Orca or Orca Aero. Dilemma at the Tour de France

Preparing for the Tour de France is both a precise science and a deeply personal journey. It’s a strategy of controlled fatigue, gradual build-up and extreme adaptation. There are no universal formulas, your body must be pushed to the limit, your mind sharpened and your bike wisely chosen. That’s why altitude training camps, like the one in Sierra Nevada, have become essential.

For weeks, riders train in low-oxygen conditions to boost aerobic capacity, build endurance and simulate the effort required by the extremely demanding Tour. It’s a chosen isolation, a physical and mental retreat where every action serves performance. Every ride demands planning, control and intelligence.
It’s during these training blocks that the connection happens. Where rider and bike truly meet and adapt to one another. The conversation between Orbea, Lotto and each one of the riders is perhaps the most important of the year. Here, all the insights gathered in the early part of the season are brought to the table and final adjustments are made, so that at the Tour, body and machine become one.

But not all cyclists chase the same goal in the same way. Jenno Berckmoes and Lennert Van Eetvelt ride for the same team and share the same dream. But differ in style, and in the tools they choose to pursue it.

Jenno, more explosive and suited to flat terrain, trains on Orca Aero, a bike engineered to slice through the wind, with geometry that maximizes stiffness and aerodynamic efficiency. It comes alive at high speed, on technical descents or when the peloton dances in echelons.
Lennert, on the other hand, is a pure climber. For him, every gram matters when the road tilts skyward. His choice is Orca, a machine built for agility, power transfer and responsiveness.

Two training philosophies. Two ways of feeling the bike. Two different routes to the same Tour.

Jenno Berckmoes climbs his final mountain before heading home. He’s spent 21 days of altitude training in Sierra Nevada. Three weeks of routine, fatigue and some occasional rough moments. But he smiles now. He smiles because he feels good, maybe better than ever. When the body responds, the Tour stops feeling like a threat and starts looking like an opportunity.
You can see the rider’s joy in his cadence, in how comfortably he moves on the bike, in that proud, effortless posture. Jenno is in shape, and he knows it.

Jenno begins his countdown on his Orca Aero. His chosen bike isn’t just a tool, it’s a clear statement. Going down on it, he feels like transmuting into something else.

He says it with conviction. Orca Aero isn’t just fast, it is precise, obedient through the turns, fierce on the straights. At times, it even feels like the bike wants to take him further than his legs could on their own.

Lennert Van Eetvelt arrived in Sierra Nevada a bit later. After 13 days at the same altitude, his path to France is slightly different. Where Jenno thinks about speed, Lennert thinks about weight. His season began with explosive one-day classics, but now everything shifts. The Tour demands endurance, resilience, and patience. The stages pile up, and every gram matters.

His Orca is a machine refined down to the smallest detail.

Lennert doesn’t talk about raw power, he talks about feeling, balance and trust. Together with Orbea, he’s helped push the limits of lightness. The feedback from his experience, and from every teammate, drives Orbea to test and retest every tube, every fiber, every component.

Lennert is just as demanding, with himself and with what surrounds him. But he knows that in this sport, pushing yourself isn’t enough. You have to find that precise balance between pressure and control, between your limit and clarity.

A few weeks later in Lille, Joseba Arizaga, Road Product Manager at Orbea, observes the same Tour from the other end of the map. Just two days to go.

“The first week will be very fast, Belgian terrain, mostly flat. It’s time for the Orca Aero,” he says.
But he’s already looking ahead. The Massif Central and the Pyrenees await. In just a few days, or even a few hours, everything changes. That’s when it’s time to think about maximum lightness. That’s when it’s time for Orca.

Jenno and Lennert speak calmly, but with the spark in their eyes that only comes from true belief.
“If you want to be the best, you have to believe you are. You have to be consistent, work hard. And if you want to go even further, you need an Orbea.”
Needless to say, anything is possible with an Orbea with him.