This commercially-available paint scheme is being used by the whole team
(Image credit: Will Jones)
Mike Woods is a 38-year-old former Canadian champion, three time Vuelta a España stage winner, twice a Tour de France stage winner, and has ridden for Israel-Premier Tech since 2021. After bothering Ineos to bring you a gallery of Geraint Thomas' final Tour de France bike, I then went to pester IPT, who were happily based in the same car park.
Despite Factor's latest, crazy prototype being pride of place on the company stand at Eurobike, I wasn't permitted access to photograph it in more detail. I was, however, handed Mike Woods' bike, fresh for the Tour with a brand new switch-out paint scheme. The usual team paint has been replaced with an optic white base, over which blue and pink alcohol inks have been blown to create unique paint schemes for the whole team, except for Jake Stewart, who will be decidedly less jazzy on his all black hyper aero machine.
Woods' machine, a Factor Ostro VAM, is pretty by-the-book, with a mix of FSA, Shimano, and Black Inc (Factor's in-house componentry brand) throughout. He is using a brand new Selle Italia SLR saddle, though, slammed all the way forward on the rails. It's maybe a bike that leans towards aero rather than the true all-rounders like the Specialized Tarmac SL8 and the Pinarello Dogma F, but unless it's very steep, we likely won't see any riders opt for the lightweight O2 VAM.
As a bonus, taken across a full yaw sweep, we found the Ostro VAM to be one of the best-performing WorldTour bikes in our own wind tunnel testing.
If pro bikes are your thing, then I've already brought you a fair few, so be sure to have a peruse to get a flavour of how the pros set up their machines for the biggest race of the year.
It's certainly a change from the darker paint of the standard team bikes. (Image credit: Will Jones)
One of a kind, just like all the other team bikes. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The blue and pink colouration are made by spreading alcohol based inks over a white base coat. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Like many riders, Woods is opting to run faster time trial tyres on the road. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The hubs of his Black Inc 62 wheels are spidery at the spoke attachment points. (Image credit: Will Jones)
An FSA chainset with 56/40t chainrings transmits the power to the rear wheel. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Like Thomas' Dogma F, Woods' bike has a chunky 3D printed chain catcher to stop the chain getting stuck in the event of a chain drop. (Image credit: Will Jones)
His rear derailleur cable is neatly routed through a direct mount hanger. (Image credit: Will Jones)
A brand new Selle Italia SLR Carbon saddle for the Canadian, which is priced at the princely sum of 379.90 USD, or 517.03 Canadian dollars at today's exchange rate. Of course he won't have paid a single cent. (Image credit: Will Jones)
He runs it slammed all the way forward on the in-line seatpost. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Here's a closer look at that watercolour paint. Reminds me of my grandmother's garden. (Image credit: Will Jones)
His stem is a pretty conservative (by pro standards) 110mm long. (Image credit: Will Jones)
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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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