Tadei Pogachar mastered the switch between disc brakes and rim brakes in the race.

The UAE Team Emirates rider won Il Lombardia on a Colnago V3Rs equipped with rim brakes, and a few days earlier he attacked the Tre Valli Varesine race long distance on a Colnago V3Rs disc brake bike. He won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race in the spring with disc brakes, and he is happy to use both technologies in the Tour de France.

Pogachar used a disc brake bike when he attacked alone in the rain and won the mountain stage to Le Grand Bornand in the Alps, but switched to rim brakes late in the Tour and won the Pyrenean mountain stage to Saint-Lary-Soulin in dry conditions In the second half of the Tour, he switched to rim brakes. [Colnago time trial bikes have rim brakes tucked away. At the Tokyo Olympics, the team used rim brakes, but at the World Championships they used disc brakes.

Few others in the peloton go back and forth between disc brakes and rim brakes, especially during the Grand Tours. In recent years, most teams have moved to disc brake bikes, following market and bike sponsor trends, and teams usually impose a single technology strategy to facilitate mechanic work and in-race assistance to riders.

However, Pogachar does not appear to be influenced by pressure from teams, sponsors, or competitors to use disc brakes. For the Slovenian, disc brakes are a matter of bike weight, and the additional 300 grams of weight would allow him to switch to lighter rim brakes. The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the governing body of cycling, has long set a minimum weight limit of 6.8 kg for racing bikes

, which is the same as the minimum weight limit for a bicycle.

"That is especially important to me because I am not the lightest rider in the peloton. A weight difference of about 300 grams is quite significant. I'm a stickler for details and that's one of the reasons I choose DMT lace-up shoes; I was the only one using them at the 2019 Vuelta, but now many riders are using them. It's super lightweight."

"I'm happy to use both disc brakes and rim brakes. I chose rim brakes on Il Lombardia because there were two steep climbs in the finale where I planned to attack. I realized that lightweight wheels were important, and rim brakes are the lightest."

"The weather doesn't really affect my choice of brakes. For me, it's all about weight."

Pogachar has no problem switching between rim and disc brakes frequently, despite the differences in feel and technology.

"There are differences, but switching is not a problem for me," he explained. [I have a disc brake bike at home in Slovenia and a rim brake bike in Monaco. The important thing is to remember which one I'm using, but I only need to pause a couple of times to get a feel for the levers."