in depth from 53mm to 58mm. Zipp says that this Sawtooth rim shape is its most aerodynamically efficient and stable design, and we’ve seen various other brands offering wavy-rimmed wheels of their own in recent years.
Shimano is an official partner to Ineos Grenadiers, supplying it with groupsets and wheels, but the British team often goes elsewhere for wheels too. Riders often use Princeton CarbonWorks Wake 6560 and Peak 4550 (above) models, among others, designed to provide an aero benefit while still being easy to control in crosswinds.
> Check out our review of the Princeton CarbonWorks Peak 4550 Evolution wheelset
Do any of these wheelsets float your boat? If price was no object, which would you most like to own? Let us know in the comments.
