Tadej Pogačar's Tour de France bike: Up close with the Slovenian's Colnago Y1Rs

Tadej Pogačar, year after year, is building a palmares that could well mark him out as the greatest male rider of his generation, and perhaps even of all time. Three Tour de France victories would be plenty for most riders, but he performs equally as well at three-week grand tours as he does in shorter stage races, recently winning the Critérium du Dauphiné, and in one-day races too.

His trophy cabinet from monument races is astounding, with two Tour of Flanders, four Il Lombardia, and three Liège-Bastogne-Liège victories to his name. Perhaps the biggest endorsement of his talent is that his coming 2nd on debut at Paris-Roubaix was seen as something of a surprise, if not quite a disappointment.

He's the only rider in history to break the 6,000-point barrier for UCI ranking points too, and even dabbles in cyclocross on occasion (naturally he also wins here, too), and is part of what is regularly being called 'the new generation' of riders, along with Wout van Aert, Matthieu Van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock, et al.

While at the Dauphiné, which is the premier pre-Tour warm up race, I got a few minutes alone with the Slovenian's Colnago Y1Rs. This should give us the best possible idea of how he's going to run his aero bike for the flatter stages, though he will still use the lighter V5Rs for hilly and mountainous stages.

What is Tadej Pogačar's bike for 2025?

Pogačar's Colnago Y1Rs represents a departure from the status quo, not just for the team but for Colnago itself. For some years the Italian brand had the V-series of do-it-all race bikes, and the made-inItaly C-series, catering more to consumer. The Y1Rs is the first proper, all-out aero bike from the brand since the Concept back in 2017, a time before disc brakes, integrated cockpits, and fully internal cables.

Now, in 2025, the Y1Rs is among the most radical bikes in the pro peloton, with its key rivals in a visual sense being the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, the Cervélo S5, and whatever that mad new Factor prototype was that we spotted at the Dauphiné.

At the front, the super deep fork blades join into a bayonet front end, where the fork hinges around the head tube rather than simply passing through it. This makes the effective head tube deeper, and usually narrower too, which in turn makes the bike more aerodynamic.

The deep down tube shrouds the front tyre, and at the back end the quite unusual arrangement with a cantilevered setup of a seat tube allows the rear wheel to be heavily shrouded too. This does mean that the seat post has to be cut precisely at the right length.

The Y1Rs was effectively made for Tadej Pogačar, and while it is commercially available, it is made in limited quantities, involves signing up to a waiting list, and once you get to the checkout, it'll set you back nearly €17,000. Perhaps a bike best left to the professionals?

What size is Tadej Pogačar's bike?

At 1.77m tall, Pogačar is likely to be riding an approximately 54cm frameset. Colnago does sizing a little differently though. We believe he's using a '485' frame, which is a little smaller than is perhaps ideal for a customer of his height but allows him to run a longer stem, especially with the saddle pushed far forwards. Luckily the Y1Rs has a clear stats sheet printed on it, and from this we can see he's running a whopping 145mm stem.

Tadej Pogačar's Colnago Y1Rs Specifications

For an already storied rider, Pogačar has an extremely simple bike history, having been with UAE Team Emirates his whole professional career. The only real changes have been which model Colnago he was using in any given year.

History

Pogačar's World Champion's Colango V4Rs

These images were from the end of Pogačar's tenure with the V4Rs, before it was replaced by the V5Rs, and taken after he used the machine to win the Tour of Flanders in 2025.

Besides the paint, the changes to his team issue V4Rs of 2023 are relatively subtle, with a more forward position, a new saddle, and his own logo etched into carbon chainrings.

Tadej Pogačar's 2023 Colnago V4Rs

The 2023 season marked perhaps the biggest sea change in the UAE Team Emirates camp, at least in terms of equipment. The Colnago frameset still remains staunchly Italian, but the Italian leaning team cast off the 'Italy first' mantra when it came to gear choices. Campagnolo was replaced by Shimano, with Enve wheels taking the place of the Bora Ultras, and Continental tyres replacing Pirelli.

What is also interesting to note is Pogacar's bike fit changes versus his 2024 bike. In 2023, he was still using a setback seatpost and 172.5mm cranks.

Tadej Pogačar's 2022 Colnago Prototipo

In many respects, this is a very similar bike to Pogačar's 2023 V4Rs. After all, it is the prototype on which the current model was based, so the frameset, seatpost, and cockpit are all functionally identical, though the cockpit here is a Deda model rather than the Colnago CC.01 unit of the V4Rs; we can't dive into the carbon layup because however nicely we ask, the team mechanics are always reluctant to let us saw a team bike in half.

In many other respects, this is a different beast. A Campagnolo Super-Record EPS 12-speed groupset deals with shifting and braking, mated to a spider-based SRM power meter, communicating with an SRM computer at the bars.

Look pedals and a Prologo Scratch saddle are different contact points for Pogačar, and the bike is connected to the road by 26mm Pirelli P-Zero Race tyres. The same beating heart of the bike, then, but a different set of organs (to stretch the anatomy metaphor a little too far to be comfortable).

Tadej Pogačar's 2021 Colnago V3Rs

Have you really won the Tour de France if you don't get a commemorative yellow bike? Technically yes, but the winners of any grand tour nowadays always get their hands on a colour-matched frameset and usually some equipment here too.

Here the Colnago V3Rs frameset is blocked out with yellow sections, along with yellow Colnago logos. Yellow Look pedals and yellow bar tape complete what is again quite a subtle winner's build compared to others we've seen in the past.

Tadej Pogačar's 2020 Colnago V3Rs

Pogačar's bike has had something of a slow evolution. Before swapping to the 2023 equipment he was using the old gear on the new prototype frame. Back in 2020 he was on both the older V3Rs frame and the Campagnolo build.

The frameset is similar in its ideals to the V4Rs; to be a single race bike capable of winning everywhere. Here, though, there's a T-shaped top tube rather than the smooth one of the V4Rs. The geometry is tweaked too; the V3Rs has a shorter reach than the current bike, which was lengthened to allow the riders to achieve a more stretched-out, aero position. The chainstays here for the V3Rs are longer too, keeping the same wheelbase in an attempt to normalise the handling characteristics across the two models.

This year, he typically used a rim brake model, but for the crosswind stages in the middle section of the race, he went with disc brakes.