A Tour Down Under mega tech gallery: The hottest gear from the season opener

We've already brought you a full gallery of the new, as yet unreleased Factor Ostro VAM, so we shan't devote much time to it here. Suffice it to say, to the surprise of nobody, it's looking like it's going to be more aero at the front, and lighter at the back. The geometry may shift though, as the chainstays look to be shorter, evidenced by the rear wheel which now tucks into the seat tube somewhat.

Fresh new bikes for FDJ this season. The Wilier Filante SLR, here belonging to Rudy Molard, is decked out in much the same way as the team's Lapierre bikes of last season. Dura-Ace throughout, and Prologo saddle. White bar tape is becoming an endangered species, but it's a pro touch we still love to see.

The cockpit has been wrapped to its full span for more comfort on the tops. It'll give a slight aero penalty, but the bar itself is already a little more chunky in cross section than many.

Wide-set seatstays are becoming an ever increasing trend among aero bikes, kicked off by the original Hope HB.T track bike. We can also see this is Molard's second bike, rather than his main race bike.

Groupama-FDJ remains one of the final strongholds for tubular wheels and tyres. In this case they're 25mm wide, which is on its way to being considered narrow, despite the contrary being true just a few years ago.

The cadence magnet necessary for Shimano's power meters is usually a slightly unsightly silver blob. Here though it's neatly painted white to blend into the paint scheme.

Here's the first proper look at the S-Works Tarmac SL8 in Soudal-QuickStep colours for 2024, in this case belonging to Julian Alaphilippe. He definitely loses points for having his bike in the small chainring I'm afraid, but as a double world champion we're going to let it slide.

From the front the 'Speed Sniffer' nosecone isn't quite so prominent, and you can appreciate just how flat the Roval Rapide cockpit is. Alaphilippe for years was a staunch champion of traditional round bars, but it seems this is finally the year he gives in to the aero gods.

Lovely candy fades and paint sparkles aside, this profile shot shows how far the head tube protrudes from the steering axis of the fork.

As we gleaned from chatting to the team mechanics at Soudal-QuickStep's training camp, the team will primarily be using cotton tyres with inner tubes in races in 2024, flying in the face of the trend towards tubeless adoption. The key is to look at the valves, which are devoid of the lockring, but we also know these Turbo Cotton tyres are porous and thus aren't tubeless compatible.

Honestly, this is just a chance to sit back and admire the paintwork. No doubt it's heavier than a mostly black bike, but I'm glad some teams are holding out against all-black ubiquity.

The team referrs to itself as 'The Wolfpack', hence the little wolf on the top tube.

Outside in the sunshine we grabbed a quick snap of the Liv EnviLiv Advance Pro of freshly minted Australian road race champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon. Sadly it got whisked away before we could get a full gallery, but you get the gist...

A simple green and gold scheme makes for a beautiful looking bike.

Back indoors in the 'Big White Marquee' and here's the Cube Litening of Biniam Girmay. It's effectively an unchanged setup from last year, and you can just about spot his sprint shifters on the drops peeking out from under the Prologo bar tape.

As ever, we tend to get access to the rider's second bikes, denoted by the "2". This shot gives you a good idea of the seat clamp mechanism on the bike though.

No doubt his extremely pared-back hubs are rolling on ceramic bearings, as is the norm nowadays.

While many of the latest crop of aero bikes have much wider tyre clearance, the Litening doesn't appear to have much headroom above what we believe is a 28c Continental GP5000 S TR.

Like Molard earlier, Girmay opts for a bar tape wrap across the entire width of the tops. As a rider who's often contesting sprint finishes this is unexpected, but comfort is important too.

There's no mistaking these Newmen wheels for anything else, with their giant chrome logos.

A standout feature of Girmay's bike is, ironically, wheel valves that do the exact opposite of 'standing out'. They're hidden inside for an aero benefit, and are inflated using an adaptor which feeds into the hole and screws into place onto the valve.

Certainly the talk of the office more than any other bike this year, the Van Rysel RCR Pro gets its first outing in Adelaide. How long until it claims a stage win though?

This bike belongs to the young Frenchman Bastien Tronchon, who is a tall chap at 1.85m, evidenced by the tall head tube and spacer stack. Despite this, he's a surprisingly adept climber.

Designed with help from a French aerospace lab. Van Rysel is certainly pulling out all the stops to try and compete with the established brands.

At a glance the RCR Pro has all the hallmarks of a sorted all-round race bike. It's got the right tube shapes, an integrated cockpit... we're looking forward to reviewing one to really find out what it can do.

Again, wide-set seat stays to allow the dirty, turbulent air to pass next to the wheel unimpeded.

A blue head tube, along with the blue on the rear of the seatpost, are the only real flashes of colour on this otherwise grey bike.

Big ring, little sprocket. That's how it's done. A full complement of Dura-Ace kits out the bikes for 2024, a change from Campagnolo Super Record EPS for the riders to get used to.

While the frameset is a Van Rysel creation, the cockpit is an aftermarket Deda unit, only wrapped as much as necessary here.

Tubeless Continental tyres mated to deep Swiss Side wheels - A speedy combination, though at this depth, potentially troublesome in a crosswind.

While Visma-Lease a Bike riders tend to opt for the Cervelo S5, they also have the option of the skinnier R5, kitted out here in the new team paint (again, mostly black to save weight), and with shallow Reserve wheels.

It's visually interesting as mostly-black paint schemes go, but it's clear the designers have been given a brief to use as little paint as is reasonably practical for the team's climbing bikes.

Never a team to shy away from liberal applications of paint, the Cannondale SuperSix Evo bikes of EF Education-EasyPost are probably the most visually arresting in the bunch.

Swirls, dots, dashes, all applied in a playfully erratic way to go along with the carefully curated goofiness of the team's media personality.

While the paint scheme indicates these are the top-end 'Lab71' framesets, the UCI sticker tells a different story. They are in fact the mid-tier HiMod frames, as the team used last season. At this point we do suspect that the team will never be on the Lab71 option, but will continue to fly the flag for it, branding wise.

Regardless of the carbon layup inside, they're good looking bikes, especially with deep wheels and cotton cased Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres.

No longer the Danish national champion, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig is aboard a standard Lapierre Xelius SL for 2024. Unlike the FDJ-sponsored men's squad, the functionally separate FDJ-Suez team remain on Lapierre bikes and have made the switch to tubeless.

The seatstays for the Xelius attach some distance along the top tube, rather than to the seat tube. This, it is claimed, gives greater compliance.

Paintwork aside, the biggest change for Bora-Hansgrohe riders to adapt to is the switch from Shimano Dura-Ace to SRAM Red.

While they certainly look great, the fact the chainrings, cranks, and power meter all all a single integrated unit makes it a substantial cost when they do eventually wear out.

There are no more inwardly-pointed brake hoods thanks to the latest UCI rules.

Much like Soudal Quick-Step referring to themselves as 'The Wolfpack', Bora Hansgrohe go by the 'Band of Brothers', so this logo appears on their top tubes and jerseys... along with a pair of bumping fists, because macho 🤜🤛.

While the downtube gets a lovely fade from gloss green to matte black, the junction on the seat tube is abrupt and linear. Oddly it seems the 'Hansgrohe' logo is a sticker while Bora is painted on. Perhaps this was omitted by accident in the paint booth.

While some riders will have some adapting to do, Primož Rogliç at least, coming over from the SRAM-sponsored Jumbo-Visma team (now Visma-Lease A Bike), should find it no issue.

The EnviLiv frames of Liv AlUla are some of the busiest looking of the bunch. For their small frame, Alex Manly has wrung out all the aero bike fit wins possible; slammed, long stem, and a saddle rammed forward on the rails to get over the front of the bike.

The Liv logo does somewhat get lost amongst all the design flair on show here.

It's just about possible to see the aero sculpting of the head tube amongst the patterns.

No such patterns for the Jayco AlUla men's squad, only block colours fading into each other, which makes for a very pleasing visual package.

Separate bars and stems are a dying breed in the peloton, but they do tend to be more common at this early junction of the season where riders might still be dialling in bike fit.

Up close there is some patterning on show, but it's much more subtle than the bikes of Liv AlUla.

The integrated seatpost of the Propel does provide a slightly larger canvas for the designers to work from.