The peloton's newest bike: The Chinese X-Lab AD9 ridden by XDS Astana

Henok Mulubrhan's custom X Lab bike on some grass

(Image credit: Chris Auld)

We're busy bringing you as many pro bike shots as we can from the Tour Down Under, which kicks off the brand-new 2025 race season.

A full tech gallery is in the works, and you can already check out the brand-new Uno-X Mobility Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 which is being ridden in the women's race, but now we turn our attention to the newest bike in the WorldTour, one we are all still getting familiar with: the X-Lab AD9.

As well as being a manufacturer, the Chinese X-Lab brand's parent company, XDS Carbon Tech, is also a title sponsor of the newly renamed XDS Astana Team.

This particular bike belongs to Henok Mulubrhan, the 25-year-old Eritrean and three-time African Continental Champion, and X-Lab has given it a custom paint job to honour his title.

It's almost a flip of the team bike's blue and black colour scheme, but the downtube has a lovely white and gold marbling effect which makes you look twice.

Spec-wise, the team are pretty much using the same equipment they did last year when they were racing on Wilier bikes. The Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets remain, as do the Vision Metron 60SL wheels. Handlebars are the Vision Metron integrated model, which, you guessed it, is also unchanged from last year.

One thing that has puzzled us over the last few weeks is a range of press shots showing the X-Lab bikes with both Continental and Vittoria tyres. The team bike is fitted with Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres here, like last year, but we wonder what the mix is about, maybe a swap is coming like the one that has gone on at Alpecin-Deceuninck as they switch from Vittoria to Pirelli.

The headtube of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — There's a fairly narrow headtube at the front of the AD9 and what looks like plenty of tyre clearance (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The top tube of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — A nice custom touch on the bike's top tube for the African Continental Champion, Mulubrhan (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The headtube and handlebar of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — There's a nice carbon fibre weave on the one-piece Vision Metron one-piece handlebar (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The custom painted downtube of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — The gold accents in the custom paint are complemented by the Vision wheel stickers (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The custom painted blue fork of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — The fork legs have a serious aero profile at the dropouts that is unmissable. It's not dissimilar to the fork tabs on the Pinarello Dogma fork, but in this case even more pronounced (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The downtube of the Astana X Lab bike — The bottom bracket shell looks chunky and solid, which tends to result in a stiff and efficient platform (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The seatstays of the Astana X Lab bike — There's plenty of colour on the bike, this seat stay arrangement looks pretty familiar somehow (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The Vision rear hub of the Astana X Lab bike — There's nothing to shout about here, it's just good to get a close-up look at a pro bike we don't know too much about right now (Image credit: Chris Auld)

The Dura-Ace rear derailleur of the Astana X Lab bike on some grass — You know where you are with Dura-Ace, although this chain and cassette are looking a bit mucky if you ask us. Note the open Di2 charging cover too. (Image credit: Chris Auld)

Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.

He has ridden and raced bikes from an early age up to a national level on the road and track, and has ridden and competed in most disciplines. He has a keen eye for pro-team tech and enjoys spotting new or interesting components in the wild. During his time at Cyclingnews, Tom has already interviewed some of the sport's biggest names including Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Alberto Contador. He's also covered various launches from brands such as Pinarello, Ridley, Specialized and more, tackled the Roubaix Challenge sportive aboard his own rim-brake Cannondale SuperSix Evo, tested over 20 aero helmets in the wind tunnel, and has created helpful in-depth buying advice relating to countless categories from torque wrenches to winter clothing.