Right on the UCI weight limit with everything attached
(Image credit: Will Jones)
There's inevitably a joke about buses here: You wait ages for one and then two (well, three) show up at the same time. Just weeks after Cervélo unveiled a new aero gravel bike, I headed to the Visma-Lease A Bike hotel this morning ostensibly to grab some photos of Jonas Vingegaard's yet-to-be-released Cervélo S5 aero bike ahead of the Tour de France. By a happy coincidence, I met some of the team from Cervélo, and they happily wheeled out a brand new, unreleased R5 climbing bike for me to take a look at too.
On the face of it, it's a similar-looking machine, but having had a pretty in-depth chat with the engineer, there's a lot going on in the name of less weight. It is light - bang on the UCI 6.8kg weight limit even with everything attached to it - and will be used by Visma on the steeper mountains where, I am told, acceleration is an important factor.
Scotty (Scott Roy), the engineer, told me he basically had free rein to make any changes he liked to the old R5 in the name of performance, embodying the old 'no stone unturned' philosophy that has made the Cervélo x Visma partnership so successful in the recent past.
At the front, the transition from fork crown to frame has been sculpted away to remove bulk, and at the bottom of the fork legs, the brake mount has been swapped away from a flat mount to a direct mount system through the whole fork leg, doing away with the alloy slug inside to shave a few grams.
The top tube has been raised a little to create a stiffer feeling rear end to bring it more in tune with the S5 aero bike; in fact, the fit has been changed to exactly mirror the S5 so that riders can swap seamlessly between the two.
The seatpost is the same shape, but lighter, and has a new clamp that also reduces weight. Even the cradle for the saddle, previously alloy, is now carbon. I'm told that weight higher up on the bike makes it more of a pendulum when sprinting, or climbing out of the saddle, and so reducing weight higher up on the bike has an impact on performance over and above just reducing system weight.
Heading down from the seat clamp, the seat stays have been made to just (and I mean by a hair) comply with the minimum legal diameter of 10mm. They are manufactured to just under 10mm in diameter, and the scant paint on top takes it right up to the limit and no more.
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At the front, there is a fresh cockpit, available in 19 size configurations at a cost-to-Cervélo of between $10-15k per mould. The clamp has been de-bulked, and despite having a D-shaped steerer, the system is compatible with any cockpit that can clamp on a round steerer thanks to an insert for the hoses.
Perhaps my favourite part, though admittedly not bike related, is the fact that on hilly days the team all apparently opt to use the minute Garmin Edge 130 Plus, rather than a bigger computer.
The team tells me that they will use the S5 for the majority of the race, but we've seen them playing around with different setups. Aero bike with lightweight climbing wheels, but with a platform as light as this new R5, which can hit the UCI weight limit with everything (pedals, cages, computer mount, etc) attached to it, it opens the door to using the R5 with deeper wheels for little weight penalty.
I'll bring you what was quite a wide-ranging interview on bike development, the new UCI rules, and how Visma set their bikes up in the fullness of time, but for now, here's a load of photos of a cool new bike. Weight weenieism is back, and I'm so here for it.
Don't feel bad if you didn't notice this while watching the Dauphiné - We missed it too, but there are plenty of differences under the skin. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The front end, especially the fork-frame transition, has been de-bulked. (Image credit: Will Jones)
These seat stays are manufactured to be just under the legal minimum diameter, and then the paint makes up the final bit to get to compliance. (Image credit: Will Jones)
No 'Prototype' sticker here, so on paper it's further along than the new S5, which we saw a few weeks ago. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The seat clamp has been lightened, though it looks identical from the outside. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Jorgenson runs quite a nose-down saddle tilt. The seatpost has been lightened to reduce the pendulum effect while out of the saddle. (Image credit: Will Jones)
This Prologo Nago C3 is a saddle we don't see very often. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The saddle cradle (the bit that goes under the rails) is now carbon rather than alloy. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The bottom bracket isn't overly chunky like the S5. (Image credit: Will Jones)
There's still room for 35c tyres front and rear. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The head tube is conspicuously un-sculpted compared to many bikes nowadays. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Here's a better look at that hollowed out fork-frame transition at the bottom. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The bolts now go straight through the fork to the caliper, doing away with an alloy insert to save weight. (Image credit: Will Jones)
I absolutely love seeing these wee little Garmins. Every gram counts on the steepest slopes. (Image credit: Will Jones)
The clamp for the cockpit has been slimmed down too. (Image credit: Will Jones)
29c tyres mounted to Reserve's 42/49 wheels. (Image credit: Will Jones)
While the team often opts for 1x setups, Jorgenson goes for a 54/41t double for the mountains. (Image credit: Will Jones)
Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.
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