Stages Dash at the Tour
By Stan Portus – 15 September 2020
Ahead of this year’s Tour de France, Stages Cycling had three custom Dash computers made for UAE Team Emirates to reflect the different jerseys. Within the first few stages Alexander Kristoff already had reason to use two.
Eagle-eyed watchers may have spotted some very special cycling computers early on in this year’s Tour.
Stages Cycling has provided UAE Team Emirates with a selection of custom Dash M50 cycle computers reflecting the different TdF jerseys. Yellow for the GC race, green for the points competition, white for the Best Young Rider, and polka dot for the King of the Mountains.
The first day of Tour saw the peloton riding 156km in foul weather on a circuit around Nice. The combination of rain, few race days in the riders’ legs this year, and a lumpy course (that begged the question of how many sprinters would make it to the flat finish), led to a skittish day.
By the time the bunch made it to the closing kilometres the rain had subsided and the big contenders for the sprint finish found themselves jostling in a hectic rush for the line.
Alexander Kristoff beat rivals such as Peter Sagan and Caleb Ewan to the line winning the first stage and putting him in yellow for Stage 2. This was also the first stage win for UAE Team Emirates at the Tour since Kristoff claimed victory on the Champs Elysées in 2018.
With yellow on his shoulders Kristoff used the yellow custom Dash M50 on Stage 2.
After Julian Alaphilippe’s win on the second stage, Kristoff handed yellow to the French star. Kristoff moved into the maillot vert, and along with it had the green Dash M50 on his bars as well as having his bike decked out with green bar tape, pedals, and green accented bottle cages.
As the race has progressed UAE Team Emirates’ 21-year-old young hopeful Tadej Pogačar has moved into 2nd in GC, leads the Young Rider competition, and is only two points behind Benoit Cosnefroy in the King of the Mountains competition.
To mark his white jersey Pogačar is using the white custom Stages Dash M50.
So far the Slovenian has won two stages – a remarkable feat for a Tour de France debut.
Considering Pogačar’s form on Stage 15 where it seemed only he could truly match the form of Jumbo Visma, eventually pipping Roglic to the line, is it likely we’ll see Pogačar making use of the custom polka dot Dash M50 in the coming stages?
If this is the case, Stages Cycling’s Sean Coffey would have his work paid off. Whereas the yellow and green Dash M50s are powder coated, Coffey hand painted the polka dot Dash due to the complexity of the design.
As well as using the Stages Dash, UAE Team Emirates is also riding with Stages Gen 3 power meters on Campagnolo Super Record cranks arms. This giving the World Tour squad riders the full Stages ecosystem, helping them truly understand the power they’re putting out and their performance.
