Colnago has officially launched the TT2 time trial bike that Tadej Pogačar was racing on in April at the Tour de Romandie.

The TT2 was first spotted as an unknown prototype back in February. Colnago itself then gave us information on it in the run-up to Romandie, and now the official launch is here.

The Tour de France will soon begin, the race opening with a team time trial in Barcelona, with another individual time trial later in the race. The new bike will see action on both those important stages.

Before that though, Pogačar (and his teammates) will ride the ITT at the Tour de Suisse on Saturday aboard the TT2 after laying waste to the race on its opening day with a highly impressive long-range solo attack.

The TT2 is available as a 'frame kit' from late September. The kit includes: frame (available in XS, S, M, L), fork, seatpost, base bar, aero bottle system and cage, bearings / small parts, etc.

The TT2 has clearance for up to 30mm tyres, is UDH hanger friendly, uses a BSA 68 bottom bracket standard, and can accommodate up to a 70 tooth chainring.

Prices are: $7,500 / £6,499 / €7,040.

Lighter and faster

Major headlines around the TT2 have focused on the bike's lower weight; Colnago claims it's 550 grams lighter as a frame kit compared to the Colnago TT1, the brand's TT machine up to this point.

A small, ready-to-paint frame weighs 985 grams, and a frame kit weight is 2240 grams. The fork is also much lighter, 393 grams against 530 grams for the TT1 fork.

A half kilo saving on a top-level road machine would be very difficult to achieve without compromise. It seems Colnago has found a way to drop this healthy chunk of weight from the TT rig with its added frame real estate whilst still 'preserving the stiffness, strength and aerodynamic efficiency required'.

In short, it sounds like the TT2 will result in a 550-odd-gram lighter bike, but it's now faster and more stable, with an updated geometry that makes it more user-friendly and more suited to modern time trial courses that appear to be moving away from the long, straight drag strips of old.

Colnago says the TT2 has 'simplified structural junctions', a revised carbon layup strategy and a new fork concept. As is the norm with high-end bike design, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing were used in the development of the bike.

The front end of the bike has received key attention to reduce frontal area. There's a narrower handlebar that measures 36cm centre-to-centre, a new fork and a slimmer 32mm-wide head tube. Front-end performance is very important aerodynamically, and this has clearly been a concern for the TT2.

The rear of the bike has also received attention. The seatstays are wider around the rear wheel to improve airflow, and more smoothly integrated into the seat tube; it looks far less eye-catching and angular than the TT1 design.

Elsewhere, the bottom bracket, seatpost and fork, as mentioned, are all new and more high-modulus carbon fibre has been used across the frame.

The brand claims a two-watt saving compared to the TT1 across 'a weighted range of real whirlwind conditions,' and confirms aerodynamic drag is lower than the TT1.

Colnago also cites stability as a key concern for the TT2, and the frame has new shallower tube profiles specifically to provide more predictable 'airflow behaviour across a range of yaw angles'. Colnago makes the case that fewer steering corrections let riders maintain their aero position more effectively.

Various pro riders have crashed on TT bikes in training, most recently Wout van Aert; perhaps a more stable all-round bike will help riders when training and competing.

Geometry has also been updated. The XS size is new, and stack/reach numbers have been altered. Stack height now grows as reach increases, whereas it flatlined before in larger sizes. Colnago says this change reduces the need for extreme spacer configurations, i.e riders would add multiple spacers to the handlebar configuration to achieve their desired position.

The seat tube angle has gotten steeper, and the bottom bracket drop has been lowered to facilitate 'aggressive forward rider positions'.

A magnetic aero bottle

;An integrated aero bottle is also included with the TT2, and it's an 'aerodynamic component of the bike'. Colnago says the bottle and cage have the thinnest and longest permitted profile to reduce aero drag overall.

The cage uses Fidlock magnetic Twist fasteners to make bottle access easier and faster in an event.

Notably, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team will not use the stock water bottle due to a sponsorship agreement with Elite, instead using an Elite aero bottle with a custom Colnago bottle cage system.

The biggest race of the year approaches, given the way he continues to ride, the fact that the world champion now has a lighter, faster bike to use for time trials will surely only bolster his chances when July rolls around.

Stage 2 of the Tour of Slovenia has been neutralised around 27 kilometres from the finish after the race doctor had to remain attending multiple victims of a previous downhill crash.

Stage 2's largely flat stage was moving into its final, decisive phase with a series of small, technical ascents and descents including the Cat. 4 climb of Jeruzalem when the race director first indicated to riders to slow down. Then after a couple of kilometres the race was stopped completely.

The crash on a sweeping downhill left-hand bend shortly before the neutralisation involved around five, as yet unidentified, riders, with the race doctor stopping to check on their condition.

At the time, the main peloton was heading the race on the 181.8-kilometre stage from Radlje ob Dravi to Ormož , shortly after a five-rider early break had been reeled in.

Before it stopped the race director called race leader and stage 1 winner Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) forward to explain that they had to stop the stage for safety reasons.

Riders first slowed then halted completely in the middle of a deeply rural area, taking on drinks and refuelling as they waited in warm sunshine.

After 15 minutes' wait, it was stilll unclear how quickly the race would begin again. Commissaires spent time going through the peloton and attempting to ensure those who were in a second group when the race was suspended, would then wait for the same amount of time as before the neutralisation once it got underway again.

After around 25 minutes, with staff returning to the stage, the race got underway again for the last 27 kilometres.

The media circus around bike races, particularly big, tech-heavy ones like the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (previously the Critérium du Dauphiné), is quite amusing sometimes, so indulge me for a second and I'll lift the lid.

Some bikes we spot through nous, tip-offs, and a bit of sneaking. The new Specialized Tarmac Sl9 is one of those, but sometimes we just get told a bike will be available to come and photograph in advance of the race. The new Cube Litening Aero prototype is one such bike.

I turn up at a pre-arranged time along with several other media outlets (unbeknownst to one another), all shoot the bike en masse, and then get told we can't use the images "until tomorrow", so have to form a gentleman's agreement, because this is a small industry and it doesn't pay to sour relations over something like this.

We aren't told anything about the machine because it's a prototype, beyond a distant muttering of a 2028 release (which sounds too far off to be true) so have to glean things just from what we see. Then the bike is promptly whisked away and we disperse again to hotel rooms across Grenoble to ponder and mull over a chilled rosé (in my case, at least).

Anyway, here's a new Cube prototype; let's see what we can see, shall we? It's certainly a new form compared to the current Litening Aero, though I will caveat this with the fact that general angles of the frame are compact due to it being a size 50 machine, i.e. very small.

It's well and truly new road bike season. I've already bought you the first proper spy shots of the brand-new Specialized Tarmac SL9 at a race, a bike that is modestly different but clearly targeting greater aerodynamic efficiency as a one-bike system for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and, inevitably, all Specialized teams down the line.

Following that, we had another slightly aero prototype all-rounder from Van Rysel to keep everyone on their toes.

Ridley, though, is taking a different approach. Its main sponsored team, Uno-X, has been smashing about happily for some time on the excellent Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, a bike I really enjoyed riding. It was, however, a very single-minded beast, and while it handled punchy rises well, it wasn't a bike destined for the high mountains.

It seems the Belgian brand has been working on a new lightweight machine, one that has been spotted at the Giro d'Italia Women's race under Mie Bjørndal Ottestad.

Some judicious browsing of Getty Images later, and we can clearly see a svelte frame, with a 'PROTOTYPE' UCI sticker on the down tube and 'PROTOTYPE' written on the fork legs; that'll be a prototype, then.

While we can't say for sure what model this is, given the current designation, it seems likely it'll be an updated Falcn RS, a bike that, in Ridley's own words, "will help you conquer the highest mountains and the exceptional aerodynamics of the frame and the fork will convert every watt into pure speed when you’re in the breakaway."

The current Falcn RS has a generous 34mm tyre clearance, and it looks like this could be increased further still by the looks of the fork crown; it's extremely roomy. It also appears to keep the same cutout in the non-drive side leg where the brake calliper sits, but perhaps to a slightly less severe degree.

The top tube looks to be slimmer in the vertical direction, but with a slight triangle cross-section, a trend (the narrow bit at least) that's common among many new bikes targeting a low mass. The shaping behind the head tube appears to be more of a smooth curve, but that could just be the angle of the images from the race.

The head tube has a ridge, too, about 2/3 of the way up, which is very much akin to the Speed Sniffer found on the Specialized Tarmac SL8 and new SL9 that caused much consternation at launch, and also the head tube of the Pinarello Dogma, which received zero backlash despite being basically the same thing.

It appears the cutout in the seat post has gone from these images, though again, you can't see it totally side on. What you can see is the seat tube widening and flattening where the bottle cage is mounted, perhaps in an effort to smooth the airflow around the rear bottle, the frame, and onto the rear wheel.

From what can be seen here, it looks like a bike more than capable of troubling the UCI's weight limit.

Happily, having seen these images, I was able to high tail it over to the Uno-X team hotel at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and lo and behold there it was, lined up next to the existing Noah Fast aero bikes and several Dean time trial machines, so we can get a more in depth look.

I was told by the mechanics that the bike we saw was 7kg, though we suspect it would be more than possible to make it lighter than that.

Van Rysel has had quite the stratospheric rise. Its initial foray into WorldTour machines, the RCR-Pro, was an all-rounder that promised remarkable value, at least in the top spec versions (the lower tier options less so, as evidenced in our Van Rysel RCR-Pro review).

This was then swiftly followed by the very aero Van Rysel RCR-F (F for fast), which was an all-out aero bike. Given the heavy focus on aero, it's no surprise that the riders of Decathlon-CMA-CGM opt to use it at all times, somewhat putting the RCR-Pro in the shade.

Now, though, it seems the Lille-based brand has been cooking up a new lightweight all-rounder to try and compete with the likes of the Specialized Tarmacs (a new version of which has been spotted at this race, too) and Pinarello Dogmas in the high mountains, likely spurred on by the similarly meteoric rise of star GC prospect, Paul Seixas.

The Critérium du Dauphiné, or Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes to give it the full new title, has revealed this new Van Rysel, and it seems likely it'll replace the RCR-Pro.

In a similar fashion to a great many modern all-rounder machines, this new bike appears to have a focus on aero up front, and low weight at the back, where the air is dirtier and more unpredictable.

The curved seat tube remains, but it is kinked from the bottom bracket rather than straight with a cutout, and it and the seat stays look to be narrower in diameter to save some grams. The chain stays too look to be slimmer, but still intersect the seat tube with the slightly widened stance of the current RCR-Pro.

The down tube and top tube are relatively similar in proportions, but up front, the head tube is deeper. The most drastic difference is at the forks, which have deeper legs that begin to taper as they reach the brake calliper mount. This should aid the leading-edge aerodynamics.

Our own wind tunnel testing has shown that all-rounders can beat full aero bikes in the lab, and while there is a chance that this new machine could be a range killer, replacing both current models, we also know the RCR-F is a fast bike, and it seems unlikely that the team would turn their backs on a bike that's only a year old. This situation happened with Cannondale when it effectively mothballed the very aero System Six, but that bike was very old by that point.

Curiously, however, while the bike was out for Seixas at the team bus, the Frenchman opted to ride the current RCR-Pro instead. He may switch on the road, as the black machine was still on the roof of the team car, but it's clear it's still very much in testing.

The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné) is always a hotbed of new tech. Fresh bikes get released into the wild for field testing before the Tour de France.

This year, this included the new Specialized Tarmac SL9, seen at the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe camp. While the bike was interesting in its own right, closer inspection of the images reveals a sticker under the downtube bearing the name 'Remco Evenepoel', appearing to suggest the Belgian could make a surprise return to racing earlier than planned ahead of the Tour de France.

Another clue is that the chain on the bike is gold, which Evenepoel nearly always uses as the Olympic champion. However, the Belgian was also still training in Calpe on Thursday and Friday, according to his Strava, so any arrival in the south of France would be a late one.

Red Bull released a seven-rider roster in a press release about Maxim Van Gils' return to racing on Friday, but have been very quiet on their social media. Alongside Van Gils should be Dani Martinez, Luke Tuckwell, Haimar Etxeberria, Gianni Vermeersch, Callum Thornley and Finn Fisher-Black, but not Evenepoel.

At the start of May, it was reported that Enevepoel had axed the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes from his calendar, opting not to race at all for a full 69 days in the build-up to the Tour de France to focus on 'specific training'.

If Evenepoel is to appear at the race it'll certainly be earlier than planned, and while there may be a desire to get some racing in the legs it is also worth remembering that the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the last race before the Tour to feature a team time trial, perhaps offering the Belgian specialist an irresistible final chance to tune this discipline up with a race number on before the opening stage in Barcelona and a prime opportunity to wear the yellow jersey.

Should Evenepoel line up at the start on Sunday, it will certainly give pre-race favourite Paul Seixas cause for concern, and will certainly mean he doesn't have the race all his own way. There is every possibility that if this is a surprise pre-Tour shakedown, Evenepoel will be flanked by a strong squad with a lot of firepower.

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The Critérium du Dauphiné, or the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alps to give it its new name, is the traditional place to spot all the latest new tech in use before the Tour de France. The Specialized rumor mill has been running on overdrive in recent weeks, with the launch of the new Crux mere weeks ago to keep the gravel gang happy. Now, though, attention will turn to the road, and what looks to definitely be a new Tarmac SL9, as spotted with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

The bike was hidden by the team mechanics when they spotted my camera, but thanks to an enterprising attitude, a dark outfit, and a childhood playing hide and seek I was able to sneak into the undergrowth behind the team's hotel car park and get some spy shots to confirm it was the new machine, before making a break for it and trying to get some closer snaps with some success.

Leaked images online abound, including a brief roof rack spot last week after an image was shared online, but in the flesh we can see for sure what the direction of travel is for Specialized’s flagship machine.

It is clearly still an all-rounder, rather than jumping wholesale into the aero market, though there are some clear new concessions to cheating the wind. Given the Tarmac SL8 was particularly fast for an all-rounder in our wind tunnel testing, we suspect this will make the SL9 a very fast machine indeed.

The eye is immediately drawn to the new seat tube, now infilled up to the dropped seatstays to provide a shroud for the rear wheel. This is now very much par for the course on all aero bikes like the Canyon Aeroad, but has the effect of making the silhouette a little more muscular.

The seat stays themselves look a little fatter to me, and maybe the chain stays too, but it's marginal at best. Perhaps there were stiffness demands from pro riders if this was the case, though our stiffness testing revealed the SL8 to be a relatively stiff bike despite being fabricated from relatively silly tubes.

The seat post looks essentially the same as the current model, so it's likely the two may be compatible. It also looks to have the standard Roval Rapide handlebar, as per the current generation, perched above the Speed Sniffer nosecone.

Speaking of the speed sniffer, this still remains (in fact, the main triangle looks extremely similar in form to the old model), but the fork legs appear to have been deepened, but forwards, such that the leading edge of the fork crown is in line with the protuberance of the head tube. It has the effect of appearing to steepen the head tube angle, much like the very extreme forks on the Factor ONE, though it is suspected that the geometry, if it is changed at all, will only feature minor tweaks. The forks also look to be wider set, too, in keeping with modern trends.

Beyond that it's business as usual, as much as we can tell from a pro bike rather than a shop floor model. No aero bottles that are so often specced to bolster wind tunnel results, and no great lurches to either super light or super aero. We don't have official weights to work with, but with the additional carbon it is entirely possible that it'll be slightly heavier than the old version, though it's probably also still likely to be possible to make under the UCI weight limit in smaller sizes, something all riders will now be hyper-aware of in the wake of Lorena Wiebes’ shock disqualification recently.

Once the race starts, it will be easier to get some better pictures that didn't involve hiding in a bush – the mechanics really didn't want us to see this – so stay tuned for more images in due course.

Over the weekend in Emporia, Kansas, riders on the new Crux 5 from Specialized claimed the top three spots in the elite men's 200-mile race and the top two in the elite women's 200-mile race.

It marks an opening weekend of blockbuster proportions for a bike that launched to the public less than 48 hours before the race got underway.

Among the many steps along the way to this result was testing in the Flint Hills both in and out of competition.

Matt Beers, winner of four Cape Epics and now second at this year's Unbound was involved in both efforts. Early on in the process, Beers and 2021 Unbound winner Ian Boswell were recruited for some tests that pitted the previous Crux against one of Specialized's other gravel bikes, the Diverge STR, which features a small suspension device at the rear.

"We came out [to Emporia] in 2024," Beers told Cyclingnews. "We came out here and we tested the Crux versus the STR which has the rear compliance in the seatpost. And we tested that with a bunch of sensors on each bike doing recon. Ian Boswell and myself.”

This testing was followed up a year later with a sensor-equipped Diverge race bike that Beers rode in the 2025 edition of Unbound, where he gathered data about where and how the rough terrain of the Flint Hills was translating into fatigue for riders.

As the Crux evolved from a pure cyclo-cross machine to a gravel racer, it was crucial to know where comfort could be gained without sacrificing stiffness and power transfer.

“We had a little black box on the saddle that took data from the race. I raced with that. The more vibrations that go through you, the more fatigue, so trying to figure that out and trying to eliminate that."

According to the brand, this is part of its 'Equation of Speed', which essentially aims to replicate Formula 1's lap times technology and measure everything between the power in at the pedals and how that translates to speed. This involves the well-known metrics like aerodynamics, rolling resistance and gravity, but also factors in frame responsiveness, tyre traction, course profile, course surface roughness, weather, rider fatigue, rider habits and so on. These are all measured, quantified, and input into an algorithm - built in-house at Specialized by former F1 engineer Marcel Keyser - which then runs simulations and calculates finish times. By iterating on bike design - adding extra stiffness here or more compliance there - the algorithm can calculate how that affects a rider's speed.

"Obviously, we've had the Crux, we've had the Diverge, the Diverge STR, and we've collected data through all those bikes. That had an effect on development on this bike, trying to make one that can kind of tick all those boxes and be super fast, and I think that was the main goal of this bike, was just to kind of make it as compliant, but very fast and super stiff all in the right places.”

As a taller rider, Beers, and his teammate Geerike Schreurs have found the new Crux design to be especially adapted to their needs.

"I think the head tube is always quite important. Mine is very long, and you can feel quite a lot of flex through it sometimes. But also just the overall fit of the bike. I think Gee will also know, the bike fits really well for a tall person.”

This is down to Specialized's Rider First Engineering principle, which promises the same ride quality for every rider, regardless of their frame size.

Schreurs agreed. “It fits perfectly for tall people. It's kind of built for me, I think."

The defending champion will race Unbound Gravel aboard a 32" bike this weekend, with Scott creating a prototype gravel bike to be ridden by Cameron Jones, but never to be released.

Bigger-wheeled 32" gravel bikes have been a tech theme of this year, and this moment signals a milestone as a major manufacturer experiments with the technology in the biggest gravel event in the world.

Scott has in fact created a pair of the prototype 32" gravel race bikes for the flagship Unbound Gravel 200 event, with Tour Divide and Silk Mountain Race winner Robin Gemperle also competing on the new bike.

Both athletes have been testing out 32" wheeled bikes since last year. According to Scott, it took a single test ride for both riders to be sold on 32" for Unbound.

The bikes themselves are prototype gravel RC models; 'RC' stands for Racing Concept in Scott nomenclature, and the brand has stated that these bikes "will never be released on the market".

Scott mentioned how a gravel race, in particular Unbound, is a great test ground for revealing how a system performs under "real-world riding stress".

"This bike makes you feel like you're levitating over the surface," said Jones. "I'll be experiencing a road race while everybody else is racing gravel.

"The driving traction and cornering grip is revolutionary. I'm genuinely scared how fast I'll be able to corner once on a course with proper descents."

Jones and Gemperle will ride the prototype RC gravel bike frame, but with differing builds.

Jones's bike will feature a mixed Shimano drivetrain with Dura-Ace, XTR and GRX components, along with prototype Industry Nine wheels and 50mm Schwalbe RX tyres.

Gemperle's bike will run a SRAM Red AXS / XPLR drivetrain, a '32" prototype wheelset' and the same tyres.

Why 32" wheels, and why now?

Debate surrounding 32" wheels has been swirling all year, but they are nothing new, having been a niche, little-used size for a long time. What is new is the fact that more and more manufacturers and brands are producing gravel bikes with this wheel size.

We spotted 32" wheels at the Cycleworld Düsseldorf show back in March, and again being exhibited at Bespoked London a few months later.

A regular '700c' wheel, the de-rigueur sizing standard for every road and gravel bike these days, has a BSD (Bead Seat Diameter) of 622mm, whereas a 32" wheel has a BSD of 686mm.

Bigger wheels mean more speed, and for gravel racers on fast courses, a bigger wheel may well offer an advantage over a 700c option. There's also a point on improved obstacle rollover, something that formed a key part of the debate when the mountain bike world embraced 29" wheels.

32" bikes are generally said to better suit taller riders, due to the bigger size and larger frames, which need to be custom-made to suit the wheels.

Gravel racing equipment is still developing rapidly, and a focus on making bikes faster is still a key direction of travel. If competitors decide 32" wheels offer an advantage and embrace them, we may see more and more brands creating bikes for this larger size.

New standards and sizes are often met with scorn in the bike world. Unbound will provide a stern test for these Scott prototypes; perhaps a successful outing at the weekend will soften some critics' views on these big-wheeled bikes.

In a video posted to Instagram, Dutch cyclist Jan-Willem van Schip has issued an outburst against the UCI and its commissaires at the Tour of Hellas after he was booted from the race for an illegal position on the bike.

Speaking in Dutch, he opened with the phrase: "Not normal, I've been disqualified again," before arguing his case and complaining that he feels unwelcome in road cycling.

It's not Van Schip's first run-in with the authorities. The Dutchman has faced the wrath of commissaires and the UCI on multiple occasions, including when was removed from the Baloise Belgium Tour in 2021 for using unusual handlebars made by Dutch brand Speeco, and in 2023 when he was disqualified from Heistse Pijl after using a radical new handlebar set-up from Toot.

More recently, he was removed from the Tour of Holland for an apparently unapproved forward-leaning seatpost.

The exact reason for his latest disqualification appears to be the unauthorized way in which he holds his handlebars, supposedly breaking the forearms-on-handlebars rule.

His unorthodox handlebars, seen in the Instagram post above from a race last week, allow Van Schip to adopt an aerodynamic position, but he appears to fallen foul of the UCI's outlawing of the forearms as 'a point of support', even if his hands are still in contact with the bars.

Van Schip argues that "everyone does that and I actually always hold my shifter fully," before adding, "how do you measure this anyway?"

Paul Tabak, the owner of Van Schip's Azerion-Villa Valkenburg team, was reportedly in discussion with the UCI to appeal the decision after the race, but it was upheld. Van Schip did not start stage 2.

In his video, Van Schip pointed out that he'd recently raced the UCI-classified Ronde van Overijssel with the same handlebar set-up, without any action from the authorities.

"How can it be that I'm allowed to race the Ronde van Overijssel with this, while all the other riders [here at the Tour of Hellas - ed.] in the front group are allowed to just rest their arms on the handlebars, and not me?

"Its very painful. It's really not fun. The bike is completely legal, the seatpost is fine, but they still found a way to screw us over. It hurts a lot," he said, before later adding: "I don't really feel welcome in cycling."

He also invited the UCI to "have a good talk about it" so he can ask: "How do these rules work, what is actually allowed and what isn't?"

The Dutchman has already pondered a move to gravel, where the rules are more relaxed. Maybe that will now be considered more seriously.

Aptly summing up his mood, the video ended with the phrase "wat een kut sport," – "what a shitty sport."

The new gravel race bikes are starting to rear their heads at The Traka. Cyclingnews is on the ground at the race and we are already on the hunt for new and exciting gravel tech.

A new Ridley gravel bike caught our eye on Thursday. This one will be raced by Pieter Potters of the Strada Campina / Ridley Bikes team in the 360 race. It’s certainly a bike that we don’t recognise, and is clearly a very aero and aggressive model.

Details are scarce right now, but our man on the ground, Senior Tech Writer Will Jones, spoke with someone from Ridley and learned that this bike apparently provides a "single-digit aero gain vs the ASTR [Ridley's aero gravel race machine] but double-digit gains in rolling resistance".

Ridley’s gravel race bikes are the ASTR and Kanzo Fast. This machine looks far more aggressive than either of them, with a head tube that looks similar to the one found on the Noash Fast 3.0 aero road bike.

The 'RS2' logo on the headtube could point to this being an updated version of the ASTR RS model, but we don't know for sure right now. Either way, it's another indication of the direction of travel for gravel race bikes.

Aside from the very deep headtube, sculpted seat tube and aggressive, deep frame tube profiles, the bike was running Continental Dubnital 2.2" tyres, Zipp 303 XPLR wheels, which have a 32mm internal width and a mix and match SRAM Red XPLR gravel groupset, paired with an XX Eagle rear derailleur.

Stay tuned this weekend as we bring you all the best tech and race news from the Traka.

Tadej Pogačar raced in the prologue time trial at the Tour de Romandie today on a prototype Colnago time trial bike.

He rode the new machine to fifth place in the 3.2km test, finishing seven seconds behind stage winner Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers).

According to Colnago, the world champion's new machine is a prototype TT2 model, which appears to be the successor to the current TT1 model, a bike that has been in the Colnago range for several years now.

Pogačar was spotted riding a mystery time trial bike in early February, and we speculated on what that bike could be at the time. It would appear it was an early, unbranded version of the TT2 bike which he has used today.

In February, we speculated that this new bike looked less aggressive overall than the TT1, with some less deep frame shapes, and with more regular dropped seatstays, compared to the very low stays on the TT1 that lined up with the integrated bottle cage.

The primary goal of the TT2 appears to have been to save weight, whilst maintaining or improving aerodynamic performance. Colnago says the TT1 was one of the most aero time trial bikes in the WorldTour, but wanted to save some weight. The brand also mentions the bike being made more user-friendly for amateur cyclists.

The TT2 frameset is claimed to be 550 grams lighter, and is said to achieve a two-watt saving at 50kph compared to the TT1. The brand says this was measured as a weighted average across yaw angles. In short, this bike is over half a kilo lighter, whilst being slightly more aerodynamic than the TT1. Surely music to the ears of pro riders and a certain Tour de France champion.

Colnago explained that this is currently a prototype of the TT2 and that the bike will be made available to the brand's dealer network this September.

Pogačar's time trials this year

Pogačar will ride a size small bike, and his own model in the images above is built up with a Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Enve wheelset and Carbon-Ti aftermarket parts such as the large 1X aero chainring. One difference of note compared to his road bikes is the Fizik Aeris split nose triathlon saddle fitted to the bike.

The Slovenian superstar currently has at least four time trials to ride this year, not including any championships he might choose to ride. Today at the Tour of Romandie, one at the upcoming Tour de Suisse and two crucial ones at the Tour de France.

The Romandie prologue is very short, and the Tour de Suisse time trial is flat and fast; both are seemingly different beasts from the tests at the Tour de France, which include more climbing, with the Tour prologue including a new format which should create fireworks.

The goal to save weight on the TT2 is telling that weight at the top level is critical. If a rider of Pogačar's stature can find a half-kilogram weight saving on the right course, it could provide an advantage that will help him gain time on his rivals come July and in the future.

Pogačar famously chose to use a stripped-down road bike for last year's mountain time trial at the Tour de France, preferring a lighter drop bar bike to his time trial bike for the stage. Stage 16's ITT at this year's Tour includes the Côte de Larringes climb, a roughly 9km ascent at around a 4.3% average gradient. Perhaps this is where Pogačar's new weight saving will help him this July.

The longstanding partnership that has seen Soudal-QuickStep ride aboard Specialized bikes for the past two decades is reportedly set to end in 2027.

According to Daniel Benson's Cycling Substack, the team will switch to Merida Bikes, a brand that finds itself without a WorldTour team after its own agreement with Bahrain Victorious ended last season.

The move marks not only the end of a long-term connection between the American brand and the Belgian squad, but the end of its existing six-year agreement signed by Patrick Lefevre in 2021.

The partnership originally began with a 'bidding war' in 2006 when the team went under the guise of Quickstep-Innergetic.

In that first season together, Tom Boonen won the Tour de France green jersey aboard the team's Campagnolo-equipped Tarmac SL2 – complete with rim brakes, tubular tyres and a mechanical groupset.

The Belgian squad changed to Eddy Merckx Cycles equipment for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, but switched back to Specialized for the 2012 season, and that partnership has been maintained into 2026

In the years since, the two sides have worked together closely to further the successes of both parties. The team has had plenty of wins, with a Flanders-Roubaix double for Boonen in 2012; a dominant 2019 season in which Philip Gilbert won Paris-Roubaix and Julian Alaphilippe won Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and spent 14 days in yellow at the Tour de France; and, of course, Remco Evenepoel's rise to dominance, including his Vuelta a España win in 2022.

Meanwhile, riders have provided key feedback to help the development of the Specialized product catalogue. For example, Kasper Asgreen, who won the Tour of Flanders for the team in 2021, was heavily involved in developing the Tarmac SL7, feeding back on early iterations and prototypes.

Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel – whose 'aero bullet' nickname is in large part thanks to the countless hours spent in the Specialized 'Win Tunnel' wind tunnel – was a key contributor to the design of the TT5 aero helmet, the Tarmac SL8 bike, and likely the SL9 too, which is strongly rumoured to be launched this year.

The Belgian also has his own line of lightweight 'Torch Remco' shoes, which were designed to help his attempts at competing for the Tour de France.

In one of the biggest transfers in recent times, however, Evenepoel moved to fellow Specialized-sponsored team, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, at the end of the 2025 season.

In recent years, Specialized has somewhat transitioned its focus toward individual athletes rather than teams. When Peter Sagan moved from Bora-Hansgrohe to TotalEnergies in 2022, for example, Specialized followed. And then again, when Demi Vollering moved from Team SD Worx Protime to FDJ Suez in 2025.

Whether or not the brand will look to retain its sponsorship of two men's WorldTour teams, and thus step into another squad, remains to be seen.

Both Soudal-QuickStep and Specialized have been approached for comment by Cyclingnews. Soudal-QuickStep have declined to comment, while Specialized is yet to respond.

With the dust settling on Paris-Roubaix and a long drive back through the tunnel to the UK for the Cyclingnews tech team, we've put our heads together to reflect on what we've learned.

Throughout our days on the ground in Northern France, we've spotted a host of new, old and unusual tech hacks as teams sought to smooth the cobbles of Hell.

Shimano's prototype pedals will be the talk of the race, or at least Alpecin-Fenix's decision to only put half of their team on them. But the most novel tech hack we spotted was the 'double bubble' wheel tech at Lidl Trek.

Some hacks worked better than others, while some will point to bigger trends that will no doubt carry forward into the rest of the season and, if not, at least on into the Spring Classics campaign of 2027.

32 is the new 28

Even a couple of years ago 32mm tyres were considered quite wide for the rough cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. Most road bikes couldn't handle them, at least not with any real clearance. Now, with the latest generation of aero bikes being able to handle 32c tyres with relative ease, almost all teams were using this size, to the point that the ubiquity of 32mm tyres was reminiscent of the days of everyone running 28mm tyres with the occasional 30mm as this was what most rim brakes would allow.

The UCI was out in force with a new tool to check nobody was running anything too wide (as a proxy for tyre height, oddly), and while Tadej Pogacar was using 35mm tyres that plumped up to a value noticeably wider, nobody was exceeding 35mm in stated tyre width at least.

Tyre clearance is advisory when you don't buy your frames

Tadej Pogačar certainly led the big tyre brigade, with his front tyre barely having enough room for a cigarette paper between rubber and carbon, but he wasn't alone in trying to eke out every last millimetre of clearance.

Decathlon CMA CGM also had 35mm front tyres fitted, and like UAE, they also fitted a smaller 32mm rear; the back end of a bike flexes a lot more than the front, and so tyre rub is more of a risk. Even so, there were plenty of frames that were pushing it to the limit, but teams know that Roubaix bikes get battered.

A great many had battle scars on them already before the start of the race, indicating that they are probably second or third bikes for the key riders, or even their training bikes.

Shimano has some catching up to do

The difference between the SRAM teams and the Shimano teams was starker than ever this year. 1x makes total sense for Roubaix, and while SRAM bikes could easily be set up with a neat, well thought out 1x setup, perhaps with a hacked derailleur to allow the use of a smaller road block for those using XPLR, Shimano teams were either using 2x and taking the risk of more frequent chain drops, or cobble together a mish-mash of aftermarket chainrings and gravel or MTB parts.

It's not so much that it's ugly or unorthodox, though it's certainly exciting to see from a tech perspective. It just feels like SRAM is ahead of the game in terms of making life easy.

I'm totally sure the Shimano system works perfectly well, even though it isn't officially sanctioned, but it creates a perception that reflects badly by comparison. With new Dura-Ace being teased by some new (and potentially disastrous) prototypes, there's scope for a big catch-up, but there needs to be a 1x option now.

Sponsors don't count at roubaix

Aside from the off-script drivetrains that Shimano teams were using there were several other noteworthy sponsor incorrect incidents that I spotted. Picnic and Jayco were both using Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, despite being sponsored by Michelin and Cadex, respectively.

The former team’s mechanics used up what must have been several Sharpies to try and save their sponsor's blushes (unsuccessfully, I might add; the giant black rectangles do rather draw the eye), while the latter team was quite up front about it.

In any case, it seems like there's a good case to be made that if you're going to upset the sponsors at any race, it may as well be at Roubaix.

Whatever you do, you can't cobble-proof a bike

I'm not sure there were any more punctures than normal this year, but it certainly seemed that there were more unfortunate tyre disasters affecting the big names than in previous editions. Mathieu van Der Poel, Wout van Aert, Filippo Ganna, and Mads Pedersen all suffered flats, as did Tadej Pogačar, excitingly resulting in him having to use a neutral service bike for a time.

While big tyres might help, as may high-tech double-valve tyre safety systems, it seemed like the cobble gods struck down those with seemingly cobble-proof setups like Pogačar and those with pretty stock builds like Van Aert and Van der Poel with an even hand. There may be some who came away yesterday thinking that Van der Poel should have raced the new Endurace, but I am not in that camp.

He's won on the Aeroad three times, and there's nothing to suggest that if he were aboard the Endurace, he wouldn't have ended up having the same outcome.

Don't try something new on the biggest race of the year

There's a reason we head out to the Critérium du Dauphiné every year; teams don't want to use brand new equipment at the Tour de France, so they road test it at earlier, less important races first. Alpecin’s pedal disaster was a perfect storm of prototype parts not playing well with existing systems, and could easily have been avoided.

Perhaps it's the clarity of hindsight, and there's every likelihood that the team were told the pedals were compatible with what is likely a new cleat system, but why would you take the chance of having your key domestique running a different rider-to-bike interface at the biggest one-day race of the year?

Franziska Koch sprinted to victory at the end of Paris-Roubaix Femmes yesterday, fending off a two-on-one assault from no less than Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

The German national road race champion did so aboard her team-issued FDJ United-Suez Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 race bike, and I took a look at the Roubaix winning machine as Koch gave her a winner's press interview post-race.

It was a fairly stock setup for Koch, nothing too crazy or unusual, but with some interesting details, such as Roval's fastest wheels, and a nice 1X aero chainring from British brand Drag2Zero, which you can look at below.

What made it for me was the personal message Koch had applied to the tops of her handlebars before the race, which I saw on several of the women's machines. Her reminder to herself seemed to pay off, resulting in the biggest win of her career to date.

It was a bright, sunny morning at the start of the sixth edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, though there was still a chill in the shade as the women's team buses arrived in Denain.

Paris-Roubaix Femmes covered 143km with 33.7km of cobblestones, including two five-star sectors: Mons-en-Pévèle and the Carrefour de l'Arbre, but no Forest of Arenberg.

The start paddock was a relaxed affair. Teams racked bikes in the morning sun, and fans could get close to their favourite riders, UAE Team-ADQ staff even hosted a Domino's pizza party on the hood of one of their team cars.

I was there on tech hunting duty, and there was plenty to spot amongst the women's teams, mirroring the men's Paris-Roubaix tech gallery published by my colleague Will.

Highlights ranged from brand new gravel wheels to dual-headed tyre systems. I even spotted some gravel tyres, as well as some cool aftermarket parts I hadn't seen before.

A standout from the women's bikes were several fun personal stem notes they had added, including the race winner, Franziska Koch.

Mathieu van der Poel's double puncture in the Forest of Arenberg will be the mechanical catastrophe he remembers for the rest of his life.

It should have been a straightforward swap to his teammate Jasper Philipsen's bike and a return to the front group, where he could fight for a record fourth consecutive Paris-Roubaix title.

But it turned into the surreal scene of the Dutchman walking back down the Forest of Arenberg, against the flow of riders, to collect his own bike, because he couldn't clip into his Belgian teammate's pedals.

On camera, the walk appeared calm, cool and composed, but maybe there was also a hint of resignation in the moment, maybe anger too. Save for the emotional scenes of Wout van Aert's victory, these images will define the 2026 Men's Paris-Roubaix.

Luckily for Van der Poel, his young teammate Tibor Del Grosso had worked out the issue unfolding. He had a cool enough head to spot his leader's bike lying in the grass, stop, and quickly begin swapping his own wheel to Van der Poel's then-abandoned machine.

By the time Van der Poel had returned from his 50-metre trip up the road, his bike was back to a rideable state, but over a minute and a half had been ceded to his rivals.

Van der Poel then punctured again shortly after, while still on the Arenberg, but the team car was closer at hand on this occasion, and the Dutchman swapped bikes in a more straightforward exchange.

By the time he exited the Trench, he was almost two minutes behind Van Aert, Pogačar, et al.

The following 90km of the race were spent chasing. Van der Poel found himself in the second group on the road. In fact, much of his time was spent on the front of said group. And he eventually pulled it back to within 15 seconds of the leaders.

Ultimately, he sprinted into 4th, just 15 seconds behind Van Aert and Pogačar, with Jasper Stuyven nabbing 3rd.

Why couldn't he clip in?

The Alpecin-Premier Tech team are sponsored by Shimano, and all riders use Shimano's Dura-Ace pedals, but the problem arose because Philipsen, along with Florian Sénéchal and Jonas Rickaert, were using a new prototype pedal. In the aftermath of the race, Alpecin-Premier Tech's mechanics confirmed to Cyclingnews that the two systems use different cleats.

In a race as chaotic as Paris-Roubaix, where team cars are rarely nearby because of the narrow roads and stretched-out peloton, swapping to a teammate's bike is often the fastest way to get going again, and can be the difference between a quick return to racing and a race-ending long wait for support.

Christophe Roodhoft takes the blame

Importantly, the pedals themselves aren't to blame for any of this, but Alpecin-Premier Tech's decision to put half the team on one pedal and the other half on another.

It's impossible to know how the race would have played out in different circumstances, nor indeed if Van der Poel would have been able to outsprint Van Aert in the Roubaix Velodrome, but the delay on the Arenberg absolutely cost Van der Poel the opportunity to fight for the win.

Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews, a team mechanic explained that the pedals should have been compatible, and that Philipsen swapped bikes with Planckaert at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in February.

"It should work, hey. But the Arenberg is not the same as Kuurne," he said.

Meanwhile, Christophe Roodhoft spoke with assembled media.

"They fit, but it's not the same as normal," he explained, confirming the cleats are different.

"But it's done now. I can't undo it. I should have thought of it, but I never imagined it would all come together in such a crucial way.

"Right now, I think it was very stupid of me. That sounds harsh. But I don't understand how I didn't think of it. It's more unlikely than winning the lottery, all of it falling together like that."

He also explained that Del Grosso had already punctured at the time, but fortunately for Van der Poel, it was his rear. He was attempting to ride on, but saw his leader's abandoned bike and sprung into action.

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At the start of the men's Paris-Roubaix in Compiègne, the UCI was spotted with yet another tool to ensure the riders' bikes stay within its equipment rules.

It's a small, 3D-printed hand-held unit that commissaires were seen slotting over riders' tyres, seemingly to check their size.

At first glance, it appears very similar to the tool used at cyclo-cross races to check racers' tyres don't exceed the enforced width limit of 33mm.

But in road racing, there isn't a width limit per se.

There is, however, a rule limiting the maximum diameter of the wheel-tyre system, which means by proxy, given a wider tyre is also taller, a limit that works out at approximately 39mm. It does depend on rim width, though.

Checking the total diameter of a wheel tyre system at the buses at the start of a WorldTour race would likely be a much more time-consuming process, which would make it impossibly difficult to do across 25 teams quickly.

Given that road wheels are all made to an equal diameter of 622mm, and the total system is simply this plus the tyre top and bottom, it's a logical way to measure the total diameter more easily by proxy.

Cyclingnews understands this is what's being measured by the commissaires, although it's unclear whether the tool is measuring the tyre height itself, or simply using a nominal width (perhaps 40mm) as a proxy for an illegal height.

Witnessing the checks in action, Cyclingnews tech reporter Will Jones said the commissaires didn't appear to be checking diameter at all. "They just popped it onto the tyre and then, if it didn't get stuck, moved onto the next bike," he said.

Paris-Roubaix is likely the only race we'll see this tool in action each year. At most road races, teams will run tyres between 28 and 30mm, but the boneshaking nature of the Roubaix cobbles means teams are motivated to go wider, and push up against this limit.

When we caught up with Tadej Pogačar's bike ahead of the race, we spotted a 35mm tyre at the front that came up far wider, in one of a horde of tech updates as he 'threw the kitchen sink' at his setup to chase his third monument of the season.

Three-time men's Paris-Roubaix champion, Mathieu van der Poel, has decided to race Paris-Roubaix today on his normal Canyon Aeroad CFR race bike, the machine that he has raced and won on for the last several years, ignoring the new Roubaix-specific bike that Canyon unveiled this week.

The German brand launched an updated version of its Endurace CFR endurance model this week, claiming the bike had been designed with the single purpose of 'getting to Roubaix fastest'.

Much debate has followed since the bike's launch on what Van der Poel would choose to use; certainly amongst the Cyclingnews tech team, at least.

Van der Poel raced and won on the bike at E3 Saxo Classic but was nearly reeled in at the death after a long-range attack in which he posted all-time personal bests for his power output.

He then raced the Tour of Flanders on his regular Aeroad, choosing not to use the Endurace, which was perhaps an indication of his preference between the two models.

Van der Poel's teammate Jasper Philipsen, meanwhile, will race Roubaix on the Endurace CFR. We checked out his bike ahead of the race, even spotting some prototype Dura-Ace pedals. While visiting the Alpecin hotel, the team remained tight-lipped on which machine Van der Poel would use, and wouldn't show us any of his bikes pre-race.

A lot of work appeared to have gone into the new Endurace bike by Canyon; it has increased tyre clearance compared to the Aeroad, and is said to have a stiffer head tube than it too. Van der Poel, we are told, wants very stiff race bikes, likely helping him get the power down when he's out of the saddle, especially with his preference for wide bars. Canyon itself told us he receives custom carbon layups separate from what consumers are given.

Was it just a clever marketing strategy by Canyon to boost its new bike? Perhaps a racer like Van der Poel simply prefers the Aeroad, the bike he has taken countless big wins on, despite Canyon saying the new bike is only one watt less aerodynamic.

Racers can be hesitant to change things when everything is working well. Van der Poel may just naturally prefer the Aeroad and is sticking to what he knows best for Roubaix; it has served him well for the last three editions of the race.

Van der Poel will use a double Dura-Ace chainset, a different setup compared to his two great rivals. Tadej Pogačar has fitted a 1X Carbon Ti chainring, and Wout van Aert, who will use a 1X SRAM setup.

Given the race starts with 100km of road before the first cobbled sectors, we did consider the possibility that Van der Poel would switch to the bigger-tyred Endurace before the race hits the rough stuff, but upon checking all the team cars at the start for bikes with the Dutchman's name on, the Aeroad tallies three, to the Endurace's zero.

We won't have to wait long to see how the race plays out for the three-time champion as he seeks a historic fourth victory at the Hell of the North.

While Tadej Pogačar's Paris-Roubaix bike was a pretty drastic departure from the norm, for eventual race winner Wout van Aert and the rest of his Visma-Lease a Bike men's team, things are pretty much business as usual; a marked change from last year when the men's squad rode the cobbles aboard the significantly less aero Cervélo Soloist.

However, this lack of cobble-taming tech wasn't entirely by choice. The team has spent years trialling a clever device called the Gravaa KAPS, which can deflate and reinflate tyres on the fly, but just two weeks ago, they received a letter from the UCI banning the tech outright. The team's head of performance spoke out to express his 'utter astonishment', but had no time to appeal.

Still, Van Aert evidently didn't need it. He did suffer at least one puncture on his way to victory, but had a luckier day than Pogačar, who was forced onto the Shimano neutral bike for a short time, and Mathieu Van der Poel, who was forced to walk backwards down the Forest of Arenberg to collect his bike after a bodged change.

A day ahead of the race, Cyclingnews got up close to Van Aert's bike.

Paris-Roubaix is less than 48 hours away, riders and teams are doing their final recon rides, and dialling in their equipment setups for the races on Sunday.

The question of which bike Mathieu van der Poel and his teammates will use on Sunday has been a hot topic this week. Canyon launched its latest Endurace CFR endurance race bike this week, a bike it claims has been designed pretty much exclusively for Van der Poel to use at Roubaix.

Van der Poel and teammate Jasper Philipsen have both raced on the Endurace CFR in the last few weeks, and Philipsen will use it on Sunday. The team wouldn't let me see Van der Poel's bike, and it seems they are remaining tight-lipped on which bike he will use for the moment. The three-time Roubaix champion may still be deciding himself, though he rode a recon this week on the Aeroad at least once.

The Alpecin bikes are fairly stock generally and don't feature as many Roubaix hacks and changes as some bikes, like the new double-headed inner tube liners we spotted this week at Lidl-Trek.

Philipsen's bike had a few interesting features, the biggest of which was the prototype Shimano Dura-Ace pedals it was fitted with. After the Dura-Ace wheels sighting, which have been used for a while, this is the second sighting of any new Dura-Ace componentry. Whilst the pedals are only marked 'Prototype', it seems realistic to expect them to be Dura-Ace models. They appear to have a slightly different body shape, but the axles looked similar.

Philipsen, himself a two-time Roubaix podium finisher, was running 32mm tyres and 172.5mm crank arms on his Endurace CFR, which has a stiffer head tube than Canyon's Aeroad aero race bike. Interestingly, he also had a rigid aero seatpost fitted, not the comfort boosting VCLS Aero seatpost that comes stock on the Endurace.

It won't be long until we see what gets used on Sunday, and as usual, it will probably just come down to what each rider thinks is fastest on the day.

I've already pulled together a speculative article on Tadej Pogačar's totally overhauled cobble setup for this season. The Slovenian superstar has swapped bikes and gone all in on bike hacks to give himself the best chance of moving up one place in the Paris-Roubaix rankings this year and taking his final Monument in what feels like a slightly inevitable victory (if not this year, then in the future).

The day before the Hell of the North, I managed to catch his bike at the back of the team bus, and in a frantic 60 seconds snapped the key details that make it such a wonderful bike to behold for tech fans. There are classic Roubaix mods like bigger tyres, but then there are some fantastic 'weight weenie' modifications like aftermarket thru-axles and a total lack of paint more or less anywhere on the bike or on key components.

Whether this is enough, and whether he'll be taken out of the race by a small stone getting lodged between the front tyre and the fork, remains to be seen, but he's given himself the best possible chance.

Lidl-Trek will be using an inflatable Odyssey Optis tyre liner system at Paris-Roubaix to boost protection and to enable the team's riders to keep riding a little bit further in the event of a puncture.

Paris-Roubaix always causes flats and even destroys wheels entirely. We have seen teams use foam tyre inserts and even tubular glue to help provide extra insurance to the tubeless setups that are now used, to ensure the tyres stay on the rim in the event of an untimely puncture.

Lidl-Trek, however, has found another neat solution in this quest.

While visiting teams and scoping out bikes and tech in the run-up to the race, we spotted some unusual-looking double-headed valves on Mads Pederson's spare bike that had us stumped until we saw the 'Odyssey' brand name on one side.

Odyssey, a brand that's perhaps more well-known in the BMX world, is behind the Optis system, which it offers in 27.5 / 29 and 700c road sizes. The 700c long-valve Optis tubes retail at $89.99 each, making it a fairly expensive upgrade.

Optis stand for Odyssey Pneumatic tyre insert system. It's a tuneable nylon reinforced TPU insert, which resists expanding when inflated, meaning it can be inflated to a higher pressure than the tyre it sits inside, while allowing that tyre to still be inflated to its own optimal (read: lower) pressure.

It is said to help prevent tyre burping and to protect against impacts and pinch flats, as well as acting as a bead lock whilst giving the rider more of a chance of riding on a punctured tyre, which sounds like a perfect fit for a lot of the challenges that the Roubaix cobblestones create.

Whilst we haven't seen a WorldTour road squad use this tech before, we saw a hacked equivalent being used by gravel star Keegan Swenson last year at Unbound Gravel, but rather than this solution, he simply used a flat inner tube inside a tubeless tyre to allow fast reinflation in the event of a catastrophic puncture, and he drilled a second hole in his rims to accommodate it.

Riders suffering mechanical issues - punctures in particular - at Roubaix may often have a longer wait for assistance, depending on where they are, due to the narrow and often spread out nature of the race, particularly in its later stages. A system that gives a rider an increased chance of riding on a flat for a little longer must be helpful, and may help prevent catastrophic rim damage, something that we saw at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

The team explained that the liners will be inflated to 6 bar or 87 PSI, the 32mm Pirelli P Zero Race TLR RS tubeless tyres will, in turn, be inflated to a lot less than this, and we assume will still have tubeless sealant added for good measure. An added benefit of the liner itself, aside from it being lighter than a foam insert, is that if punctured, it will also release its air into the tubeless tyre itself, acting as a fast release of air similar to a Co2 or charger, which would give a welcome boost of air while the sealant plugs the hole.

The team were happy to chat and explained that the team had been testing the system all winter, on recons and was happy with it, describing it as a 'double bubble' or best of both worlds system. They believe Lidl-Trek are the only team using the system currently, but didn't know for sure.

Lidl-Trek have been using new and as yet unreleased Bontrager wheels this year, and we got a good look at them during Opening Weekend. For Paris-Roubaix, the team will use Bontrager's stronger gravel wheelset on the Roubaix stones. The team will also use the gravel-specific SRAM Red XPLR 1x groupset, which has been adopted by nearly every SRAM-sponsored team for the classics this year.

If ever you've ridden on cobbles, you probably know a few basic truths.

Firstly, it's quite unpleasant, bone-rattlingly so. They're often slippery, and with a ridge at the centre that relentlessly urges you into the ditch at either side. Your momentum is sapped with every stone, and picking a good line is akin to finding a quiet corner at Glastonbury Festival.

Secondly, and paradoxically, the faster you go, the easier it is. This may seem at odds with sense, but your momentum allows you to skip more freely across the top of each stone, whereas at slower speeds, there's more time for gravity to do its thing and pull you down into the gaps between each one, in turn requiring extra energy to climb back up and over the next one when you hit it.

Thirdly, the more you can unweight your bike and allow your legs and arms to act as suspension, the more easily you can absorb those bumps. It takes much less energy for a lightweight bike to rise and fall than it does for a 70kg rider to do the same.

All of that combines to mean that when you ride on cobbles, your pedalling technique tends to change.

You sit differently on the saddle, your position changes, your weight distribution changes, and a lot of riders choose to hold the tops rather than the hoods. At the highest level of the sport, this will almost certainly affect the best tyre choice, ideal pressure, bar tape choices, and perhaps even how you dress.

To try and quantify exactly how your technique changes when you're on the bike, Cyclingnews headed to the lab to run some tests.

The tests

We used the Pedalling Efficiency Rig at Silverstone Sports Engineering hub, which allows users to test the difference between setups in a controlled, close-to-real-world recreation, or the same setup across multiple different surfaces.

Cyclingnews' tech writer Tom Wieckowski was our test rider, and he covered over 70km of riding on our day of testing, with over half of that coming on cobbles at close to his threshold. Naturally, we ensured he was fed and watered, and weighed him after each run to ensure he was hydrated accordingly to keep his weight constant throughout.

Specifically, the tests we ran were:

Three tests: Road 'natural', cobbles 'natural', and cobbles 'loaded'

• Road natural: Simply riding on the road surface in the position that felt most natural for Tom.
• Cobbles natural: Riding on the cobbled surface in the position that felt most natural for Tom.
• Cobbles loaded: We asked Tom to ride with his hands on the tops, pushing a big gear, and loading the saddle.

Three tyre pressures: 25psi, 30psi and 35psi

Two speeds: 30km/h and 35km/h

What did we measure?

Using data from the Pedalling Efficiency Rig, Body Rocket power pedals, and the accompanying Body Rocket Saddle Sensor, we were able to quantify exactly how Tom sat on and pedalled the bike on each surface.

Specifically, we measured:

• The input power required to hold an equivalent speed
• His exact position (via the centre of maximum pressure) on the saddle, both left/right and fore/aft, including how well balanced he is, and how far this position moves from centre during a 60-second capture.
• His weight distribution across the bike, breaking down how much is placed on the left pedal, the right pedal, the saddle and the handlebars respectively.
• His pedalling power phases for both pedals, showing torque effectiveness, smoothness, peak phase and absolute power
• His pedal offset, showing how centrally onto the pedals the power is placed
• His max heart rate during each capture

What did we find?

The biggest changes we noticed were Tom's position on the saddle and his weight distribution, but not necessarily in the way we expected.

When riding on tarmac at the slower speed, Tom's position was fairly central on the saddle in relation to the sensor, measuring an average of 7.4mm in front of the sensor's centre line across the three different tyre pressures, as shown below.

But when we moved him to a higher speed, and thus a higher power output, he shuffled forwards by 15.7mm, to an average of 23.1mm, as you can see here:

Next up, things got really interesting when we moved him onto cobbles. The immediately noticeable difference is how his position on the saddle shifts from a constant hotspot to a blur from all the impacts.

Despite this, we can still tease out some averages. He was still in a more forward position, essentially reflecting the effort Tom was having to put into the bike.

At 30km/h, shown below, his average position was more forward than earlier, at 14.6mm, but not as far forward as the 35km/h test.

And then at the higher speed of 35km/h, he was 23.8mm in front of the centre, 16.5mm further forward than the slower, smoother test at the beginning.

One of the more unexpected shifts we saw was in Tom's weight distribution when changing from road to cobbles.

The expected shift is that as you transition onto rougher surfaces, you'll unweight your saddle and handlebars and use your legs to absorb the rough surfaces, but in this case, Tom's weight distribution actually moved more onto his hands.

On the six road tests (two speeds, three tyre pressures each), he only put an average of 11.5% of his weight through his hands, but when we moved him onto cobbles, that grew to an average of 18.8%, and then when he switched up his position to the 'loaded' test, it grew further to 20.2%.

Curiously, despite intentionally trying to alter his technique, the 'loaded' test actually made very little difference to his weight distribution.

His weight on the saddle grew by just 0.2%, while he put 1.4% more weight through his hands, and correspondingly less through the pedals.

There are two potential reasons for this.

The first is that since Tom moves forward on the saddle when the effort level increases, it's natural for his weight distribution to shift to the front of the bike onto the bars, even when moving from the hoods to the tops. This theory is somewhat debunked by the fact that he put more weight on the bars during the slower-speed road tests than for the higher-speed road tests, but with such a small sample of data, it's still possibly a factor.

The second is that the Pedalling Efficiency Rig only subjects the rear wheel to the cobbles, while the first is fixed into a sprung load cell. In the real world, where cobbles hit both front and rear wheels, we might have seen Tom subconsciously adapt to overcome these extra impacts up front, too.

As Tom himself puts it: "The rig is pretty different to riding Roubaix cobbles."

With all that said, despite not making much difference to his weight distribution, it consistently raised his max heart rate by approximately five beats per minute when compared to the 'natural' cobble tests, meaning Tom was working a good deal harder to maintain the same power input (at the pedals), essentially fighting the bike more in the bigger gear and different muscle usage.

This tells us that, although Tom's only ridden on cobbles a handful of times and is by no means a Pro Classics Specialist, his intuition and subconscious feeling are a good gauge of what gets him over the cobbles with the least amount of effort.

What does all this mean?

While we didn't come away with groundbreaking conclusions, nor even things we expected to see, we can still take away some interesting tidbits.

In Tom's case, we can see that his weight distribution on the bike shifts more forward when riding hard, and when on cobbles. The exact front-wheel to rear-wheel balance wasn't something we measured, but we can infer that as more weight is placed on his handlebars, more weight is on the front wheel too.

Thinking in extremes, this might suggest that Tom would benefit from fitting a wider tyre at the front than at the rear, to try and offset the increased load on his hands when the going gets rough.

More simply, it might affect his optimal tyre pressure. Most online tyre pressure calculators assume a weight distribution of 55% rear and 45% front. If we know that this shifts slightly when he rides hard, and he'll be hitting cobbles at 40km/h, he might want to avoid the lower limit of the calculators' recommendations, since his weight distribution is likely closer to 50/50.

It might also mean he can remove a few PSI at the rear for extra comfort.

In addition, it might be that Tom warrants a second layer of bar tape when riding on cobbles, since he knows his weight shifts onto his hands more.

And separate from cobbles at all, we know that Tom slides forward on the saddle when the effort level increases. If Tom were a pro athlete, he might have spent time in the wind tunnel, where generally the resistance is set at 100-200 watts, so you don't fatigue during a full day of testing. But when the going gets spicy, he slides forward on the saddle, and that could mean his CdA changes, meaning his optimal setup could also change.

Knowing this, he could test in the wind tunnel at 300 watts instead, and he might find that a different helmet or skinsuit tests better as his back becomes more rounded.

Other conclusions

This isn't necessarily a conclusion from our day of testing, but in unpacking the data, the folks at Body Rocket explained that when they performed a similar protocol with a different rider, his adjustment to riding on cobbles was different to Tom's, with the more expected change toward loading the pedals more and unloading the saddle and bars.

At face value, this suggests the technique of riding on cobbles is unique to each rider, and that the optimal setup for one rider might differ completely from the next.

But it could also be equipment-dependent. Tom was aboard a Canyon Grizl with 45mm tyres fitted, whereas we're told the other rider was on a road bike with 28mm tyres.

Given that we know wide tyres can save as many as 80 watts on cobbled surfaces compared to their narrower counterparts, it's possible that we were simply watering down the brutality of the cobbles a little too much, and Tom didn't need to adjust as much.

Regardless, with half an eye on Paris-Roubaix this weekend, it's impressive to see how much data can be captured with just four sensors.

Given WorldTour team engineers - the likes of Dan Bigham (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jamie Lowden (Visma-Lease a Bike) - have each spent countless hours standing at the side of the Carrefour de l'Arbre in winters past, with dozens of bikes peppered with accelerometers, you can be sure they have even more data at their fingertips.

I expect they already understand how each of their respective riders responds to riding on the cobbles, and how to choose the perfect setup each time. And I expect they're feeding that information back to Specialized, Cervélo et al to engineer the next bit of new bike tech for you and me to get excited about.

With just days to go until Paris-Roubaix, UCI has reported banned Visma-Lease a Bike from using self-inflating tyre tech, angering the team's Head of Performance, Mathieu Heijboer, who has called it "no coincidence".

The system, known as KAPS (Kinetic Air Pressure System), was developed by Dutch company Gravaa and was first used in a WorldTour race in March 2023 by Edoardo Affini.

Whether Visma-Lease a Bike has any official affiliation with Gravaa is unknown, but the technology has been tested and raced extensively by the team in the years since, with various riders using it at each edition of Paris-Roubaix since, and perhaps most famously, it was piloted to victory by Marianne Vos at the Gravel World Championships in 2025.

Gravaa, as a company, went out of business in January, but the team has continued to use it.

Speaking on the Dutch In De Waaier podcast and reported by Nieuwsblad, Heijboer said: "We further developed it and tested it extensively during the winter; however, two weeks ago, we received a letter stating that it is banned by the UCI. Then it stops all at once.

"We received no announcement that this was coming; there was simply that letter. In fact, we even rode the GP Denain [on March 19] with it.

"The GP Denain is the biggest cobblestone race [behind] Roubaix. It is also our final competitive test, and at that time, there was nothing going on. But now, suddenly, [it is banned] right before Roubaix. That is no coincidence."

The UCI's 'Commercialisation' rule - Article 1.3.006 of its Technical Regulations - states that "Equipment shall be of a type that is sold for use by anyone practicing cycling as a sport."

There is a grace period of 12 months for prototype equipment, which is extendable once, but only based on "justified grounds."

It goes on to say that commissaires may "refuse the start or disqualify any rider using such equipment," and that breaches of this rule are subject to fines ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 swiss Francs.

According to Heijboer, despite the bankruptcy, the Gravaa company was relaunched soon after, and it is still possible to order the system, but there is no time to argue the case before Paris-Roubaix, given the amount of preparation the team needs to make to be ready for the race.

"A [company] restart was made shortly [after the bankruptcy], but due to the whole situation, the UCI doubts its commercial availability. And they have said, 'We are banning it for the rest of the year.'

“You can order one if you want," he continued. "So you can understand that we were utterly astonished. It was communicated on such short notice that we simply have to accept it.

"We have considered appealing, but that also entails a whole procedure. And given our previous experiences, we do not think this has a chance of success in such a short timeframe.

"The penalty ranges from a warning to disqualification, and you’re not going to take that risk. Plus, [Paris Roubaix] takes quite a bit of preparation time. Over the past two weeks, our mechanics have been preparing hundreds of sets of wheels. You can’t postpone that until the Saturday before Roubaix.

"Quite soon after that letter, we decided to cut our losses; we are not going to ride with them. We are going to challenge this, but for now, it is too late."

The news will be a blow to Wout van Aert's hopes of stealing victory from his rivals. The Belgian comes into the race as a second-tier favourite behind Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.

Despite back-to-back crash-marred seasons, he has looked close to his former self in 2026, riding solo into third at Milan-San Remo, missing out by a hair at Dwars Door Vlaanderen, and being the fastest to react to Pogačar's stinging Oude Kwaremont attack in last week's Tour of Flanders.

"We have a lot of faith in the system and have tested it extensively," Heijboer reiterated. "It's a real shame that it is now suddenly no longer allowed, and for very unclear reasons."

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Canyon has officially launched a brand new version of its Endurace CFR endurance bike, and it appears it's a bike that has been designed with a very specific purpose in mind.

The Endurace was first launched back in 2014, a long time ago now. The bike received updates in 2016 and then again in 2023, and for the last three years at least, it has been the more comfortable, less aggressive, yet still exciting to ride, alternative to the Ultimate and Aeroad machines in the Canyon road bike range.

News and speculation whirled for the first part of this year regarding a new Canyon machine after a few sightings of unfamiliar-looking models on Instagram, then a new Endurace broke cover at Ronde van Brugge at the end of March, where it was ridden by several members of the Alpecin-Premier Tech squad. Team leader Mathieu van der Poel then won on it at the E3 Saxo Classic.

We got a decent look at the bike, but now, three days out from Paris-Roubaix, the bike has officially launched, and Canyon is calling it 'the world's fastest all-road race bike'.

Mathieu van der Poel has won the last three editions of Paris-Roubaix on a Canyon Aeroad, Canyon's all-out, aero race bike, that WorldTour riders use for everything.

Canyon says the Endurace CFR has been designed 'to get to Roubaix fastest' and has been developed 'in close collaboration with Alpecin-Premier Tech'.

That's pretty clear-cut. Canyon has gone away and tried to make Van der Poel the best tool for the job to win at Roubaix, which, within the pro cycling calendar, presents a unique set of requirements for a bike and equipment. I spoke with Canyon before the bike launched to gauge how much input Van der Poel had regarding this bike, and it sounds like quite a lot.

Visually, the new Endurace CFR looks very similar to an Aeroad, and from a distance, it's difficult to tell the two bikes apart at times. A lot of the Aeroad design language has been employed here; the bike's seatposts are interchangeable, and the Endurace uses the same fork as the Aeroad, for example, and it sounds like it's been needed to keep the Endurace close to the Aeroad in terms of outright speed. The geometry is also nearly identical, so this is quite a different beast compared to the outgoing Endurace CFR.

To start with, tyre clearance has been boosted to 35mm with a quoted 4mm of clearance each side, meaning 32's are going to fit comfortably.

A stiffer frame was also requested for the bike, and the brand cites requirements like sprinting up short sharp climbs, or coming out of tight cobbled corners at Roubaix. Canyon also confirmed to me that Van der Poel rides a custom carbon layup and just wants his bikes as stiff as possible.

He's also been seen using the rigid Aeroad seatpost on his Endurace CFR. Stiffer and stronger carbon fibres have been used in key areas to create this extra stiffness. A bare Medium frame weighs a claimed 918 grams raw, and the Endurace CFR is said to be a touch heavier than the Aeroad.

At the headtube, the new Endurace is stiffer than the Aeroad, with a headtube that is 12 newton degrees stiffer (a measurement of deflection). The increase in lateral stiffness, in theory, increases power transfer.

No pro rider wants to be given a slower bike, and it's probably fair to speculate that a slower bike than the Aeroad would have been a non-starter. Canyon says the Endurace CFR is within a single watt of the Aeroad CFR, which it regards as negligible. Canyon quotes an average system drag at 45km/h of 204 watts for the Aeroad and 205 for the Endurace.

In terms of testing, Canyon use the GST wind tunnel in Germany, and uses the same testing protocol as Tour magazine, which the brand says has been in place for over a decade. The brand tests with a leg dummy to replicate a rider pedalling in a repeatable way.

The Endurace was tested across a +20-degree yaw angle sweep, the bike was fitted with 2x600ml water bottles and cages, DT Swiss ARC1100 65mm wheels, and Continental Aero 111 29mm front tyre and 30mm Continental GP5000 S TR tyre rear.

The outgoing Endurace uses the flexible Canyon VCLS (Vertical comfort, lateral stiffness) leaf spring seatpost; the new Endurace CFR has a new SP0093 VCLS Aero seatpost, which looks similar to the Aeroad's aero post but actually provides a claimed 25% extra compliance compared to a rigid equivalent.

The new Endurace CFR geometry is the same as the Aeroad CFR, a request from pro riders according to Canyon, which possibly makes this the most aggressive endurance bike on the market.

The chainstays and wheelbase have grown marginally compared to the Aeroad. The brand has adopted 'effective stack and reach' numbers for the Endurace CFR geo charts; these measurements are the height and length from the bottom bracket to where the hands hold the hoods for more of a real-world measurement. Effective stack and height for a Medium Endurace CFR are 645 and 563mm, with a Medium also having a 990mm wheelbase and 413mm chainstays.

A brand new Canyon handlebar

Canyon has also developed a brand new handlebar, which also launches today and is available as an alternate option for the Endurace and Aeroad. The new CP0053 Race bar is what we spotted being tested by Mathieu van der Poel recently.

The new bar uses a more extreme-looking forward V shape, and is non-width adjustable, unlike the customisable CP0048 Pace bar found on the Aeroad and Endurace CFR currently.

The Race bar is claimed to be 120 grams lighter and 2 watts faster at 45 km/h over the Pace handlebar. The new bar will be available in 80-140mm stem lengths and 350 and 375mm widths. It's also roughly 20mm lower and 10mm longer in effective stack and reach than the CP0048 bar with the 'classic' interchangeable drops.

This seems to be another effective way for racers to gain an advantage, although it seems Van der Poel favours a wider handlebar in general.

Pricing and specs

As usual, Canyon has come in slightly below some of the more pricey premium brands on the market with the Endurace CFR. It's no doubt expensive, but not quite as pricey as some bikes.

The bike will be available in two build specs and three colours, as well as MyCanyon custom options, with both builds priced at €8,999.

There will be Shimano Dura-Ace and SRAM Red AXS builds, both with power meters fitted. The bikes will be fitted with DT Swiss ARC 1100 65mm wheels, Pirelli P Zero RS 35mm tyres and the Canyon CP0048 Pace bar with the classic drops fitted as stock.

Both bikes weigh in at a claimed 7.5Kg.

The Paris-Roubaix bike formula for most riders on most teams has, for a great many years now, been run your normal aero bike with as wide a tyre as you dare. Occasionally, things go off-script, though, and we see teams using totally non-standard bikes for the most brutal one-day race of the year.

Last year the Visma - Lease a Bike men raced on the Cervélo Soloist rather than their standard aero machines, despite doing a recon on the aero S5, and in 2024 Israel - Premier Tech made big waves by opting to run their bike sponsor’s gravel bike, the Factor OSTRO Gravel rather than the OSTRO VAM aero bike, despite only being able to fit 32c tyres in it due to the front derailleur clearance.

Now it seems Factor is at it again with a non-standard raceday option for the Queen of the Classics, with the news that Modern Adventure Pro Cycling will race on Sunday aboard the Monza rather than the lighter and more aerodynamic OSTRO VAM.

Greater durability, or just more publicity?

According to a press release from Factor, the reason behind the team riding the Monza, which Factor still classifies as a race bike, is that it is a more durable frame:

“Our rationale for this decision lies in the concept that while the ~2.5-watt aero penalty moving from the OSTRO VAM to the MONZA doesn’t put the rider into a non-competitive position, a mishap leading to a broken frame 100% will put them out of contention…The Monza’s general durability when contrasted with the ultra-light, optimised layups of the ONE and the OSTRO VAM give it an innate “toughness.”

To the surprise of nobody, though perhaps to the disappointment of some, this means the hyper-aero Factor ONE won’t be smashed over the cobbles; it’s just too stiff, it seems:

“That’s because the ONE has much deeper tube sections, a wider/deeper fork situated more directly under the rider’s hands, and it lacks the deflection from the bar/frame interface since the steerer is removed in this configuration.” The statement explained.

The Monza does, on paper, seem like a decent Roubaix option. The 34mm tyre clearance, coupled with the team's SRAM sponsorship and near-certain 1x configuration means Modern Adventure could probably run a 35c tyre on the day if they so wished, though as they are Michelin sponsored and the Power Cup race tyre only goes up to a 32c (unless there’s something new in the works) that is what we expect to see on the brand’s Black Inc. wheels.

It is probably worth outlining that there is no implication that Factor is worried that the OSTRO VAM would snap at random during the course of the race, but given the propensity of crashes, especially worrying given the weather forecast, there is a greater likelihood of a frame being put out of action after an unscheduled lie down with the OSTRO. The Monza is designed to handle everyday use, such as “leaning up in front of a coffee shop”, which perhaps speaks more to the delicate nature of the OSTRO than the outright durability of the Monza.

After using the OSTRO Gravel in 2024, Israel - Premier Tech then opted to use the OSTRO VAM in 2025, which did make the use of a gravel bike feel a little like a publicity stunt from a team that wasn’t ever going to be in contention at the pointy end of the race. Whether this is the same situation will perhaps come down to what Human Powered Health uses in the women’s race. Tellingly, Modern Adventure’s general manager, George Hincapie, outlines the team’s aims first and foremost as just getting everyone to the end:

“We’d love to have as many of our riders as possible finish our first Paris-Roubaix; that’s the main goal. If we could get one or two riders in the top 20 in the process, that would be a dream scenario for us.”

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Pinarello has today issued a statement in response to the snapped handlebar issue experienced by Filippo Ganna at Wednesday's Dwars Door Vlaanderen, before claiming the victory.

In the closing stages of the race, with 38km to go and prior to blasting past Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the last possible moment for the win, the Ineos Grenadiers rider was forced to swap bikes after the ride-hand drop portion of his Pinarello Dogma F cockpit hung loose.

Held in place by the brake hose and bar tape, the drop portion of the bar was bent backwards out of shape. Moments before, the Italian was seen on the race's TV footage moving it with minimal force, after leaning the bike against the team car while he waited for its replacement.

However, in a statement to Cyclingnews from Pinarello, a spokesperson has explained, "after an initial analysis, the damage appears to have been caused by excessive tightening of the brake lever clamp, leading to failure of the handlebar around the lever clamp."

That should reassure owners of the Pinarello Dogma F, and indeed the Pinarellos F9, Grevil MX, and Dogma GR, which also utilise cockpits from Pinarello's in-house component brand, MOST.

If ever there was a reason to buy a torque wrench, this is it. In layperson's terms, it means the mechanics who built the bike didn't do it properly. The shifter & brake lever hood from his Shimano Dura-Ace groupset needs to be clamped around the carbon fibre handlebar using a metal band built into the design of the shifter. It then needs to be tightened to a specified torque using the in-built allen key.

Leave it too loose and the band won't hold it in place sufficiently, and the whole shifter hood can move around while riding. Too tight, and the carbon fibre of the handlebar can be damaged, and when combined with riding over cobbles that damage can quickly be exacerbated and lead to complete failure, as is the case here.

Cyclingnews has contacted Ineos Grenadiers for more details.

Notably, this was the second bike change in quick succession for the Italian, after he was forced to stop just 9km prior with a broken front wheel. The wheel's fault remains unknown at this stage.

Despite the setbacks, Ganna managed to ride back to the front of the race on both occasions – albeit with the help of a 'sticky bottle' on the first. He then caught race leader Wout Van Aert just metres before the finish line to take an extraordinary win; his first in a one-day Classic.

While punctures are a regular occurrence and broken wheels aren't uncommon, it's rare to see handlebars break in WorldTour racing, but this event isn't without precedent.

Perhaps the best-known incident in recent history was when Mathieu Van der Poel's handlebar snapped in the finale of Le Samyn in 2021. That led to a mass recall by Canyon and a redesign of its squared-off handlebar and proprietary clamp system.

Hugo Hofstetter, the French rider currently at NSN Cycling Team, suffered two broken handlebars in quick succession – one on either side for good measure – while riding the Bianchi bike of his previous team, Arkea-Samsic at GP Denain in 2023.

Both of those were caused by crashes, and he later abandoned the race.

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A series of mechanical and bike issues for Filippo Ganna left the Italian forced to battle back hard to stay in contention in Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, with a broken wheel and subsequent bike change, followed in quick succession by another bike change, with a handlebar that had somehow snapped.

Ganna, one of the co-leaders for Ineos Grenadiers in the mid-week cobbled Classic, was looking perfectly at ease before the double dose of trouble struck.

The Italian star first apparently needed a bike change when his front wheel broke with 47 kilometres to go.

He fought back from that incident and looked to be in good condition even as racemaker Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) was radically upping the pace. However, things then got even more complicated for the 29-year-old.

He was then seen easing up on the right-hand side of the road at 38km to go, waiting once again for his team car. TV images then showed that the right side of the handlebars were broken, and Ganna gestured the issue to the team by wobbling it with his hand.

Mechanics rushed to provide Ganna with a replacement bike from the roof rack but the delay was heightened by the prior issues. It was only after 13 kilometres that Ganna was able to get back on for good.

Cyclingnews reached out to Pinarello about Ganna’s handlebar, to which a representative said following the race: “After an initial analysis, the damage appears to have been caused by excessive tightening of the brake lever clamp, leading to failure of the handlebar around the lever clamp.”

Physically, Ganna was anything but affected by the incidents long-term with the Italian finally claiming the victory that had eluded him for so long in the Belgian Classics by out-sprinting Van Aert in spectacular style at the finish.

In a race run off at a searing average speed of 48.5km, Ganna first drove across to the chasing group led by teammate Magnus Sheffield in pursuit of the Van Aert and the Niklas Larsen (Unibet Rose Rockets) two-up break at the head of the race. Then after the chasing group reformed, the Italian bridged across to Van Aert in the closing kilometre before blasting home for glory.

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Recently we brought you the news that Alpecin-Premier Tech were racing aboard a new, unreleased, and far more racy Canyon Endurace. Until now though, their talismanic leader, Mathieu van der Poel, hasn’t had the chance to ride it in a race situation, but he has been spotted aboard it for today’s E3 Saxo Classic.

Given the proximity to both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, it seems extremely likely that the flying Dutchman is using E3 as a race-test of his cobbles setup ahead of Holy Week.

The new Endurace – if it is indeed going to replace the existing model rather than sit alongside it – is clearly much more race-oriented and aerodynamic.

Van der Poel has won Roubaix in the last three consecutive years aboard his usual Aeroad, but in 2025 he was run very close by Tadej Pogačar until the Slovenian crashed out on a corner in the closing stages of the race. Pogačar, as we have reported on recently, looks to be totally changing up his cobble setup for a second charge at the Hell of the North, opting for his aero Y1Rs, as confirmed by his mechanic, with the widest possible tyres crammed into the frame and fork.

The new Endurace will have been in development for some time, and so isn’t a direct response to a change in Pogačar’s setup, but it certainly opens the door to a Roubaix arms race, and may herald a return to the Roubaix-specific bikes of old if he can hold off for a fourth consecutive victory.

A Roubaix arms race, or just a new bike?

In days gone by it was not uncommon to see Roubaix raced by many riders aboard cyclocross bikes. Mat Hayman’s famous victory aboard a standard Scott Foil aero bike ushered in a new era of aero bikes taking on the cobbles, a trend that has somewhat gone unchecked ever since, as the course is almost entirely pan-flat.

In recent years with tyre dynamics becoming the new frontier of performance, pro teams have looked to cram ever larger tyres into their frames, with 35mm being the general ceiling on many aero bikes, especially when running Shimano groupsets, as the front derailleur tends to be the width-limiting factor before the chainstays.

The problem now is that wider tyres are less aerodynamic, despite offering rolling resistance, comfort, and control advantages over the savage cobble sections. As such, the modern aero bikes are optimised around 28c or 30c tyres, which is what the pros use for 99% of racing scenarios.

The new Endurace looks to my eyes, and to yours too I suspect, like an Aeroad but with bigger tyre clearances, and a bike that to some degree will have been tailor made for the cobbled races of the Spring Classics. Van der Poel still seems to insist on using 44cm handlebars, despite the new Endurace seemingly coming with a new, narrower aero cockpit.

Whether we see this kick start a new era of Roubaix-specific bikes I think depends mostly on if he wins or not. If he does then it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see Colnago rushing to develop a similarly cobble-happy aero machine, but if Pogačar wins then the impetus to do so may be greatly reduced.

What I think will be the most interesting bike at Roubaix, however, will be whatever is underneath the Visma-Lease A Bike riders.

Visma, gravel bikes, and the rogue third option

Gravel bikes at Roubaix aren’t a new phenomenon, and they draw heavily on the tropes of the ‘cross bikes of old with bigger tyres and slightly more languid geometry. Israel-Premier Tech used the Factor Ostro Gravel in 2024, though were hamstrung by the Shimano derailleur issue making it more of a headline-grabber than an actual performance gain.

In recent years we’ve seen the men’s Visma squad do recon aboard the aero S5, before opting for the more endurance-oriented Celvélo soloist for race day, at odds with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s S5 setup to take the win in the women’s race.

Since the dust has settled on last year's race, Cervélo released a new Aspero gravel bike with a whopping 37-watt saving over the old version thanks to an aero-first design, and a relatively conservative 45mm tyre capacity given the trend towards tyres measured in inches rather than millimetres.

It’s not a huge leap to suggest that the new Aspero, dressed up with deep wheels and wide tyres, could open up a second front in the equipment war. It certainly looks more aero than the Soloist, and the aeroification of every bike genre from road, through all-road to gravel bikes means that slowly more and more teams should have the option of a much more adept Roubaix bike in coming years without brands having to invest in something implicitly or explicitly ‘Roubaix specific’.

Tadej Pogačar has been ahead of the curve in many modern cycling trends. He was an early adopter of short cranks and, likewise, his use of wider tyres on the road. But one area where he has been left behind in recent years has been in his use of a different bike on the cobbles to his standard race machine.

Last year, while Mathieu van der Poel was aboard a Canyon Aeroad, Pogačar ditched his new Colnago Y1Rs for the older V4Rs. Wout van Aert, despite doing recon aboard the more aero Cervélo S5, opted for the more endurance-oriented Soloist along with the rest of his team, but most other teams were aboard their standard aero machines.

This year, confirmed by his mechanic in an interview where it was also revealed that the Slovenian superstar won Milan-San Remo on a cracked frame, he will race aboard Colnago’s aero machine, and an Instagram post from the man himself reveals the setup is pushing the limits of what it can handle to the very extreme.

The radical Y1Rs first appeared at the tail end of 2024, with Pogačar using it for early-season races in 2025 before he mysteriously swapped back to the V4Rs for the cobbled and Ardennes classics.

Speculation online was rife as to whether he preferred the handling of the V4Rs that he was more used to, as the geometry of the Y1Rs was something of a departure from the Colnago road bikes he’d have ridden his whole professional career, or whether after initial testing in those early races the aero bike went back to Colnago for some tweaks before its return for the pre-Tour race block and the Tour de France itself.

Whatever the reason, since its return, it hasn’t been swapped out again despite Colnago updating the V4Rs to the V5Rs, and the use of it to ride to victory at Strade Bianche shows it’s at least usable on rougher roads.

Pogacar’s mechanic confirmed that this year he will use his aero bike for the cobbles:

"Before the Tour of Flanders, we will do another tour of Roubaix. There, we have been collecting data that the sports department needs to calculate what equipment and settings are optimal."

According to our contact at Colnago, this will be his fourth recon of the year, evidencing not only his, but his team's commitment to winning the race after finishing 2nd on debut last year.

"Tadej has already decided to compete with the Model Y [the Y1Rs], which he has not yet raced in Roubaix. That is why we repeated the ride on the cobblestones many times, we tested different tyre widths and pressures. In addition, the sponsors promised us that we would get material adapted for riding on cobblestones for this race."

From Pogacar’s Instagram post, we can see that he has absolutely maxed out the tyre capacity of the bike. Shots of the tyres in the back of the team car reveal that he is using Continental GP5000 S TR tyres, and we suspect these must be the new 35mm variety. They’re so tight there’s basically no room for anything besides the Roubaix dust to pass between tyre and fork. At the rear, the tolerance is equally minimal, but it appears still possible with a 2x setup.

At Milan-San Remo, he stealthily ran a 1x setup, and we expect this was something of a test run for Roubaix given the mostly flat parcours. Shimano doesn’t offer 1x setups out of the box, but with an aftermarket CarbonTi chainring and a K-Edge chain keeper, it is perfectly possible. Given we often see that the front derailleur clearance is the limiting step when it comes to tyre clearance, and that he is still running 2x in this post, it is entirely possible that he is running a larger front tyre than the rear, perhaps a 32/35mm split.

His usual 3D printed, aero computer mount has been swapped out for what appears to be a bronze-anodised alloy model to reduce the risk of it snapping, and the bar tape around the hoods also appears to have been double-wrapped too, which is very much the norm for Roubaix, though not for Flanders.

One final mod is that he appears to have swapped his race-day, $300,000 Richard Mille watch for a smart watch. The 2025 edition of Paris-Roubaix saw the crown of the watch cut into the back of Pogačar’s hand badly enough to cause noticeable bleeding, so while the luxury watch brand is a high profile sponsor of the team it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see the Slovenian either opt to go without a timepiece on race day, or add some extra padding to the back of his wrist for extra protection, in much the same way as we saw him adding foam to the underside of the levers of his 2025 Paris-Roubaix bike.

A brand new Canyon Endurace has been spotted today at the Ronde Van Brugge race in Belgium as the main block of Belgian Classics kicks off.

Detailed footage of the new bike was first shared on Instagram by Daniel Benson's Cycling Substack, in a linked post with Bikeradar.

The Endurace has long been Canyon's endurance-focused machine, blending speed and comfort, with the most recent model being launched in 2023. However, it isn't often used in races by Canyon pro teams. Mathieu van der Poel and his teammates, as well as other Canyon athletes, always race on the brand's aero bike, the Aeroad.

This new Endurace, however, looks extremely similar to the Aeroad, but we can tell it's an Endurace by zooming into the bike's seat tube.

It would appear that Canyon has readied this bike to coincide with the start of the Classics.

If you are thinking what I'm thinking, we can perhaps expect an even faster Endurace, but with boosted tyre clearances to save watts on the cobblestones, particularly with Paris-Roubaix on the horizon.

Cyclingnews has reached out to Canyon, and a spokesperson for the brand confirmed that the new bikes would be used for the Spring Classics period, starting with Ronde Van Brugge today. It sounds like Alpecin-Premier Tech were meant to first use the bikes at E3 Saxo Classic on Friday, but have started using them a few days early.

The brand also explained that more Canyon-sponsored teams would be using the bikes for the upcoming Classics races and that we can expect more information soon.

It looks similar to an Aeroad, but on closer inspection, it's definitely a new Endurace. The key giveaway is the model name written on the rear of the seat tube, which can be seen in the video above. Main differences between the two bikes also include the lack of a sculpted seat tube cutaway, and some of the frame tube profiles also appear to be slightly less aggressive than the Aeroad.

Mathieu van der Poel stands on the cusp of greatness this spring. He'll be attempting to take his fourth Flanders and Roubaix titles. As a long-time Canyon athlete, it's possibly fair to speculate that some of the new bike's design (if he rides it) is to help him go fast this spring. It appears speed has still been a key priority, and that is what pro riders want.

Separately, we also spotted a curious Canyon handlebar being used by Van der Poel himself lately, which we have photos of below.

On March 17th, Mathieu van der Poel posted an Instagram story of him riding along a canal path. What jumped out was the new handlebars he was riding with, and quite possibly teasing.

The bar has a much different shape and profile from the Canyon CP0048 integrated handlebar that is currently used on the top spec Endurace and Allroad bikes.

We also reached out to Canyon for information on this bar, and the brand supplied a statement indicating it was a prototype. It seems logical to expect that we'll see this bar appear on the new Endurace.

"Our elite-level athletes and teams support us by testing innovative prototypes and pre-production developments for many of our race-winning bikes. We rely on studying these real-world testing conditions to ensure any developments make the grade at the highest level and that they may eventually be presented to consumers.

"We aren't currently releasing any further information about this product, but we are excited to see how it performs," the brand said.

We also spotted a minor update to the Aeroad Van der Poel was riding at Opening Weekend. Canyon has changed the frame to make it SRAM UDH hanger compatible, but confirmed it was just a minor tweak, rather than an all-new bike. Van der Poel and some of his teammates were also riding on prototype Dura-Ace wheels at that race.

Tadej Pogačar's Milan-San Remo victory was already extraordinary for a number of reasons but it now looks even more so, with information emerging that he rode to victory on a damaged bike.

According to the UAE Team Emirates-XRG mechanic Boštjan Kavčnik, who spoke to Slovenian newspaper Delo, Pogačar didn't just rip his skinsuit in the dramatic crash ahead of the Cipressa, he also cracked his frame.

"The rear fork was damaged, but fortunately it didn't come loose," Kavčnik is quoted as saying.

We've run his quotes through Google Translate, but we assume he's referring to the rear triangle, namely the seat stay or chain stay, or where they meet at the dropout, on the left-hand side of the bike - the side he fell onto in his crash - although it's not clear exactly which part of the frame was broken. Cyclingnews has reached out to the team for clarity.

It was clearly not a catastrophic failure, but Kavčnik hinted that Pogačar was lucky it held up.

"If Tadej had known what condition the bike was in, he wouldn't have been descending so uncompromisingly that even Tom Pidcock had a hard time following him."

What's more, there was also the suggestion that the bike was slowing him down. "His frame broke in the fall, and the disc rubbed against the brake surface," Kavčnik added.

This would make Pogačar's record time on the Cipressa, which was already astonishing given he had to chase back through the bunch, often taking the long way round corners, even more other-worldly. Likewise, to drop Mathieu van der Poel on the Poggio and beat Tom Pidcock in a sprint on a cracked frame and losing precious watts to disc brake rub would elevate his performance even higher.

Another factor is that Pogačar apparently had to reset his gears after his Shimano Di2 rear derailleur went into crash mode, effectively locking him in gear. After a spin to check the rear wheel was moving freely, Pogačar could be seen labouring in a heavy gear as he got going again, and would have needed to hold down the button on his Di2 junction box somewhere in his cockpit while on the move in order to unlock his rear derailleur again.

"Tadej crashed onto the left side [of the bike], which has no gearshift, but the crash mode was still activated in the event of a fall. Tadej put it back into gear himself, he didn't feel anything else was wrong, so we didn't change the bike," Kavčnik said.

Pogačar only had one derailleur, as he opted for a 1x set-up in a bid to shave off a few grams and grab marginal aerodynamic gain. He also bucked the trend of wider tyres and narrowed his 30mm tyres from last year's race to a 28mm pair.

"This bike is now going into Tadej's special collection, even though it's damaged," said Kavčnik.

Get unlimited access to our unrivalled 2026 Spring Classics coverage with a Cyclingnews subscription. We'll bring you breaking news, reports, and analysis from some of the biggest races on the calendar, including Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Find out more.

In recent years, the sentiment toward the cobbled Spring Classics is that they're getting easier as a result of bikes getting better. The trend towards wider tyres, nowadays 10mm bigger than those being used just a decade ago, certainly smooth out some of the lumps and bumps, but the GP Denain just delivered a cruel reminder that the cobbles are no joke.

With 22km of the race to go, Belgian Jules Hesters (Team Flanders-Baloise) was forced to ride a cobbled sector without a saddle, after his snapped off as a result of being rattled over the rough ground.

TV cameras spotted Hesters riding at the back of the peloton, standing on the pedals, while tackling the Avesnes-le-Sec à Hordain cobbled sector.

Atop the now nude seatpost, all that remained was a section of his saddle clamp, spinning freely in the breeze. The rest of it had clearly broken and ejected itself into the countryside alongside the saddle it was supposed to be holding in place.

Commentators on the TNT Sports live stream added a succinct but apt: "That's unfortunate," before stating the obvious: "That is going to be a very uncomfortable ride."

The saddle clamp on the Eddy Merckx 525 race bike is made using a common method that braces the saddle rails from above, and clamps it down onto a curved 'base' which sits in a groove at the top of the seatpost.

The whole mechanism is held together by two vertical hex key bolts, often tightened from below, clamping the two horizontal braces down onto the rails to secure it.

The system relies on both bolts to be in place, so in the case of one breaking – either as a result of an overtightened bolt, or feasibly also a too-hard impact with a cobblestone – the whole system will then be able to work free.

Assuming it was an impact with a cobblestone, and not simply negligence on behalf of the team mechanic, it doesn't bear thinking about the force of the impact between the Belgian's nether regions and the saddle that caused the failure to happen.

The GP Denain is about as severe a road race course you'll find. It's known widely as the Mini Paris-Roubaix, and is a 200-kilometre route that takes in many of the same roads as the Monument, especially in the latter parts where Hesters' incident took place.

Despite the incident, however, the Belgian rode on to finish 44th, and although he did eventually stop to get a besaddled spare bike from the team car, he was forced to ride aboard his broken machine to the end of the cobbled sector first.

Mathieu van der Poel is no cycling Luddite, but the Classics rider and eight-time cyclo-cross World Champion refuses to follow the trend for narrow, aerodynamic handlebars and turned-in brake lever hoods.

"I just use the handlebars I've used all my life," the Alpecin-Premier Tech leader, whose bars stand out in the peloton due to their width and retro look, explained to Cyclingnews at Tirreno-Adriatico.

"They don't seem wider to me. I think they look wider because so many other riders have gone narrower."

Most riders use handlebars that are close to the new 400mm outside-to-outside minimum width enforced by the UCI, with a 10 degrees inward tilt and a minimum width of 280mm between the brake levers.

The UCI officials do not need to use their special measuring device on van der Poel's bike. His handlebars and levers are clearly legal.

According to Cyclingnews' contact at Canyon, he uses the CP0049 Pro Pace cockpit. This uses a modular system that enables a width adjustment, which the Canyon website states ranges from 350mm to 400mm (centre to centre at the hoods), via drops that can be detached from the central 'T Bar' stem.

However, Cyclingnews has measured Van der Poel's handlebars in the past at 420mm centre-to-centre, seen here on his custom Canyon Aeroad at the Tour de France, suggesting he may be running a custom-made, wider variant of this already pro-focused component.

In the pits at Tirreno-Adriatico, a helpful Alpecin-Premier Tech team mechanic grabbed his tape measure to confirm the current width of Van der Poel's handlebars for Cyclingnews, confirming a measurement of 450mm outside-to-outside. This is paired with almost no lever turn-in.

In contrast, teammate and team sprinter Jasper Philipsen uses bars that measure 410mm.

As a result of his steadfastness, Van der Poel likely has a slightly worse aerodynamic position on the bike and so needs a few more watts compared to his rivals, but that does not seem to be a problem for him.

Van der Poel attacked on the gravel stage of Tirreno-Adriatico on Tuesday and won the sprint to the line, beating Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). He then won the sprint on stage 4 on Thursday against rival Wout van Aert and the eternally aero Filippo Ganna.

"Maybe I lose a little bit of aerodynamic advantage, but I like to have the power when I stand on the pedals," he told Cyclingnews.

"I'm used to the size, and so for now I'm sticking to wide bars."

Fresh from a strong top 10 placing at Strade Bianche on Sunday, Wout van Aert, as well as his Visma Lease a Bike teammate Matteo Jorgensen, seemingly threw caution to the wind today by running double Reserve Infinity disc wheels for the opening time trial stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.

Van Aert paired the wheels with a huge 1x aero chainring and the bulbous Giro Aerohead helmet, but the super aero combination wasn't enough to net either rider the stage victory and leader's jersey.

The Belgian rider finished in 59th place, 1:10 down on eventual winner Filippo Ganna, though granted Van Aert may not have been going flat out. His teammate Jorgensen fared better and finished in 16th place, 44 seconds back on a rampaging Ganna.

A single rear disc wheel is a common sight in pro time trial events, and the aerodynamic rear wheels are most usually paired with a deep-section or perhaps tri-spoke front wheel.

The use of a front disc wheel, however, whilst common for indoor track events, is highly unusual on the road, and double discs have not been seen much in pro road time trials for several decades.

The generally accepted wisdom is that the completely solid nature of the front wheel impacts front-end handling and inertia, whilst also making the bike more susceptible to strong gusts of wind, already a factor when a rider is using tri bars.

Ultimately, it seems that the potential risks and handling issues created by a double disc setup outweigh any available performance advantage for most.

It seems that Van Aert is definitely confident using the setup, and after a dramatic outing two years ago at the Paris Olympics using the combination, he decided to do the same again today. The use of the wheels in today's event may also be a test run for other events this year that the Belgian is targeting.

This isn't the first time Wout van Aert has used a double disc combination on the road. Much to the cycling world's surprise, the Belgian star brought out the combination at the Paris Olympics in summer 2024 to take a bronze medal on the rain-soaked streets of Paris. Back in 2024, Van Aert claimed the team had found a 17-watt advantage from the system.

“When we tested it in the wind tunnel, there were different wind angles and speeds, but double discs were 17 watts faster than a normal time trial wheel. That's quite a lot.” He explained at the time.

It's clear that Van Aert and his team believe there's a performance advantage in using the combination, and most riders would probably sign on the dotted line for a 17-watt improvement.

Perhaps the two-year gap between Van Aert using the combination again points to a need for the conditions and course to suit double disc wheels. It also seems like the type of combination that just isn't considered much (apart from by Visma), there can't be very many current riders out there who must know what running double discs on the road feels like.

Perhaps now with wider rims and better wheel/tyre fitments, larger volume tyres and improved aerodynamics, double discs are no longer the handful they are perceived to be in some conditions.

It's also worth mentioning that the recently updated UCI wheel depth rules don't apply to individual time trials. Riders can use far deeper rims in time trials than the maximum 65mm depth that's permitted for road races.

The Spring Classics are regularly seen as a hotbed of tech and innovation, and for good reason. The long distances over brutal cobbled and gravel roads create extreme conditions that push not only the riders to the limit, but their equipment too.

As a result, teams are often forced to adapt, innovate, and sometimes... hack.

This has shrunk in necessity in recent years as bikes have become evermore capable and tyres have grown ever wider, but it's still a regular find in the pits at races such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche and, of course, Paris-Roubaix.

One such recent example can be found on the Cervélo bikes of the Visma-Lease A Bike team, who have been glueing their tubeless tyres into place since last year's Hell of the North.

Cycling innovation is an amusingly circular affair, with seemingly new ideas often found in the didn't catch on section of the history books, but you needn't look far at all to find tyres being glued into place. In fact, it will seem entirely normal to anyone over the age of... seven.

But the difference here is that we're talking about tubeless tyres, rather than tubulars.

Tubular tyres - which, for our younger readers, combine the tyre and inner tube into one piece that is glued into place on a tubular-specific rim - were all but ubiquitous in the WorldTour until the late 2010s. Clinchers, where the inner tube is separate from the tyre, appeared sporadically through the decade and reigned supreme in the amateur space, but it wasn't until Alexander Kristoff stormed to victory at Gent-Wevelgem in March 2019 that tubeless technology earned its first WorldTour win and started gaining legitimate traction (no pun intended).

The seven years since have seen tubeless grow to its own state of ubiquity, with the technology improving and compatibility issues being largely ironed out, save for the ongoing debate around hookless rims.

Tubeless relies on the internal air's outward pressure, and tight tolerances between the rim and the tyre to keep the tyre seated, with sealant inside used to plug smaller punctures, saving the rider the need to stop for a wheel change.

Glue is not a necessary part of this equation, so what are Visma-Lease a Bike up to?

To find out, we asked their Head of Performance Equipment, Jenco Drost, who was quick to affirm his confidence in the Reserve wheels and Vittoria tyres that the team is using.

The team uses the Reserve 57/64 Turbulent Aero wheels, which feature a 'semi hook' bead design to help secure the tyre, and Vittoria's Corsa Pro range of tyres.

"We’ve done enough testing together to be sure it holds up in racing conditions. The tyres seat properly in the hooks, creating a solid and reliable fit. If I had any doubts about this combination, we would have conducted additional testing and worked closely with Vittoria and Reserve to improve it."

Despite the limelight currently being on hookless, Visma has had its own instance of wheels falling foul of the cobbles in high-profile fashion too. In the 2022 edition of Paris-Roubaix, Wout Van Aert and Christophe Laporte both had their Shimano tubular wheels 'taco' – essentially fold in half – under the extremes of riding on cobbles after a puncture.

But despite that incident, and more recent examples such as Fabio Jakobsen's crash at the UAE Tour and Amaury Capiot's incident at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Drost is keen to point out that the rim-tyre interface isn't their motivation for the glue's use.

"The main reason we started doing this was because we observed some pressure loss during the Classic races, where riders experience hard impacts while running lower pressures. For example, in Roubaix we saw cases where a strong impact caused a small crack in the rim.

"Structurally this is still safe to continue racing [ed: though not recommended or endorsed by Cyclingnews] but sometimes the sealant cannot fully close the crack, which results in slow air loss. Glueing helps keep the tyre and sealant sealed during hard impacts at low pressures or in cases of minor wheel damage or burping."

Burping, for those unclear on the term, is where low tyre pressures combined with a hard impact can temporarily dislodge the tyre from the rim and break the airtight seal created by the outward air pressure. This causes some of the air to escape, or 'burp' out, which results in a slight loss in pressure. Over the course of a long race, repeated instances could massively affect the tyre pressure, which can have knock-on effects in rolling resistance and, worse, the ability to control the bike.

"This is also why we do not apply this in normal (no cobble) races, as we haven’t seen situations that require it there. In addition, our riders are confident in the current setup and do not need any extra 'peace of mind'."

This clarification puts paid to any theory or conspiracy that the glue is to help keep the tyre on the rim in the event of a complete flat, as has been rumoured and previously reported.

Many teams rely on an internal foam air liner - the Vittoria Air Liner, in most cases - to help here too. Despite many of the 'failure' images showing the lime green liner wrapped uncouthly around the wheel and frame, this is likely simple evidence of their widespread use, rather than evidence of any fault or blame. It's impossible to know how many punctures they have succeeded in retaining the tyre, because those instances don't make the headlines.

Drost adds his opinions here, too, reiterating his earlier point. "While [the liner] may help keep the tyre seated as an additional benefit, the starting point should always be the tyre-rim combination itself."

Notably, while tubular glue is a rudimentary solution to the problem of tyre pressure regulation, the Dutch team has also been employing an altogether more complex method at Classics races of recent years too. The Gravaa KAPS tyre pressure system enabled riders to inflate tyres while still riding, using a small compressor-of-sorts located in the hub. Unfortunately, the Dutch company has since gone bust, so it's unlikely that we'll see the tech again this year.

As for whether the teams have more cobble-smoothing tricks up their respective sleeves for this year's races, we'll have to wait and see.

Get unlimited access to our unrivalled 2026 Spring Classics coverage with a Cyclingnews subscription. We'll bring you breaking news, reports, and analysis from some of the biggest races on the calendar, including Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Find out more.

Matthew Brennan stormed to the win at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne yesterday, reinforcing his position as a classics favourite and staking his claim as one of the fastest finishers around.

Brennan raced on the aero Cervélo S5, like the rest of his teammates. Although one Visma development team rider who joined the team was riding a Cervelo Soloist, which you can see in our Opening Weekend tech gallery.

I managed to get near Brennan's bike at the Kuurne finish to take a look at the race-winning machine.

The standout for me was how low and aggressive the front end of the bike was in the flesh. Brennan isn't tall anyway, but his slammed front end is really low.

Brennan raced to the win on 165mm cranks, different front and rear wheel depths, size 41-54 tooth chainrings and 30mm tyres. He also had an interesting stem note on his handlebars, which I managed to get a shot of below.

Demi Vollering claimed a win today in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, making it a fine day for the Dutch, after her countryman Mathieu van der Poel's solo win earlier in the afternoon.

Vollering outsprinted Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney after almost three and a half hours of racing, after the pair ended up off the front after Vollering's efforts on the Muur van Geraardsbergen.

I found Vollering's race-winning Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 race bike post-race, which is custom-painted for the current European road race champion with a yellow, white and blue European jersey livery.

Vollering's machine is a fairly stock model that most tech fans will be familiar with. Specialized pro bikes are often fitted with a suite of the brands in house components from its own brand, Roval, including the wheels and handlebars.

Vollering's bike, which was covered in race splatter, was fitted with 165mm cranks, 32mm tyres and 40-54 tooth chainrings.

The standout tech point on the bike was the pair of 32mm Specialized Turbo Cotton TLR tyres. This is a model which isn't currently on the brand's website, and the Cotton tyres that are listed don't go up to a 32mm size. This seems to point to them being a new model, which we did see a few sets of on both men's and women's bikes at Omloop.

Mathieu van der Poel powered to his first road race victory of the year at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this afternoon. The Dutchman pressed on over the top of the Molenberg climb with 45km to go, skilfully avoiding a crash directly in front of him. This action developed into a three-rider winning breakaway, and the former world road race champion eventually left his companions behind to claim a fine solo win.

Van der Poel has been riding Canyon bikes for years, and has a 10-year deal with the German brand. It's not unusual to see a star of Van der Poel's calibre riding various custom-painted bikes, but today's race-winning machine has several interesting points to go over and could be a sign of things to come for two big brands.

First off, Van der Poel was riding a custom-painted frame that was different to his teammates' blue Canyon Aeroad frames. We'll have more of these in our full tech gallery, which will come out tomorrow. This one has a different CFR logo on the top tube, which refers to Canyon's top spec carbon frames.

This frame, and a few others at the race, also had a different rear drive side dropout. It appears the Aeroad has received an update to make the frame SRAM UDH (universal derailleur compatible) hanger compatible, which is a universal standard for all frame hangers. I asked a Canyon spokesperson if this was a new Aeroad, but they told me that this is just a small update to the frame, for now.

Van der Poel's bike was fitted with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset with 40/55 tooth chainrings, and once again, the prototype Shimano wheels, which I assume are Dura-Ace that he has been seen using since last year, the wheels have carbon spokes, and the hubs are stamped 'Prototype'.

I had a couple of minutes tops before the team took the bike away, and it was moving off as I took the hub picture, but the 'Prototype' stamp is clear to see. Could this be another sign that a new Dura-Ace groupset is indeed on the way?

Van der Poel's Spring Classics account is open; we just might be seeing more of this bike at the head of affairs again this year.

The sky had already darkened, and the rain was falling as I headed over to the Modern Adventure Cycling truck in the corner of the team's hotel carpark on the eve of Opening Weekend.

The Spring Classics are upon us, and brand-new American team Modern Adventure Pro cycling, founded by ex-pro rider George Hincapie, has secured invitations to at least two of them, including Paris-Roubaix, one of the biggest one-day races on the planet.

Modern Adventure is a UCI second-tier team, but will race Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne this Sunday, and the Hell of the North in a few weeks. The team's riders are also racing aboard the most talked-about road bike of the last year, the hyper-aero Factor One, which must be good for morale ahead of taking on the WorldTour squads, though they also have the Ostro Vam at their disposal.

I shot both models while the team's mechanics worked on them, and they told me the riders tend to want to ride the One and prefer its feel, though some Ostro models were ready to go.

The start of 2026 brings a brand new race season and a brand new three-year WorldTour cycle, which brings new teams to the cycling top flight and, in turn, new bikes and tech.

Welcome to our Women's WorldTour bike and equipment guide for 2026. Like our mens WorldTour guide, this is a comprehensive breakdown of the bikes, components and kit that each of the fourteen women's WorldTour squads will use this year.

Cannondale has joined the Women's WorldTour thanks to the promotion of EF Education Oatly, providing a nice symmetry with the men's squad, which has existed in the mens top tier for many years.

Ceratizit - WNT Pro Cycling Team and the Roland Cycling Team leave the Women's WorldTour, which signals the departure of both Orbea and Pinarello from the peloton.

There have been some component changes, a major one is EF Education's switch from Shimano to SRAM equipment, which, as mentioned in the men's guide, hasn't been made official yet, but we have seen team images online of SRAM-equipped bikes.

We have also tested a range of bikes and wheelsets this year that raced at the WorldTour level as part of our CN Labs independent aero testing; have a look if you're curious to see whether the real results match up to the marketing hype.

• Wind tunnel tested: Aero bikes
• Wind tunnel tested: The fastest road helmets
• Lab tested: The fastest road tyres

Groupsets

For 2026, Shimano and SRAM have an even split between teams in the women's peloton, with seven teams apiece running the manufacturers' groupsets. EF Education Oatly's switch to SRAM Red AXS has levelled the score on that front.

Campagnolo currently does not support a Women's WorldTour squad, so like the men's WorldTour, there will be no Campagnolo in the bunch this year.

Womens teams and bikes 

AG Insurance-Soudal Team

• Bikes: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 / Shiv TT
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Roval
• Tyres: Specialized Turbo / Mondo
• Clothing: Castelli
• Saddles: Specialized
• Finishing Kit: Specialized / Roval
• Computers: Garmin

AG Insurance-Soudal's package stays largely unchanged heading into the new season. Specialized provides the team with a comprehensive range of components from its portfolio. This means that the Tarmac SL8 frames, finishing kit, wheels, tyres, and saddles for some riders all come from the American brand and are split between Specialized and Roval branded products.

Like the men's squad, Castelli supplies the team kit, which this year has gained some green, becoming a little darker.

We like to include a few other interesting sponsors and partners, and Rocket Espresso is also listed as an official team partner, renowned for its high-end coffee machines. We wonder if each rider gets one to help keep morale high at home!

Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto

• Bikes: Canyon Aeroad CFR / Ultimate CFR / Speedmax
• Groupset: Sram Red AXS
• Wheels: Zipp
• Tyres: Schwalbe
• Clothing: Canyon
• Saddles: Ergon
• Finishing Kit: Canyon
• Computers: Hammerhead

Things appear to be staying the same at Canyon-Sram Zondacrypto; nothing appears to have changed moving into 2026.

This means that the team's riders will continue to race on Canyon bikes fitted with SRAM Red AXS groupsets, Hammerhead Karoo computers, Zipp wheels, and Time pedals, making for a comprehensive SRAM component package, as Zipp, Hammerhead, and Time are owned by the American brand.

The team's race number holders will be supplied by K3 Pro Cycling, which provides a number of teams with neat race number holder mounts.

Continuing the premium coffee machine sponsorships flex, the team enjoy a partnership with La Marzocco coffee machines and Il Magistrale Cycling Coffee.

EF Education-Oatly

• Bikes: Cannondale SuperSix Evo, SuperSlice (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Vision Metron RS
• Tyres:  Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Assos
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Cannondale
• Computers: Wahoo

EF Education Oatly are a new addition to the Women's WorldTour ranks, having been promoted for the next three-year cycle.

The majority of this year's equipment change has taken place in the team for this year.

There has been a switch from Shimano to SRAM groupsets, and the squad has also welcomed Assos as a race kit sponsor, replacing Rapha, which had supplied the team for many years.

Reigning Women's World Road Race champion Magdeleine Vallieres also rides for the team, so we will be on the lookout for a custom-painted rainbow Cannondale Supersix when the season kicks off.

FDJ United - Suez

• Bikes: Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL8
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Roval
• Tyres: Continental GP5000
• Clothing: Gobik / Nike
• Saddles: Specialized
• Finishing Kit: Specialized / Roval
• Computers: Garmin

It's business as usual at FDJ United - Suez; their equipment package is also staying exactly the same as last year.

Like the majority of other Specialised-sponsored teams, they will use S-Works Tarmac SL8 frames and Roval finishing kits and wheels, but crucially seems to be using Continental tyres, not Specialized Turbo models, which are usually ridden by Specialised-sponsored teams; we have reached out to Specialized to enquire about this.

The team also counts Nike as an official "lifestyle apparel supplier". The squad announced a partnership with the team in early 2025 that continues to run.

The team enjoys Nespresso as an official partner. This isn't quite Rocket or La Marzocco, but it no doubt provides a very welcome boost on the team bus!

Fenix-Premier Tech

• Bikes: Canyon Aeroad CFR / Ultimate CFR / Speedmax
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Shimano Dura-Ace
• Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Race TLR RS / P Zero Race TLR
• Clothing: Alé
• Saddles: Selle Italia
• Finishing Kit: Canyon
• Computers: Wahoo

The key change here is regarding sponsors and names, with Premier Tech coming onboard for 2026 and replacing Deceuninck as the team's headline co-sponsor.

Aside from that, things look to be staying exactly the same at Fenix-Premier Tech for 2026. As far as we can tell, Canyon will remain in place as a bike sponsor, and the team will race on the Aeroad or Ultimate models. Though it must be said, more riders than ever seem to just be plumping for the more aero Aeroad model for all-round racing.

The team will also continue to use Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets and wheels this year. Tyres are from Pirelli, and are the P Zero Race TLR RS / P Zero Race TLR models.

One supplier change we have found is the addition of Sanday cherry juice as a new partnership. Cherry juice is widely used in professional cycling for its recovery-boosting properties. The new partnership was announced in early January 2026.

Human Powered Health

• Bikes: Factor Ostro VAM and O2 VAM
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Black Inc.
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro
• Clothing: Verge Sport / Velotoze
• Saddles: TBC
• Finishing Kit: Black Inc
• Computers: Wahoo

Human Powered Health continue to race on Factor bikes for the 2026 season. They have been able to choose between Ostro VAM and the 02 Vam models until now. However, with the launch of the radical and UCI legal Factor ONE aero bike, they could be seen on that very radical machine too.

The team will also use SRAM Red AXS groupsets, Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres and Black Inc. wheels. One change has been made for this year regarding the race kit - the team have switched to Verge Sport race kit from Colorado-based company Pactimo for 2026.

Ice Legs is also listed as a technical partner of the team. The brand supplies portable leg covers that can be filled with cold gel packs to replicate the recovery benefits of an ice bath.

Lidl Trek

• Bikes: Trek Madone, Domane, Speed Concept (TT)
• Groupset: Sram Red AXS
• Wheels: Bontrager RSL
• Tyres: Pirelli P Zero
• Clothing: Santini
• Saddles: Bontrager
• Finishing Kit: Bontrager
• Computers: Wahoo

At the risk of sounding like a broken record by this point, most things appear to be staying the same for Lidl-Trek for 2026

The team recently released images of their new kit and bike design, but the familiar blue, yellow and red colours remain.

On the bike front, the team will continue with the Trek Madone. The 8th-gen Madone, launched in 2024, was claimed to be as light as the now-discontinued Emonda, and as aero as the old Madone (with aero bottles fitted).

In early December, the team announced a new multi-year partnership with Gatorade. This marks the end of a 12-year absence from pro cycling for Gatorade. The American brand will apparently provide personalised hydration strategies from the brand's sports science institute. No doubt a Gatorade team bottle will make a nice souvenir for fans at the side of the road in races this year.

Liv - Alula - Jayco

• Bikes: Liv Langma, Enviliv, Avow (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace
• Wheels: Cadex 36/5
• Tyres: Cadex Aero Cotton
• Clothing: MAAP
• Saddles: Liv / CADEX
• Finishing Kit: Liv
• Computers: Garmin

Liv - Alula - Jayco riders will stand out next year in the eye-catching new MAAP kit they get to wear. The kit first arrived last year, and seems to draw positive comments generally. An updated version has recently been released by MAAP. The team's new skinsuit is said to boost aerodynamic performance and increase airflow.

Equipment-wise, everything is staying the same for the team, which will continue to race on Liv frames fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets and a smattering of components from Liv/Giant and the brand's in-house component brand Cadex.

The team also has a partnership with Premax, which makes performance skincare products such as sunscreen and chamois cream.

Movistar

• Bikes: Canyon Aeroad CFR, Ultimate CF SLX, Speedmax CFR (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Zipp
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT
• Clothing: Gobik
• Saddles: Fizik
• Finishing Kit: Canyon / Lizard Skins
• Computers: Garmin

Like the men's squad, things seem to be staying pretty much the same for the Movistar team for 2026. This means the continued use of the team's sponsor brands, which have been in place for many years.

The team use Canyon's bikes, SRAM Red AXS groupsets and Zipp wheels, with saddles courtesy of Fizik and computers supplied by Garmin.

The team also uses 226ERS nutrition products, a Spanish sports nutrition company.

Team Picnic PostNL

• Bikes: Lapierre Xelius DRS, Aerostorm DRS TT
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Ursus
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Nalini
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Lapierre
• Computers: Wahoo

After a lot of change last year when Team Picnic PostNL was renamed and switched from Scott to Lapierre bikes, things are now a lot calmer moving into 2026.

The team's website is under construction, and as of yet no official images of team bikes have been released, but it looks like the squad will continue to race on Lapierre Xelius DRS road bikes.

The rest of the team componentry will remain the same, and we understand team sponsor Ursus has a new wheelset in the works for this year, which the team should race on.

The team also has a partnership with IZI Body Cooling, a company that produces cooling wear which riders can use to manage core temperatures in hot racing and training conditions.

Team SD Worx Protime 

• Bikes: Specialized Tarmac SL8 / Shiv (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Roval
• Tyres: Specialized Turbo
• Clothing: Specialized
• Saddles: Specialized
• Finishing Kit: Specialized / Roval
• Computers: Garmin

Team SD Worx Protime has a deal with Specialized that runs through to 2028. The squad, like several others, enjoys the full Specialized treatment, with finishing kit, wheels, tyres, saddle and clothing all being provided by the brand.

The team races on the S-Works Tarmac SL8 machine, like several other mens and women's WorldTour squads. Roval, Specialized's in-house wheel and component brand, then provides the majority of the other components.

UAE Team ADQ

• Bikes: Colnago Y1RS, V4Rs, TT1 (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Enve
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT TR
• Clothing: Pissei
• Saddles: Fizik
• Finishing Kit: Colnago
• Computers: Wahoo

UAE Team ADQ, like the men's squad, race on the hyper aero Colnago Y1Rs race bike, as well as the more forgiving Colnago V5Rs.

At present, all equipment seems to be staying the same for the team aside from the new Colnago bike; the team use Dura-Ace equipment, Enve wheels, Continental tyres and Wahoo computers. Like the men's squad, the team welcomed Shimano as an official partner for 2025 onwards, meaning the Japanese brand will supply all componentry.

Concerningly, the team also seems to have parted ways with its cheese sponsor, Parmigiano Reggiano, which had been listed as a sponsor on the team's website for the past couple of years. We can find no sign of the brand this year.

However, the team is partnered with Mokador, an Italian coffee roaster, which hopefully ensures quality espresso is always on hand pre-race.

Uno-X Mobility

• Bikes: Ridley Noah FAST 3.0
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: DT Swiss
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 STR / TT / Aero 111
• Clothing: Fusion
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Ridley
• Computers: Garmin

The Uno-X Mobility women's team has an equipment package that mirrors the men's squad.

The key change for the 2026 season is the teams' switch from Shimano to SRAM equipment; they will now use SRAM Red AXS groupsets moving forward.

Aside from the groupset switch, the team will still use Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 frames, DT Swiss wheels and Continental tyres. They are also supported by CeramicSpeed, so expect to see at least some bling bottom brackets.

Visma - Lease a bike Women

• SRAMBikes: Cervélo S5, R5, Caledonia, P5 (TT)
• Groupset: Sram Red AXS
• Wheels: Reserve
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Nimbl
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Cervelo / FSA
• Computers: Garmin

Team Visma - Lease a Bike now possesses an established stable of equipment that has seen the team enjoy plenty of success. The package remains largely the same moving into 2026.

The team races on Cervélo S5 and R5 machines depending on the terrain, fitted with Reserve wheels, SRAM Red AXS equipment and Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres.

Interestingly, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot the reigning Tour de France Femmes Champion, used the less aero and lighter R5 model a lot last July, a sign that aero doesn't always trump light weight.

The team's race kit will be provided by Nimbl this year, the Italian brand that also supplies the team's cycling shoes.

Welcome to the Cyclingnews WorldTour bike and kit guide for 2026. This is our complete and comprehensive round-up of the bikes, components and tech used by the 18 men's UCI WorldTour Teams for the upcoming race season. Here you can easily look up exactly what bikes and kits all of the men's WorldTour teams race on and in.

On January 16th, the Santos Tour Down Under will kick off the professional road season, and we will see firsthand all the new team kits, bike colourways, and componentry.

As it stands, there hasn't been a huge amount of change in the men's WorldTour peloton for 2026. The standout bike supplier change is Bahrain Victorious switching from Merida to Bianchi bikes, while just outside the WorldTour ranks, Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 Pro Cycling becomes 'Pinarello-Q36.5' with the Italian brand doubling its stake in the men's peloton.

Being the end of a three-year points cycle, some promotion, relegation and team mergers have altered things, but there hasn't been as much outright equipment swapping compared to years gone by. Cofidis and Arkea B&B Hotels have left the WorldTour, which means the departure of Look machines from the peloton.

Meanwhile, Uno X Mobility have been promoted, bringing Ridley to the WorldTour, the newly formed NSN Cycling Team replaces Israel Premier Tech and will ride Scott bikes, but I see them as a brand new team anyway, and the recently merged Lotto-Intermarché squad has also joined cycling's top flight and will ride Orbea machines. That honours the contract held between the Spanish brand and the former Lotto-Soudal team, while Intermarche-Wanty's contract with Cube is killed off, leaving Cube to replace Enve at Team TotalEnergies.

Equipment announcements don't have a hard deadline, and smaller sponsor or partner changes tend to drip through into the spring, which keeps us on our toes. We always update this page when we learn of new arrangements, so you can check back anytime.

There is also no hard deadline day for new team kit announcements, so we often see a drip feed of new team kit designs whenever teams see fit to announce them. You can take a look at our 2026 pro cycling team kits guide to stay up to date.

In 2025, we also took lots of equipment used by WorldTour teams to the wind tunnel for our CN Labs testing projects. If you want to see how certain WorldTour wheels and bikes measure up in the wind tunnel, check out our independent and unsponsored testing.

• Wind tunnel tested: Aero bikes
• Wind tunnel tested: The fastest road helmets
• Lab tested: The fastest road tyres

Groupsets

Notably, Campagnolo are not represented in the men's WorldTour for 2026 after rejoining it last year with Cofidis, thanks to Cofidis' relegation from the top flight.

The Italian brand released its Super Record 13, All Road and 1X13 groupsets last summer. The latest Super Record groupset, in particular, seems to have been met with positive reviews all round, but we will have to live without the Italian giants' componentry in the top flight.

The hot topic this year is the fact that several teams appear to be switching from Shimano to SRAM groupsets, though we haven't seen any official releases yet.

It appears EF Education, Uno X Mobility, and Decathlon CMA CGM Team will all be using SRAM Red AXS groupsets in 2026. We have seen images on social media of all three teams' riders riding bikes fitted with the brand's equipment. Although this looks to be a switch from Shimano, it's likely more a result of teams gaining SRAM sponsorship in place of no agreement at all. Many teams are either forced to buy their groupsets or are given them by their bike sponsor, depending on the terms of their agreement, so a deal with SRAM is as much a financial move as it is a technical one.

With that said, SRAM's wireless technology may well be attractive to teams; Shimano derailleurs are still wired, making bike setup more complex. And the progressive nature of SRAM's designs, with 1x and even gravel groupsets available, adds extra tools to the performance optimisation teams' arsenals.

In terms of equipment spread between teams, we believe that, as it stands, Shimano has the most visibility with 10 squads using Dura-Ace equipment, three fewer than last year. SRAM comes next with eight squads racing on Red AXS.

Men's teams and bikes 

Alpecin-Premier Tech

• Bikes: Canyon Aeroad CFR / Ultimate CFR / Speedmax (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Shimano Dura Ace C50/60
• Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Race TLR RS / P Zero Race TLR
• Clothing: Kalas
• Saddles: Selle Italia
• Finishing Kit: Canyon / Selle Italia
• Computers: Wahoo

As it stands, everything appears to be staying the same at Alpecin-Premier Tech for 2026. The key change for the team has been a title sponsor change, with Premier Tech coming on board for 2026.

The team continue to race on the Canyon Aeroad bike, which was updated in 2024. This isn't likely to change any time soon, either, as Mathieu Van der Poel signed a 10-year contract with Canyon last year.

The whole team's equipment package of Canyon bikes, Shimano groupsets and wheels has been the same for several seasons now. The team also have a partnership with Pirelli as tyre provider, which will run until 2029.

Canyon did launch its MyCanyon custom paint programme last year, don't be surprised to see a few stars racing on custom-painted bikes again in 2026.

Canyon Aeroad CFR in-depth review.

Bahrain Victorious

• Bikes: Bianchi Oltre RC and Specialissima / Aquila
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 / Elilee
• Wheels: Vision Metron RS
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT
• Clothing: Alé / Valour
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: FSA, Vision
• Computers: Garmin

Bahrain Victorious said goodbye to Merida bikes at the end of 2025 and announced a switch to Bianchi machines. The team will have the Oltre RC and Specialissima to choose from for road races, and a new aero bike is rumoured to be in the works.

The team use Vision Metron wheels fitted with Continental tyres for races, racing on the Metron RS models that launched in 2025, using carbon fibre spokes and dropping weight, they supersede the Metron 60 SL wheelset, which performed very well in our recent road wheels wind tunnel test.

Interestingly, the team bikes are pictured fitted with Chinese Elilee cranksets and Dura Ace chainrings. The team also used them at the Tour de France last year. The use could be down to a financial angle, power meter preference, weight, or another factor we don't know about.

We also had a very interesting chat with team race mechanic Žarko Poštić at Paris Roubaix in 2024, who explained that the team also enjoys a very cool Snap-On and Bahco tool sponsorship.

Finally, teams often have plenty of smaller sponsors and partners, and we like finding the interesting ones. Bahrain enjoys a relationship with Ljubljanske Mlekarne, the largest wholesaler of milk in Slovenia which supplies the team with milk products for the breakfast table.

Decathlon CMA CGM Team

• Bikes: Van Rysel RCR / RCR - F / XCR time trial bike
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: SwissSide Hadron
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / Aero 111
• Clothing: Van Rysel / Decathlon
• Saddles: Fizik
• Finishing Kit: Deda / Van Rysel
• Computers: Wahoo

Decathlon CMA CGM Team have a new name and a new groupset provider heading into 2026; apart from that, things look to be the same.

The team's latest press shots show their Van Rysel RCR-F bikes equipped with SRAM Red AXS equipment, a switch from Shimano Dura-Ace.

The team is sticking with SwissSide for wheels, and can also take advantage of the Continental Aero 111 aero tyre. Team wheel sponsor Swissside had been involved in the development of the tyre for the team.

We recently took the Continental Aero 111 tyre to the wind tunnel to see if it actually makes you faster.

EF Education-EasyPost

• Bikes: Cannondale SuperSix Evo, SuperSlice (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Vision Metron RS
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Assos
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: FSA, Vision
• Computers: Wahoo

A couple of big changes have occurred at EF Pro Cycling this offseason. The team retain their Cannondale bikes but will switch from Shimano Dura-Ace equipment to SRAM Red AXS. This hasn't been announced formally, but press shots of the team training on SRAM are on the team's web page.

The team has also moved on from Rapha clothing and has partnered with the Swiss brand Assos. The teams' switchout Rapha cycling kits became an event each time they launched; perhaps we can expect to see the same with Assos.

Bike-wise, the team continue to race on the fourth generation of the SuperSix Evo for the most part and Cannondale Slice models for the time trials.

The team use POC helmets, but will no longer be able to take advantage of the POC Procen Air, which came out top in our first helmet wind tunnel test and was often favoured by the aero-savvy star Ben Healy on lots of road stages, since it falls foul of the UCI's new helmet categorisation rule banning anything with a visor or ear covering.

Like Bahrain, the team also have a milk partner. Oatly provides the team with their oat-based milk products. It seems milk sponsors are popular in the WorldTour.

Groupama-FDJ United

• Bikes: Wilier Zero SLR, Wilier Filante SLR ID2, Wilier Turbine TT
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Miche Kleos
• Tyres: Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR / TT
• Clothing: Alé
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Lapierre, Miche
• Computers: iGPSPORT

Groupama FDJ are one of the peloton's longest-running teams, and aside from Marc Madiot stepping back from managerial duties, not much looks to be changing for 2026. The team switched from Lapierre to Wilier bikes for the 2024 season and continues to race on the Italian brand's machines into 2026.

One new equipment change that we have been alerted to is the team's switch from Garmin to iGPSPORT bike computers this year. iGPSPORT is a Chinese company that counts Chris Froome as a global ambassador.

The team will also race on the recently launched Wilier Filante SLR ID2 race bike, which makes use of new aero bottles and cages. We have already tested the bike in the wind tunnel, where it performed well.

The team can also make use of the Supersonica SLR time trial bike, which replaced the Turbine model. The bike was developed with the help of Swiss time trial ace Stefan Kung, and with custom bar extensions, it tops out at a cool €27,400.

Equipment-wise, the team has a partnership with Miche for the next few years. The Italian brand supplies the team with wheels, chainrings, thru-axles, bottom brackets, and computer mounts. They continue with Shimano equipment, Continental tyres, and a kit from Alé.

Tempur Mattresses is listed as an official supplier to the team. We assume the brand supplies mattresses for riders at races for maximum recovery and rest, a performance gain that was popularised by Team Sky in the late 2000s.

Ineos Grenadiers

• Bikes: Pinarello Dogma F, Bolide (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 12 Speed
• Wheels: Scope Artech
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 STR / TT / AERO 111
• Clothing: Gobik / Belstaff / Kask / Castore
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: MOST
• Computers: Garmin

Ineos Grenadiers continue building towards the goal of Grand Tour domination once more with a new wheel sponsor for 2026.

The squad announced a three-year partnership with Scope wheels in late December 2025, moving away from Shimano Dura-Ace wheels, which they had used for years. The team will use Scope Artech wheels for road races and time trials, and the brand announced it would work with the Ineos Grenadiers in the team's quest for an 8th Tour de France title.

Expect to see a few small mods and unusual components on team bikes once the season starts. Ineos tends to leave no stone unturned; it's also generally quite hard to get any secret information out of the team when it comes to equipment.

Silverstone Paint Technology is also listed as a team partner. The company is responsible for the paintwork on 70% of the current F1 teams' cars. It appears the brand will help provide superlight paintwork on the team's Pinarello bikes.

Lidl - Trek

• Bikes: Trek Madone, Emonda, Domane, Speed Concept (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Bontrager
• Tyres: Pirelli P Zero
• Clothing: Santini
• Saddles: Bontrager
• Finishing Kit: Bontrager
• Computers: Wahoo

Like the last few years, the Lidl-Trek team will continue on Trek's range of road bikes, specifically the Madone road bike, SRAM groupsets, Bontrager components, Wahoo computers and clothing from Santini for 2026. It seems not much is changing when it comes to equipment at all.

One talking point from 2025 and something we can probably expect to see repeated this year was the team's use of the 1x13 speed SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset, the brand's gravel-specific group. The equipment was used by the team in the classics for the rear derailleurs' strength and increased chain retention. The 1x setup up front should also help boost aerodynamics.

Lotto Intermarché

• Bikes: Orbea
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: OQUO
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 AS TR / S TR / TT
• Clothing: Vermarc
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Orbea
• Computers: Garmin

Lotto Intermarché represents two teams, Lotto-Soudal and Intermarché-Wanty, merging to form a new WorldTour team.

The new squad will move forward using the Orbea bikes of Lotto, whilst Cube, the supplier to Intermarché-Wanty, will leave the WorldTour and move to Team TotalEnergies.

Aside from this, it's a similar package to that which Lotto used last year, wheels are from OQUO, a brand owned by Orbea, and groupsets will be Shimano Dura-Ace.

The Orbea Orca is available in two versions, an aero bike and a svelte climbing version. Expect to see the teams' riders using the aero bike for nearly everything.

Movistar Team

• Bikes: Canyon Aeroad CFR, Ultimate CFR, Speedmax CFR (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Zipp - 303/404 Firecrest
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT / Archetype
• Clothing: Gobik / BORN
• Saddles: Fizik
• Finishing Kit: Canyon
• Computers: Garmin

Movistar has long-running relationships with several brands which continue into the new season. The squad use Canyon's bikes, SRAM Red AXS groupsets and Zipp wheels, with saddles and shoes courtesy of Fizik and computers supplied by Garmin.

As far as we can see, nothing has changed for the Spanish squad, and the images of the latest race bikes at team training camps even look similar to last year. Never say never, but little seems to have changed so far.

On the topic of interesting sponsors and partners, the team is partnered with SleepAngel an Estonian company that manufactures a bedding range that is said to be clinically proven to block pathogens, allergens, microbes, and mould. We assume the thinking behind this partnership is for consistency with the riders' bedding, like several other teams, and to minimise the risk of illness.

Canyon Aeroad CFR in-depth review

NSN Cycling Team

• Bikes: Scott Foil RC, Plasma RC TT
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Zipp
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT
• Clothing: Ekoi
• Saddles: Selle Italia
• Finishing Kit: Syncros
• Computers: Hammerhead

NSN is a sort-of-brand-new WorldTour team for 2026. A part of the team has come from the Israel-Premier Tech squad, but the license is now registered in Switzerland, Factor and Premier Tech have both pulled their sponsorship, and Sylvan Adams has stepped back (albeit not completely).

The team will now race on Scott Foil RC bikes with SRAM Red AXS and Zipp wheels; it's all quite similar to the setup which was used by Team Q36.5 Pro Cycling last year, who are now riding Pinarello.

The team's riders have been pictured riding the Zipp 353 NSW wheels, which come with an integrated wireless tyre pressure sensor.

And a fun fact: Spanish football legend Andrés Iniesta is a co-owner of the team's sponsor, NSN.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

• Bikes: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, Specialized S-Works Shiv TT
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Roval
• Tyres: Specialized
• Clothing: Specialized / Boss
• Saddles: Specialized
• Finishing Kit: Specialized
• Computers: Hammerhead / Garmin

Bora-Hansgrohe became RedBull Bora-Hansgrohe midway through the 2024 season as the team partnered with RedBull. Brand logos and livery were added to bikes and kit, but the equipment package stayed largely the same.

This seems to be the case moving into the 2026 season, the team's package seems to be staying the same, with SRAM Red AXS groupsets, Roval wheels, finishing kit and Specialized tyres.

The team did receive a wheel upgrade midway through last year with the launch of the Roval Ravide CLX III and Sprint wheelsets, which are used by the team.

Headline news was the signing of Remco Evenepoel for 2026 and beyond. Look out for his bike fitted with a special gold SRAM cassette and chain, reserved for riders who are world (and Olympic) champions, we are told. The change also means Evenepoel will need to get used to SRAM equipment after spending at least the last seven years on Shimano.

British engineers Dan Bigham and Jonny Wale also work for the team, and we can expect to see a few optimisations and interesting aero hacks from their work as the year progresses.

Soudal-QuickStep

• Bikes: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, Specialized S-Works Shiv TT
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Roval
• Tyres: Specialized
• Clothing: Castelli
• Saddles: Specialized
• Finishing Kit: Specialized
• Computers: Garmin

Everything looks to be staying the same for Soudal-QuickStep in 2026. Their Specialized / Shimano package has proven successful over many seasons and seems to be a tried and tested combination. It's a very similar story, at least at this point, to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe up above; both teams ride very similar equipment.

Specialized provides more than just frames to the team, with riders using its shoes, helmets, tyres and in some cases cockpits as well. Top secret Specialized 'Project Black' prototype equipment is also often spotted being tested, but the brand will forever remain tight-lipped on all fronts.

What will be interesting is to see whether Remco Evenepoel enjoys the benefit of using any prototype or special Specialized equipment before his old teammates at QuickStep this year.

Like Groupama- FDJ, the team also has a mattress partner in the form of Manifattura Falomo, an Italian mattress manufacturer.

Team Jayco-AlUla

• Bikes: Propel Advanced SL, TCR Advanced SL, Trinity (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Cadex
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: MAAP
• Saddles: Cadex
• Finishing Kit: Giant
• Computers: Garmin

Continuing a theme for 2026 among many other WorldTour teams, Jayco Alula's bike and tyres will remain the same for this year. The team rides Giant bikes with Shimano groupsets, Cadex wheels, and Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres.

Team riders have two road models to choose from: the Giant Propel, a more aero model, and the TCR all-rounder. Interestingly, the Propel and TCR still use an integrated seat mast, which isn't something we see on many high-end road bikes anymore. A new TCR model was launched back in 2024, and the team can now race on this version alongside the Aero Propel, although the rumour mill is swirling around a new Propel coming this year.

The team also has a multi-year partnership with Australian kit manufacturer MAAP, with purple flames the order of the day.

Team Picnic PostNL

• Bikes: Lapierre Xelius DRS / Aerostorm DRS TT bike
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
• Wheels: Ursus
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Nalini
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Lapierre
• Computers: Wahoo

Team Picnic PostNL switched to Lapierre bikes from Scott for the start of 2025, and things appear to be staying the same for 2026.

The Lapierre Xelius DRS team bikes use Shimano Dura-Ace equipment and Ursus wheels with Vittoria Corsa Pro tyre which Oscar Onley used to race to a highly impressive 4th place in the Tour de France last year.

Onley has now moved on to Ineos Grenadiers in a move that was reported at €6 million, which interestingly, effectively makes his transfer the team's third biggest financial backer for the year.

We understand that the team wheel sponsor, Ursus, has a new wheelset in the works, which we expect to see the team racing on in 2026.

UAE Team Emirates XRG

• Bikes: Colnago V5Rs, Y1Rs, TT1 (TT)
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Disc 12 Speed
• Wheels: Enve
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT / Archetype
• Clothing: Pissei
• Saddles: Fizik
• Finishing Kit: Colnago, Carbon Ti, Bikone, Frames and Gear
• Computers: Wahoo

UAE Team Emirates is set to continue with a bike setup that has enjoyed huge success over the last couple of years. The all-conquering team of world champion Tadej Pogačar laid waste to most races they entered in 2025.

The team seem to be sticking with all of their existing equipment suppliers. Riding Colnago Y1Rs and V5Rs frames, Enve wheels and handlebars (Colnago bars on the Y1RS) and Continental tyres.

The team continues to use Shimano equipment, but last year announced a four-year partnership deal with Shimano, moving away from Campagnolo.

The team gained a wheel upgrade last summer in the form of the superlight Enve SES 4.5 Pro wheelset, which weighs in at 1,295 grams claimed for a 49/55mm rim depth combination.

The team's bottom bracket supplier, Bikone, also recently announced a new lightweight and more aerodynamic bottom bracket that the squad will use in 2026.

Uno-X Mobility 

• Bikes: Ridley Noah Fast 3, Dean Fast (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: DT Swiss
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR / TT / Aero 111
• Clothing: Fusion, GripGrab
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Deda Elementi
• Computers: Garmin

Uno - X Mobility join the WorldTour for 2026, gaining enough UCI points in 2025 to earn promotion.

The team races on the aggressive-looking Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, which launched in early 2025. The main news for the 2026 season is the fact that the team are set to switch from Shimano equipment to SRAM Red AXS. Like the two other teams mentioned above, this hasn't been officially announced yet, but we have seen pictures posted on the team's Instagram page of SRAM-equipped bikes.

Elsewhere, the team uses DT Swiss wheels fitted with Continental tyres. It also used CeramicSpeed aftermarket pulley wheels; we will have to wait and see if they use the same this year.

Visma - Lease a Bike

• Bikes: Cervélo S5, R5, Caledonia, P5 (TT)
• Groupset: SRAM Red AXS
• Wheels: Reserve
• Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro / Speed
• Clothing: Nimbl
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Cervelo / FSA
• Computers: Garmin

Visma - Lease A Bike is continuing with their equipment package of Cervélo bikes, SRAM equipment, and Reserve wheels for 2026, the same as the last several years.

There have been a couple of changes over the past half a year. The team gained two new bikes to ride last year when the newest version of the Cervélo S5 launched back in July. Later, the superlight new R5 bike was launched, though expect to see that used a bit less in the WorldTour.

The team also recently announced that Nimbl, its current cycling shoe partner, will also now provide race kit for the 2026 season, meaning the team has moved away from making its own 'Yellow B' kit.

We expect to see some other custom and special touches and componentry next year from team Visma. The team, along with UAE Team Emirates XRG, has taken over Ineos Grenadiers' spot as being right at the cutting edge of the sport in recent years, and we don't expect them to rest on their laurels next year.

XDS Astana Team

• Bikes: X-Lab AD9, RS9, DB01
• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Disc 12 Speed
• Wheels: Vision Metron RS
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR
• Clothing: Ekoi
• Saddles: Prologo
• Finishing Kit: Vision
• Computers: Magene

XDS Astana race on XDS Carbon Tech's X-Lab bikes. The aero AD9, superlight RT9, DB01 time trial model.

The team has been racing on the bikes for around a year now, and details are still hard to come by. Though we did recently take the AD9 aero bike to the wind tunnel, so watch this space for our report.

For the moment at least, it seems that the team will continue to use the majority of the same component package for 2025. That means Dura-Ace groupsets, Vision Metron wheels and handlebars.

Alex Dowsett has joined the team as a performance engineer, and we understand he has been testing the new bikes in the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub wind tunnel, the same venue as our own Cyclingnews Labs aero testing.

One of the first custom bikes I fell for was Italian rider Fabio Sacchi’s custom-painted Saeco Cannondale CAAD7 back in 2003. It was painted to look like a cheetah and had a custom-painted Cinelli Ram handlebar. I couldn’t get enough of it.

It's also always fun to see what paint scheme world road race champions go for on their bikes each year, or when a national champion appears on a custom bike painted in their nation's colours.

A brand with a long and rich history when it comes to custom bikes, is Pinarello. Giovanni Pinarello founded the brand in the fifties and there have been countless special models since then. In the modern era, the iconic red and yellow Alejandro Valverde 'Prince of Spain' bike in 2008 got a lot of attention and is one example of an iconic custom Pinarello.

Fast forward a few years to 2018, and Michał Kwiatkowski’s custom red and white Polish national champions Pinarello Dogma looked great, as did various commemorative Grand Tour-winning machines during the Team Sky and Ineos Grenadiers era of dominance, where they won five Tours de France in a row. This year, Geraint Thomas was honoured with a custom-painted Pinarello Dogma for his final pro race at the Tour of Britain.

Fausto Pinarello is the chairman of the legendary Italian bike brand, which was founded by his father, and as you might imagine, is a man who knows a thing or two about custom bikes.

Pinarello has provided custom machines to the stars of our sport for years, and I was lucky enough to be shown Fausto’s personal Pinarello collection at the brand's factory in Italy back in 2023. There are some very special bikes in that gallery.

I spoke to him again just before Christmas about custom bikes at Pinarello, the decision-making behind a custom Pinarello bike, whether riders get to keep them, and his favourite ever custom project.

Before taking over the running of the company, Fausto Pinarello learnt the ropes and began in the paint shop. It's clear even now there's a pure passion for the bikes that bear his family's name, and he still has the final say on who gets a custom bike and the design.

"I started as a painter 44 years ago. It gave me the possibility to do something different, because living in the paint shop facility, we could try things and make mistakes. But I realised that there was something interesting, in dedicating a product to the special consumer or for a special rider."

Pinarello is a global brand, and you might think decisions on what colour a bike will be happen below the head of the company these days. The decision, however, still lies with the man whose name is on the downtube.

"From the beginning, until now, I decide," he says, explaining, "We have a bigger staff now, they propose some riders, and I propose some, we decide together. The process depends because we'll have a huge number of questions from the riders. It depends on the achievement, if you have a good friend, if they are a legend, have won a lot. We have a phone call, they speak with the guys here, and we get it done."

You get the impression there's not a massive amount of brainstorming sessions, mock-ups or mood boards when it comes to getting a custom bike designed and painted at Pinarello. It's clear there's a discussion, and the technical work involved in designing and painting is obvious and mustn't be forgotten. I've seen the Pinarello paint shop myself, but it seems the decision-making, at least, is fast.

"We decide first, it depends on whether it is a gift or for a winner, or a national champion. It's a very quick period; we decide in 5-10 minutes." Pinarello explains.

Custom bikes vary in colour, complexity and design, but they are a special event for the brand too, and there is no budget. The company produces custom bikes for riders because it can, and because it marks a special occasion or date for the brand and rider.

Retail customers who order a custom Pinarello using its MyWay programme obviously pay for the privilege, but if Pinarello paints a pro rider a custom bike, it's on the house. Surely a milestone for any racer.

"No budget. Sometimes the best riders have a simple bike, sometimes it's more complicated, but we try to do it in the least amount of time possible. We don't think about the budget, we do it because we can." Pinarello explains.

I ask about the most expensive or complex paint job the brand has undertaken, and Pinarello explained both were for legendary Italian riders, who share a few similarities. One was the mythical Pinarello Espada, a bike made for Miguel Indurain, and recently, the special Pinarello Bollide, ridden on the track by Filippo Ganna and the Italian national team, cost the most.

It depends on the rider, but some get to keep their custom bikes. This was the case with Geraint Thomas and the custom-painted Dogma he raced on during this year's Tour of Britain. Fausto Pinarello also pointed out the sheer length of time Thomas has been riding Pinarello bikes - 15 years on the road.

"G's a legend. I didn't ask him to give the bike back. I hope he's happy to keep the bike."

Thomas may have his final race bike, which featured the Welsh Dragon on the head tube, but the yellow Dogma he rode on the last day of the 2018 Tour de France is in Pinarello's personal collection back in Italy; the seriously special, or race-winning machines seem to end up coming home, but Pinarello explains it isn't always so easy.

"Many times I ask the rider, 'Hey, can you give me the bike because you already finished your season? He adds with a resigned yet warm tone that riders often ask if they can keep them.

"They say, 'Can I keep it?' Yes. But for the special ones, like some GC [winning] bikes, they need to come back, 100%."

Pinarello has made bikes for cycling champions, Grand Tour winners and dozens of world, national, and Olympic champions. There must have been many variations on the pink, yellow, red, rainbow and golden themes. I asked Pinarello if there was still a design he wanted to try or something he still wanted to do.

"Yeah, if Picasso or Van Gogh were still alive, I would say, 'Hey, can you paint the frame for me? But it will never happen."

Pablo Picasso himself employed bicycle parts and the bicycle in some of his works; his 'Bull's Head' artwork, constructed from an old leather saddle and handlebars, wouldn't make a bad headtube badge emblem. Perhaps that's what he would have used for his Pinarello commission.

A custom bike is one thing, but style on the bike is another. Countless champions have raced on Pinarello machines. Indurain, Bartoli, Pozzato, Petacchi and Wiggins, all as stylish as they come on a bike, have all ridden Pinarellos in the past.

I asked Fausto who his favourite rider to watch has been, and he explained that the big time triallists have been his favourites. For their style and also the real estate those large bike frames provided.

"The best style is the chrono men [time triallists] like Miguel Indurain, Filippo Ganna, like Jan Ullrich" They need big bikes, and it is easier. And now we have a new guy, Joshua Tarling; we did one frame for him."

No doubt the future holds many more custom Pinarello frames, for races not yet won, and for unknown stars of the future. Fausto Pinarello is still heavily involved when it comes to the custom frames his company produces for riders, and when your surname is on the downtube for all to see, it must be difficult to just sit back and watch.

The final sign-off still lies with the boss, and Pinarello himself explains why things must be right, an attribute that has no doubt bought success over the years.

"The frame, the bike, the colour, it must be perfect. The small details are very important."

Just before the start of the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné, several Visma-Lease a Bike riders were spotted on what appeared to be a marginally different version of the team's aero bike offering, the Cervélo S5.

Traditionally kept for flatter stages with less elevation gain, this bike quickly became the only bike of choice for the men's team, and it was used to great effect to achieve a podium finish in the Tour de France, as well as taking a mountainous stage win. It then continued this success by taking the overall title at the 2025 Vuelta a España for Jonas Vingegaard.

Being one of the first out-and-out aero bikes, the S5 has gone through several redesigns over the years. Nothing revolutionary, more evolutionary, but in this latest version, Cervélo says it has reduced aerodynamic drag by an equivalent of six watts, while also trimming weight and adding compliance.

This bike features a far deeper bayonet fork design, while the handlebars have gone from the awkward two-piece design to a one-piece option with new grip options. It still looks undeniably like the S5 silhouette, but this new weapon of choice of both the women's and men's Visma-Lease a Bike teams appears to have stayed ahead of the curve in bike performance, given the plethora of results achieved upon it.

Cervélo says it's the "fastest aero bike in the peloton," a claim also made by Colnago at the launch of the Y1Rs, and Factor too, with the recent launch of the ONE.

• Wind tunnel tested: Factor ONE
• Wind tunnel tested: Colnago Y1Rs

To find out once and for all which is fastest, we took all three to the wind tunnel alongside the Ridley Noah Fast, the Van Rysel RCR-F, the Scott Foil and many more, for an aero bike wind tunnel shootout.

Long-time readers of Cyclingnews will have seen the results already, but if you're curious how the S5 stacks up against the competition, how the performance changes with our 'control' wheelset, and how many watts it can save against an old, budget-friendly rim brake bike, keep reading.

The test and protocols

If you want an in-depth overview of our testing protocol, head over to our aero bike wind tunnel shootout story, but here's a brief recap.

To start, we used the bike in its off-the-shelf specification, but with a couple of key standardisations to ensure data between bikes is more consistent.

We tested the bike in three conditions: bike-only, bike with rider, and bike-only with Enve SES 4.5 wheels.

All bikes have a size 56cm frame or equivalent, and their geometries were matched as identically as possible to other bikes on test.

In keeping with our empirical testing, a 25mm Continental GP5000 S TR front tyre was used for each test. As the first point of contact for the airflow, an equal tyre size and spec is a fair way to ensure progressive brands that spec 28 or 30mm tyres aren't unfairly punished for this.

In the test using the standardised Enve wheels, we fitted a pair of 28mm GP5000 S TR tyres as opposed to the 25mm option. The same inner tube valve length and tyre pressure were used across all tests.

Where a bike is designed with aero bottles, they are used, because if you buy the bike and have them, you're unlikely to remove them in favour of a slower, round bottle.

In the case of the Cervelo, which doesn't specify aero cages or bottles, Elite Vico Carbon bottle cages are used, with Elite Fly bottles, for a fair and standardised comparison that's reflective of how you'll use the bike in the real world. No computer mounts were fitted to the bikes though, because not all bikes come with one, and the leading edge will differ depending on your use of a Garmin, Wahoo, Hammerhead or other.

Our rider's test kit remained consistent across all testing, and the wind tunnel also neatly created an 'Edge' or ghost outline of the rider to ensure the same position is held from test to test.

Each test was conducted at 40km/h, representative of a faster pace for amateur riders, with yaw angles (essentially the angle of the bike compared to the wind direction) of -15°, -10°, -5°, 0°, 5°, 10° and 15°.

For bike-only tests, we captured for 10 seconds per run, and for bike-and-rider tests, 30 seconds per run at a pedalling cadence of 90 RPM.

Another note is that the confidence and margin for error on tests have also been calculated as follows:

The Results

Results: Bike only

Interestingly, for the bike-only test in its stock fit with Reserve wheels, the S5 was fast, but not the fastest. At zero degrees of yaw - essentially a direct headwind - the bike performed fastest of all with a CdA (Coefficient of Drag x Area) of 0.0736m², but as the wind angles grew wider - effectively becoming more of a crosswind, the drag increased faster than most.

After weighting the seven yaw angles appropriately to be more reflective of real-world wind conditions, and then averaging them for a single CdA measurement per bike, the bikes are ordered from most aerodynamic (and thus, fastest) to the least aerodynamic.

With an average CdA of 0.079m², the Cervélo S5 sits reasonably mid-table in our cohort of bikes on the day. It's marginally behind the Colnago Y1Rs, albeit within the error margin, and so the two are statistically equal.

Using those CdA measurements, we can then solve for watts, as we've done above. The order of bikes stays the same, but the difference is perhaps more comprehensible to cyclists.

The graph above shows that at 40km/h, the S5 required 65.06w of power to overcome the aerodynamic drag, about 3.5 watts slower than the fastest in this test but a good 36.73 watts faster than our 'baseline' bike; Josh's own 2015 Trek Émonda ALR, complete with shallow wheels and rim brakes.

Of course, bikes can't pedal themselves, so this is more for comparative purposes than any real-world application, but it helps us see which bike is fastest in isolation, with as few potential variables involved as possible.

Results: With a rider

When we put a rider on the bike, the story changes somewhat.

The S5 was 2nd fastest at zero degrees yaw (a direct headwind), but the fastest at both +/- five and +/- 10 degrees. At the higher +/- 15 degree yaw (more of a crosswind), the Cervelo falls back down the rankings again, as seen here by the green line climbing higher than some of the competitors.

Once again, we've weighted these datapoints and calculated the averages, and the S5 returns a CdA of 0.3318m². That's just 0.0001 lower (faster) than the Factor ONE overall, meaning it's technically the fastest bike we've ever tested, in this with-rider configuration, but with a couple of caveats.

The first of which is that the Factor ONE is close enough behind it that, when you consider our error margin, it too can lay claim to the top spot.

And the second is that we could only get our hands on a Cervélo S5 with the 1x SRAM Red XPLR groupset, meaning it was fitted with a single chainring and no front derailleur, whereas other bikes were fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace 2x groupsets.

Exactly what difference this made against a 2x groupset is unknown, but it is likely to have been to its advantage.

Solving for watts at 40km/h, this meant that the S5 required 273.12 watts to overcome its aerodynamic drag. That's 0.05w fewer than the Factor ONE, and just over 3.5w fewer than the Colnago Y1Rs.

Notably, it's also 12.12 watts better than the Bianchi Oltre RC, which was admittedly designed a few years prior, but it goes to show the spectrum of bikes being used in the pro peloton.

Results: Bike only, with standardised wheels

Given it's rare that any two different bikes are supplied with the same wheelset, we wanted to perform a second test to quantify how much of the aerodynamic performance could be attributed to the frameset itself, so we performed a second round of tests using a control wheelset, the Enve SES 4.5.

Upon swapping, the S5 was the fastest at zero degrees yaw, but at higher wind angles, the drop-off in performance was even more severe.

Given that Cervélo and Reserve are both under the same Pon Holdings parent company umbrella, it's logical that the S5 and the Reserve wheels are designed to work well together, and that's proven true here. With the Enve wheels, the S5 required 0.43 watts more to overcome the aerodynamic drag than when fitted with the Reserves.

Despite this, though, the S5 actually climbed a step in the rankings when compared to the earlier bike-only test. Or, more specifically, the Argon 18 Nitrogen Pro's performance worsened by a greater amount.

How many watts does a Cervélo S5 save against a cheap bike?

Looking at the bike and rider savings versus the Trek Émonda ALR, our 'baseline' control bike, chosen to let us see the difference between superbikes and the old bike you might have in your garage at home.

With a rider, the Cervélo S5 is the overall winner, saving 27.57w at 40km/h across an average of the yaw angles tested. According to our popular cycling training app, TrainerRoad, the average experienced user on its platform has an FTP of 266 watts, so while a fast bike is no replacement for consistent training, it's equal to a 10.3% bump in fitness.

As a bike alone, it performs comparatively poorly.

Comparing to our 2024 bike test

Long-time Cyclingnews subscribers will recall our first big bike test, which included the Tarmac SL8, Trek Madone, Canyon Aeroad CFR and more.

Another benefit of using the Trek Emonda ALR 'control' bike is that quantifying the watts saved against this baseline on each given testing day allows us to compare results over different tests.

In the bike-only test, it's the 7th fastest bike we've tested. Interestingly, it's two watts faster than the 2024 model S5, not the six watts claimed by Cervélo, and that's comparing against a second-tier model with SRAM Force too.

In the with-rider test, it is the fastest bike we have ever tested, albeit within the error margin, and therefore the Factor ONE can also lay claim to top spot. It's 4.9w faster than the do-it-all S-Works Tarmac SL8, and almost 10 watts faster than the Cannondale SuperSix Evo 4. Interestingly, it's 5.8 watts faster than the 2024 model S5, which is certainly close enough to that six-watt claimed saving for us to believe the brand's claims.

How does it compare

Based on our rider-on-bike tests, the Cervélo S5 is the fastest bike we've ever tested in our wind tunnel tests, with the Factor ONE sitting close enough behind to also have a claim to the podium's top step.

At 7.46kg (without pedals, bottles or cages) it's certainly not the lightest bike we've tested, but it's far from unreasonable for an out-and-out aero bike. The Factor ONE is 7.35kg but is devoid of any paint, which will take a few hundred grams off most frame weights. For comparison, the Tarmac SL8 weighed in at 7.18kg, but here we weighed with pedals, bottles and cages, so not a true apples-to-apples comparison.

Obviously, weight has not proven to be an issue on this bike for the professional riders using it. All but the tallest riders, such as Matteo Jorgenson, have been using the S5 exclusively. Presumably, this means in smaller sizes, it can get close to the UCI's 6.8kg weight limit, or close enough that the aero savings far outweigh the lower weight benefits of the R5, even on steeper gradients.

Another interesting consideration, though, is that we tested this bike as a 1x option with no front derailleur. This removes weight from the front mech and second chainring, but is worth approximately one watt of aerodynamic drag at speeds of 40km/h. This is the same setup used by the Visma-Lease a Bike men's team, even on some of the more mountainous stages. Also, that new bar/stem combo is going to be more difficult to tailor after sale than the previous two-piece offering.

A bonus of this new one-piece system though, is an increase in stiffness, as well as compliance, comfortable hand-hold positions, and a lower weight. All this likely contributes to why this bike was the bike of choice for racing, even with a potential lighter R5 option at the team's disposal.

Conclusion

Whether it could lay claim to the top spot with a 2x chainring as per the Factor ONE's groupset is unconfirmed, but based on testing and the way the bike has been used in the professional ranks, it's hard to argue against the Cervélo S5 being one of the fastest in the WorldTour right now.

It is the most aerodynamic offering we have tested with a rider onboard at 40km/h, and it has been used to win mountainous races, so weight is clearly not a limiting factor.

Cervélo offers it with bar widths of 36-40cm, as well as stems of 80-120mm in length. Having 40cm as the widest bar width is also a highly progressive move, although, unlike some brands which offer full customisation when buying, you are at the mercy of the bike shop you buy the bike from as to whether you can switch out for a different length and width combination.

And while the S5's £12,000 price point is an incredible amount of money, it's less than both Factor and Colnago are asking for their flagship aero race bike, and you even get a power meter as part of the package here. The likes of Cube and Elves offer significantly cheaper top-tier packages, but they are both heavier and slower if you want every ounce of performance from your bike.

On the opening morning of the 2025 Critérium du Dauphiné, it wasn't a first battle of the season between Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel that grabbed the headlines, but the sighting of an unbranded, bare carbon, and extreme-design Factor bike parked outside the Israel-Premier Tech bus. A dedicated out-and-out aero machine with a wildly narrow leading edge, and super wide forks akin to the Hope HB.T track bike.

Four days later, it demonstrated its effectiveness as a high-speed weapon, as Jake Stewart triumphed on stage 5 – pointing to the then-prototype bike as he powered across the line. The squad continued to use it throughout the season, including at the Tour de France, but details on the bike remained scarce in the months following its debut.

However, we now know that this is a replacement for the original Factor aero bike model, the Factor ONE. We were able to get our hands on the bike early to include it in a Cyclingnews Labs test where we pitted 12 of the industry's top aero superbikes against each other to see how they really fared compared to their marketing, and of course, which was the fastest.

If you want to find out if the Factor ONE is as fast as it looks, then read on to find out.

Existing members of Cyclingnews will know our testing process inside out, and will have already seen the below test results a few months ago in our previous coverage of this testing day.

But for new users - or those interested specifically in the Factor ONE - this feature will give you a focussed look at how the Factor compares to its peers, how it fared with a wheel change, and how it handles different wind conditions.

But before we get stuck in, credit must go to Factor for trusting its bike (and trusting our test) enough to let us test it prior to launch. Factor had no control over our testing protocol, and no right to prevent the publication of the results we generated. If the bike tested badly, we'd be publishing this story all the same.

Spoiler alert: it's lucky then (or I guess they'd call it confidence in good design) that it did so well...

The Test

In case you aren't familiar with our testing process, here’s a refresher of how we conducted the wind tunnel tests.

To start, we used the bike in its off-the-shelf specification, but with a couple of key non-variables to ensure data between bikes is more consistent.

We tested the bike in three conditions: bike-only, bike with rider, and bike-only with ENVE SES 4.5 wheels. The bike had a 56cm frame, and its geometry was matched up as identically as possible to other bikes on test. In keeping with our empirical testing, a 25mm Continental GP5000 ST R front tyre was used for the first two tests, as a result of the bias given to the front tyre and impact on drag as the first point of contact for the airflow.

The same inner tube valve length and tyre pressure were used across all tests, and the standardised Enve wheel testing used 28mm GP5000 S TR tyres as opposed to the 25mm option for a more modern-use-case comparison. Given the design incorporates aero bottle cages, those were used, and Elite Fly bottles were fitted. As with all of our tests, no computer mount was fitted.

Our rider's test kit remained consistent across all testing, and the wind tunnel also neatly created an 'Edge' or ghost outline of the rider to ensure the same position is held from test to test.

Each test was conducted at 40km/h, representative of a faster pace for amateur riders, with yaw angles of -15°, -10°, -5°, 0°, 5°, 10° and 15°. For bike-only, we captured for 10 seconds per run, and for bike-and-rider tests, 30 seconds per run at a pedalling cadence of 90 RPM.

Another note is that the confidence and margin for error on tests have also been calculated as follows:

The results: Bike on its own

CdA is a measure of aerodynamic drag; effectively a combination of its 'drag' or how easily air passes over its surface, and its 'area' or size. This is where the Factor ONE took quite a clear win. At 0° yaw - effectively a direct headwind, the Cervélo is marginally faster, but the way the bike remains fast at all wind angles is an engineering feat.

Upon weighting the CdA at different yaws to account for real-world conditions, and then working out the average, the Factor ONE has a CdA of 0.0747, a good chunk ahead of the Van Rysel RCR-F in second place on 0.0772.

This meant that at 40km/h, the Factor required only 61.51w of power, two watts better than the next best and a huge 40.28 watts faster than the Trek Émonda ALR.

The results: Testing with a rider

Once we put a rider on the bike, things changed a little more. At lower yaw, the Factor was comprehensively the fastest bike on test, at a CdA of 0.3188m², compared to the next best Cervélo S5 on 0.3260m². However, the Cervélo then climbed ahead on the wider yaw angles.

Here we have confirmation that across the range of wind angles, the Cervélo S5 actually wins out, but by a mere 0.0001 CdA, an infinitesimally and incomprehensible margin, and one that falls well within our error margin. There is then a slight gap to the Colnago Y1RS at 0.3363m², while the next best dedicated aero bike is the Dare at 0.3387m².

This meant that at 40km/h, the Factor requires 273.17 watts, 0.05 watts more than the Cervélo on average, which, again, is well within our error margin on the day. It is 3.61w faster than the Colnago Y1Rs and 27.53w faster than our 'baseline' budget bike, the Trek Émonda ALR.

Standardising the wheelset

Of course, the Factor ONE has been designed with the Black Inc 62 wheels that it comes with off-the-shelf. When we switch out to the control set of wheels, things do shift a bit. At 0° yaw, the Colnago Y1Rs - a bike which is supplied with these wheels on higher specs and used by the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad - is fastest, but once again, the ability of the ONE to remain fast across all yaw angles is unmatched.

Although low yaw angles are more common in real-world situations, this ability to remain fast over all wind angles should help it in bunch racing or windier conditions where the wind angle is less consistent or stable.

Once weighted and averaged, Factor still wins, with an average CdA of 0.0761m², a deficit of 0.014m² compared to using the Black Inc wheels.

The Dare and Colnago are the biggest climbers, with Cervélo dropping down the charts.

This equates to 62.65 watts of aerodynamic drag when tested at 40km/h, and equates to a 1.14-watt worse performance than when specced with the Black Inc 62 wheels.

This tells us that Black Inc's wheels are marginally faster in this bike than the Enve wheels, albeit with the caveat that they were fitted with narrower 25mm tyres, so not a perfectly apples-to-apples comparison.

Comparing to our baseline

Comparing to our baseline bike, which is our flagbearer for the traditional, round tubed, externally-routed, shallow-wheeled bike you may have sitting at home, you stand to save 40.28 watts in a bike-only test. This is the fastest bike we've ever tested in our wind tunnel tests.

In a more real-world-applicable rider-on comparison, you stand to save 27.53 watts. This, admittedly, is a fraction of a watt behind the Cervélo S5, but well within our error margin, so Factor can also claim the top-spot here. Especially given the Cervélo was specced with a single chainring and no front derailleur, which is said to be worth around a watt at these speeds.

When we look at the combined testing, with our 2025 test and the 2024 superbikes test. You can see the clear distinction between dedicated aero bikes such as the Factor ONE and Van Rysel RCR-F, and the more all-round bikes such as the Specialized Tarmac SL8 and Trek Madone SLR Gen 7.

What's really impressive though, is that in the bike only test, the difference between the ONE and 2nd place is bigger than the difference between 2nd and 7th. Not forgetting that two watts is still only a small saving, this is a storming victory in the context of this test.

How does it compare

Despite being the fastest, the Factor ONE is also one of the lighter bikes that we had on test. At 7.35kg in our unpainted size 56cm test sample, it's far from a heavyweight machine, and outperforms those near it in the table.

Even though the Specialized we tested weighed a rather close 7.18kg, this was with pedals and bottled fitted, so not the fairest comparison against the Factor, which we erronously tested as a bare bike. We'd expect that to be hitting closer to 6.8kg in a comparable setup.

An interesting point to note, though, is that the ONE was not used by any of the Israel-Premier Tech riders on stages that didn't have a mostly-flat route. At face value this points to Factor working on a two-bike race lineup, with the Ostro sitting alongside the ONE (perhaps three with the featherweight O2). It's not conclusive, though, given the team only had a handful of these at their disposal.

The geometry of the bike is quite extreme, with a similarly broad and straight seatpost to the Cervélo S5 and Scott Foil, but without the compliance claims that come with those bikes. Lots of deep tubes are also paired with quite a unique front-end geometry, as well as bars that resemble the Colnago Y1RS bars. It’s certainly a low-slung bike, but Factor has ensured a good range of geometry with virtual stem lengths of 110-150mm and stack adjustment of 35mm.

Conclusion

The Factor ONE is certainly what I would call the epitome of aero road bikes.

It's perhaps not a bike you'll choose to buy for leisurely local group rides or doing long sportives, but if you want to race and like to adopt a racy, forward position with narrow bars and short cranks, it's among the best aero road bikes on the market right now, the fastest bike we've ever tested, and for flat races and bunch sprints, our data syggests that it’s an absolute rocketship.

It's an unapologetically pro-spec bike, even if it will not immediately feature in the WorldTour thanks to the brand's recent pull-out from its previous team.

Add to that a low weight by comparison to many aero bike alternatives, and it’s an impressive race machine. Just be sure to get your stretching sessions in if you do opt to splash out on this one-of-a-kind bike.

A custom Colnago Y1Rs ridden by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) during races like the Tour de France and World Championships has sold for $190,500 in a Sotheby's auction.

Many bids were placed on the bike, which had an initial estimated cost of $15,000-20,000 when it was listed, but was sold for ten times that at just shy of $200,000.

Just a few minutes before the auction ended on Friday afternoon, the bidding had stagnated at $90,000, but last minute action saw the final price increase by another $100,000.

Whilst the exact Colnago frame isn't for sale, we estimate the RRP for a similarly equipped Y1Rs to be in the range of $22,000-29,000 (£17,000-22,000).

Sotheby's keep seller information private, so we're not sure who will be receiving almost $200k (minus Sotheby's commission) for the custom machine, but it was part of a collection of four Colnagos called 'Colnago: Legends & Icons', so the seller could well be Colnago itself.

We don't know who got their hands on Pogačar's, either, but the auction house rightly listed it as a collector's item, rather than a very, very expensive new ride for the buyer.

"A unique and historically significant racing machine, the Colnago Y1Rs Raw Carbon is a bicycle for the most passionate and discerning collectors," the listing read.

Other bikes in the Colnago collection at Sotheby's included a restored vintage track bike and João Almeida's C68 from this year's Vuelta a España, which sold for $21,590 – modest in comparison to the huge sum for his teammates' bike.

Pogačar first rode the bike in question during the uphill time trial at the Tour de France this year, in its plain black form, but the paint job and look was upgraded during the race, and now features rainbow details, celebrating the Slovenian's world titles.

The new-look bike first broke cover on the stage to Mont Ventoux.

After making its debut at the Tour, Sotheby's say this was the same bike he used to ride to his other big victories of the second half of the season.

"Pogačar went on to secure his fourth Tour de France title, cementing his place among cycling’s elite. From that day forward, he used no other bike for his major victories, achieving further triumphs including the World Championships, the European Championships, and a record fifth consecutive Il Lombardia — all aboard this distinctive carbon-black Y1Rs," the listing reads.

The bike's short but successful career is now over, and it is now set to be owned by a deep-pocketed collector. Though we don't know who the buyer is, these iconic bikes sometimes end up on show again at bike shows and events, so this iconic steed may be exhibited again soon, an artefact from Pogačar's most successful season to date.

Five days ago, Bahrain Victorious and bike sponsor, Merida, announced the end of their partnership after nine seasons of collaboration together.

Merida has worked with the team throughout various guises and achieved some huge wins, including Paris-Roubaix with Sonny Colbrelli and Milan San Remo with Matej Mohoric, the latter of which an especially exciting victory for tech fans given his dropper post usage.

It has now been officially announced, after weeks of rumours, that the team will race on Bianchi bikes next year after a new 'multi-year agreement' was confirmed between the two parties today.

Bianchi is a brand that needs little introduction, with a rich history in professional cycling. The brand had supplied bikes to Arkéa-B&B Hotels for several seasons, but that partnership will end soon, due to the team's failed search for a new title sponsor for 2026 and beyond.

Though it is unclear exactly how many years the new partnership will run for, it will see Bianchi remain in cycling's top flight, and target "some of the most prestigious races on the UCI calendar."

Bianchi currently offers two top-tier drop bar road bikes, the aero-focused Oltre RC and the more traditional-looking Specialissima. But team riders will have four models to choose from in total, as alongside the road models are the Aquila time trial bike and Impulso gravel machine, a bike that ex-gravel world champion Matej Mohorič may well use in gravel races.

Bianchi also turned heads earlier this year when it released special edition versions of the two road bikes, making them some of the most expensive on the market at over €21,000 a piece.

Another Bianchi-related rumour swirling around is that there could be a new aero bike in the works. The current Oltre RC is an aero bike that predates the UCI's rule changes regarding frame design, which have helped usher in a new generation of aero bikes like the Ridley Noah. A new Oltre RC or Bianchi aero bike could be in development for the team to use in the future.

Some of cycling's greatest champions have ridden and raced on Bianchi machines over the decades; it seems the brand's history is not lost on Milan Eržen, the team's managing director, when describing the new partnership.

"We have great respect for Bianchi’s history in the sport, and we are confident that together we will innovate, create new iconic moments, and build the future upon their remarkable heritage.”

Cycling fans can probably expect to start seeing images online of team riders on their new bikes, before the 2026 racing season kicks off at the Santos Tour Down Under.

If you're a well-off fan looking to own a piece of cycling history, then your luck might just be in after Sotheby's put Tadej Pogačar's Tour de France-winning Colnago Y1Rs Raw Carbon up for auction this week.

The bike, which Pogačar rode from stage 16 of the race on Mont Ventoux up to stage 20, is all black, featuring rainbow jersey accents. Of course, it's kitted out with the same high-end equipment from Enve, Fizik, and Shimano that Pogačar used.

Days before switching to this bike, Pogačar raced a heavily modified Colnago Y1Rs to glory in the Peyragudes mountain time trial on stage 13, with the bike featuring no paint and weighing in at just 6.9kg.

The Sotheby's listing states that stage 16 saw Pogačar "riding a bicycle that immediately captured the attention of the cycling world", noting that the subtle rainbow paint job was made up on rest day before the stage.

"Taking advantage of the rest day, the bike was finalised with the signature World Champion accents — red, green, yellow, and blue — creating the Raw Carbon edition known today, which made its official debut in the 16th stage, set to face the iconic Mont Ventoux climb," the listing reads.

"The frame's exposed carbon finish and meticulous detailing reflect both extreme performance engineering and aesthetic refinement, designed to complement the abilities of the reigning World Champion and support his campaign for overall Tour de France victory."

At the time of writing, the bike has flown past Sotheby's estimated price of $15-20,000, with the bidding currently sitting at a mammoth $70,000 (£52,456) after 66 bids. Bidding on the Y1Rs closes at 3:34pm GMT on Friday, December 5.

The bike is one of four Colnago bikes currently up for auction at Sotheby's, part of the 'Colnago: Legends & Icons' lot.

The other three bikes up for sale include a restored Colnago track bike built to Eddy Merckx's 1972 World Hour Record dimensions (currently at $4,500/£3,372) and João Almeida's Colnago C68 Rossa from the 2025 Vuelta a España presentation ($13,000/£9.742).

Also up for auction is one of the first carbon road frames, the 1989 Colnago C35 Oro Ferrari collaboration, which features a gold-plated Campagnolo Super Record groupset and Colnago five-spoke carbon wheels ($13,000/£9.742). Bidding on all three bikes closes at the same time as the Y1Rs.

There's no denying that bikes have come a long way over the past decade, thanks in no small part to the industry's broader understanding of physics.

The importance of wind- and rolling-resistance – and the relatively reduced importance placed on weight – has led to everything getting more aerodynamic, frames getting stiffer yet more comfortable, tyres rolling more easily, and ultimately, riders getting faster.

Concurrently, and coincidentally, Tadej Pogačar has risen to prominence, and after yet another dominant season, in which he won his fourth Tour de France, he's widely touted as the greatest cyclist of all time.

But when posed with the question of whether Pogačar would win on an older bike, Luke Rowe gave a resounding, unwavering, "no chance."

Speaking on the Watts Occurring podcast with his co-host Geraint Thomas, the former Ineos Grenadiers road captain said, "It's got to the point with aero bikes, they can get them to that weight where they can race aero bikes on mountain stages. I've seen some of the numbers, these things in wind tunnels compared to what we used to ride, [the differences] are huge.

"You're constantly getting them aero gains. If you were to put someone like Pogi on a bike from six to eight years ago. Huge gap. The advancement that bikes have made in the past five to eight years is huge."

Thomas held a slightly more measured view, considering the entire rider-and-bike package, rather than the bike alone.

"I think if it's just the bike, and he had the modern wheels, tyres, skinsuits and stuff, he probably could [win]. But if he had the whole package from 2015 - 10 years ago - the wheels that Froomey had, the tyres, the bike, the kit, it would be interesting then."

"He's got that much of a buffer these days, though. It would make it a more level playing field," continued the 2018 Tour de France winner, before joking, "Maybe that could be a UCI rule."

Staunch in his view, Rowe reiterated his point, but not without adding a caveat that acknowledged Pogačar's dominance.

"I'm gonna say he wouldn't win. Maybe if you put him at the bottom of a climb on a bike, mano a mano, he could win a 10k climb, but the accumulation of fatigue over every stage.

"Stage 1, say it's flat, his average power would be 15-20 watts higher. The accumulation through 21 days, I think [that] would crack him.

"Pogi would not win a bike from 10 years ago. Or even eight years ago. Even five years ago."

The difference a decade makes

The closest, most applicable test we've seen that compares old kit vs new kit was performed by Sonny Colbrelli and his then team, Bahrain Victorious. It compared a 2023 setup against 2013, the early 2000s, and the late '80s, courtesy of a Bahrain Victorious setup complete with a 2023 Merida Scultura, skinsuit and aero helmet; a 2013 Pinarello Dogma 65.1 from Movistar, paired with Team Sky Adidas kit, tubs and rim brakes; Damiano Cunego's Cannondale Six13 from his time at Saeco, complete with Mavic Ksyrium wheels and Kappa clothing; and a Carrera Podium, downtube shifters and helmet cover.

It found that at 300 watts, the 2023 Merida Scultura – not even Merida's most aero bike – was around 2km/h faster than the Carrera, and faster still than the Cannondale.

Most pertinently to Rowe's argument, though, the new setup required 30 fewer watts to hold 40km/h than the 2013 setup.

On the climb, the results were closer, and the error margin greater, but the raw data showed that the 2023 setup required around four fewer watts to hold 18km/h than the 2013 setup.

Where are the biggest savings made?

Cyclingnews has spent countless hours in wind tunnels, rolling resistance labs, and other facilities over the past few years, trying to answer this question.

In our aero bike wind tunnel test, we found that switching from an entry-level 2015 Trek Emonda ALR to a high-end aero bike can save you 27 watts at typical road race speeds of 40km/h. The difference between two high-end race bikes a decade apart is, therefore, unlikely to be that big, but that's the bike alone, not including the tyres, clothing, helmet, socks, and even the progression in rider position.

In our road tyre rolling resistance test, we unearthed a difference of 30 watts between the fastest and slowest tyres, or a still-significant 17 watts between two nominal 'race' tyres.

We also found that the best aero helmets can be as many as 7 watts more efficient than their non-aero counterparts in our wind tunnel helmet test, and that's without testing helmets from a decade ago.

Similarly, when testing clothing, we found the difference between high-end race kit and a nominally 'cheap' comparison could be as many as 18 watts.

With all that in mind, and returning to the above discussion, it's hard to disagree with Rowe when he labels the difference as "huge." In fact, the 15-20 watts he quotes actually looks quite conservative.

"The more you think about it, no chance. It's advanced too much," Rowe concluded, before Thomas concurred.

"I don't think he'd win the Tour against Jonas if he had the whole kit like that."