This page focuses on Reuben Thompson’s bike size 2023. The professional road bike rider from New Zealand races the UCI World Tour for the French Team Groupama – FDJ.
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From New Zeland to Neo-Pro
Reuben Thompson is one of these young riders from New Zealand and Australia who takes the challenging decision to move to Europe to experience road cycling which is the place to be if you want to become a pro cyclist.
Thompson first came to road bike racing through triathlon racing.
Then after racing with some local Spanish and French road racing clubs, he got into the Groupama – FDJ continental reserve team in 2021.
In 2023, Reuben Thompson is one of the 150 Neo-Pro racing the UCI World Tour races.
This is a great accomplishment in itself considering the odds to become a professional cyclist in Europe where it is so competitive.
Congratulations Reuben!
Thompson is a climber type of rider and will primarily support the Groupama – FDJ team’s objective of ranking at the top of the Grands Tours’ General Classifications.
Now let’s dive into Reuben Thompson’s bike size.
Thompson’s Bike Size is L size
Reuben Thompson is 1m83 tall and rides the Lapierre Xelius SL3 size L (aka 56cm).
The Lapierre Xelius SL3 size L’s frame geometry features a 557mm Stack and 403mm Reach.
The Top-Tube has a 568mm length, and the Seat Tube is 520mm measured from the center of the Bottom-Bracket (aka BB) to the top of the Seat-Tube.
Reuben Thompson fitting on his Lapierre Xelius SL3 is with a 400mm width and 130mm long Lapierre handlebar/stem combo stacked over 25mm spacers.
Like many Gen Z among the pro riders, Reuben Thompson has set his brake hoods inward. There are many reasons for this style of position.
The main reasons ones are it allows a reduced frontal air resistance and therefore allows the wrist to rest on the handlebar/hoods area when in an aero position with the hands on the hoods.
Thompson’s Prologo Nago Evo PAS Nack is set at 780mm height, measured from the center of the BB to the top of the saddle.
The distance from the tip of the saddle to the center of the stem’s clamp is 593mm.
The saddle is at 75mm setback, and the Seatpost is a 20mm setback model.
The Bike Setup
Reuben races with a 172.5mm Shimano Dura-Ace 9200 crank arm’s length.
While the size of the chainrings depends on the race’s profile, the new Shimano Dura-Ace standard is the 54/40 teeth replacing the 53/39, it is the most commonly in use by Thompson.
The Lapierre Xelius SL3 ridden by Reuben during the 2023 racing season features the complete Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Disc 9200 series groupset.
As Shimano is an official sponsor of the team Groupama – FDJ, which you can tell by the Shimano logo on the chainstays, the gears are not tuned-up with some ceramic bearings or non-official parts.
Shimano insists on using its original steel bearings and lubricants.
Optimized Shimano Setup
Thompon races with the Shimano XTR (RT-MT900) disc rotors instead of the new Shimano Dura-Ace (RT-CL900) ones.
The reason is that the XTR disc is stiffer than the road version.
The road version seems softer and bends easily ending up rubbing on the brake pads, creating a sense of potential power losses and annoyance to the climber.
Another optimization is the use of 140mm disc rotors instead of 160mm. The obvious reason is weight saving. That’s a 13g (95g Vs 108g) weight difference per disc rotor.
Like many other pro riders on Shimano wheels, Thompson races mostly with the Dura-Ace C50 wheels.
The tires are the Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR tubeless on flat and fast-rolling hills, and tubulars on high mountain stages.
Thompson’s Lapierre Xelius SL3 2023 has a dark blue color paint with the seat tube in black color.
The Prologo bar tape is white in color and the Prologo saddle is black.
Reuben Thompson race with a Julbo helmet, 100% sunglasses, Ale cycling jersey, bib-shorts, gloves, and socks.
Thompson has a personal cycling shoes sponsor with Nimbl.
His white color Nimbl cycling shoes are fitted with the Blue Shimano cleats (ref. SM-SH12) featuring 2 degrees of float.
Like the rest of the Groupama – FDJ team, Thompson relies on the Shimano power meter and Garmin GPS cycling computer for his live and post-performance data feed.
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