Ever year a paint shop somewhere gets a call for a last minute paint job. White, with some rainbow details. The Colnago paint shop should be pretty well versed now, as Brandon McNulty has made it three years in a row for the men's world champion to be aboard the historic Italian brand.
While Tadej Pogačar started out his two-year reign as world champion on a white bike, he has raced on a black version ever since the middle of last season. And now, his teammate and heir McNulty, following his daring attack on the streets of Montreal last weekend, is carrying on that torch with a black, glittery Colnago Y1Rs that has just been unveiled.
Together, they are bucking the trend of white world champion's machines. Peter Sagan, Mark Cavendish, and at times Julian Alaphilippe all had black bikes, as did Anna Van der Breggen and Annamiek Van Vleuten in both of their separate stints as world champion. But in the last few years, white had come to dominate thanks to the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, and Lotte Kopecky.
As well as a difference in aesthetics, there's also a performance element in terms of weight; white paint usually uses heavy titanium-based pigments, and so opting for black is an easy way to shave grams.
According to Colnago, McNulty's new bike has a "glossy black carbon base enriched with a subtle glitter effect" and is "defined by a bold colour-block graphic featuring the iconic UCI rainbow stripes."
There's no denying the stripes, which make up the paint for the entirety of the forks as well as the majority of the rear triangle.
It's clearly a different look to what we've seen in recent seasons, and there is a fun easter egg hidden behind the bayonet fork hinge, as well as some trick upgrades that show that the focus has been on saving weight, meaning this is a bike that McNulty will actually be racing on, rather than simply shown off at sign-on before swapping to his more usual matte black version.
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McNulty is riding the new Enve SES Pro wheels. The easy way to spot these is the silver spokes and hubs. (Image credit: Colnago)
The Y1Rs has a bayonet style fork, rather than the traditional tube-through-a-tube design of most bikes. (Image credit: Colnago)
The stripes dominate the rear of the bike, but look closer and you'll see an aftermarket rear derailleur hanger, thru axle, lighter bottle cages, and time trial tyres in an effort to keep system weight (and rolling resistance) down to a minimum. (Image credit: Colnago)
The Colnago graphics on the downtube and top tube have a holographic rainbow sheen to them, too. (Image credit: Colnago)
With the trend for Tadej Pogačar opting to ride a plain black bike over his white machine in recent seasons, at least this is a commemorative bike we are actually likely to see in the peloton. (Image credit: Colnago)
It looks like McNulty is also undecided on whether he's going to be team white shorts or team black shorts. (Image credit: Colnago)
Normally this has a Colnago wordmark, but now it's an extremely memorable easter egg for the new champion. (Image credit: Colnago)
Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.
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