Originally Posted by carpediemracing

There *have* been instances of equipment making a difference. One might argue that Lemond's 1989 Tour victory was due to the use of his aero helmet and aero bars (or, conversely, Fignon's non-use of aero bars that he had available, nor the aero helmet that he'd worn previously).

In 1990, in the TT that decided the Tour, Lemond used aero stuff - aero bars, rear disk. His opponent went with super thin 17 or 18mm tires but didn't use a full aero bar, and he raced on spoked wheels. Those wheels probably felt great rolling around a parking lot but at speed.... they're not super fast. Ditto the non-aero bars he used - I tried them in a TT and I realized it was a huge mistake just a few minutes into it. This might be comparable to making a bad tire call in F1, running intermediates 5 laps too early etc.

Another instance of equipment is when disk wheels were first introduced. Moser was a long way back going into the final TT of the Giro, Fignon was in the lead, and Moser absolutely demolished Fignon. Now, it could be that the TV helicopter hovering just behind Moser for duration of the TT might have helped, or the fact that he had an "elevator" of hands helping him all the climbs in the prior weeks might have made a difference. Or perhaps that Moser was one of the cycling pioneers of blood doping. But cynicism aside, if you consider a flat TT, no one would use a spoked rear wheel now.