Images have appeared online this week showing Tadej Pogačar riding what appears to be an unbranded, prototype Colnago time trial bike in Spain.
The images were shared on the lucascyclingblog Instagram page and were taken by Petr Bodlák and Pierre Tranchant.
Snaps were taken of Pogačar, or at the very least a rider wearing rainbow shoes and helmet, riding the bike, as well as it sitting on a UAE team car alongside a TT1 and stealth black Y1RS road bike.
There are some very specific time trial stages in the Tour de France this year, and Colnago will surely be aiming to give Pogačar and his team every advantage they can.
Some key areas share a resemblance with the existing TT1, like the down and top tubes; some of the existing design language is clearly still there, but the largest changes look to come at the front and rear ends of the bike.
At the front, the forks of the bike have a shallower cross-section; the forks on the current TT1 bike are pretty deep. This prototype bike has shallower forks, which wouldn't look out of place on an aero road bike.
The fork crown area and headtube both look smaller and narrower, and it appears Colnago has switched from a bayonet-style fork steerer arrangement to a standard setup, whilst still integrating the time trial base bar into the bike's top and head tubes.
The bars themselves have lower extension riser blocks, and the base bar has less of an upward curve, though they could just be for different riders; there's clearly a difference to be observed.
The headtube shape looks different, and the top tube looks a little bigger in its middle section in the photos than that of the current TT1.
The downtube shape looks similar; it's difficult to tell given the light and shadows, but the Conago 'N' still flares outwards at the bottle cage in a similar way to the new machine, presumably to aid airflow around the bottle and increase stiffness.
The back end of the bike appears to have received the biggest changes; the seatstays are dropped and smoothed into the seat tube on the unbranded bike, a dramatic change from the dramatically angled, squared off seatstays on the TT1, which have always been eye-catching. The aero protrusion over the rear wheel has also disappeared.
The TT1 has been around for a few years now, and could well be improved on. We have already spotted three new time trial bikes this year, which were being used at the Challenge Mallorca TTT event.
At the sharp end of the sport, a TT bike from 2022 is outdated. For our money, there could be a few motives behind this new mystery bike.
Only Colnago staff and UAE Team Emirates know what this bike is about right now, but we can hazard a guess and speculate.
It may be a new version of the TT1, which, despite looking at face value 'less aero', could offer an advantage in the real world.
However, this could also be a lighter time trial bike, which is a lot more specific. Could we be moving into an era where teams use more than one time trial bike to suit the demands of a course?
Last year's uphill Tour de France time trial was the perfect example of the need to balance weight against aerodynamics for a particular course and speed. A test from which Tadej Pogačar emerged victorious, riding a specially lightened Colnago Y1RS, whilst some of his rivals chose TT bikes.
This year's Tour de France, a major goal for Tadej Pogačar as he chases a fifth victory, features a TTT on Stage one, the first in 55 years, and then a 26km individual time trial on Stage 16, which contains a roughly 9 kilometre ascent of the Côte de Larringes before a descent and flat final section.
This route will throw up some specific equipment requirements and quite possibly the need to blend lower weight on the climb, with the aero advantage a time trial bike brings for the descent and flat final part of the race. If this is a pared-back, lightened TT machine, could it be the answer?
The Tour's opening TTT will also present a fascinating opportunity for Pogačar to gain time on his rivals, as it uses a brand new format. The stage finishes over two climbs in Barcelona, and the time is taken from the first rider across the line for each team, not the fourth rider over the line as has been the case in the past.
In short, expect a TTT leadout for GC leaders before they launch it up the final climb to take as much time as they can on their rivals. Teams will be calculating the most effective balance of aerodynamics and weight against the rider's speed on days like this.
If this is a lighter TT bike, perhaps it could be used for these two specific tests at the 2026 Tour as Pogačar bids for a fifth overall crown, though the final hill on the stage 1 is short enough that it's unlikely teams will opt for dedicated lightweight setups.
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