Spotted: Roglic rides all-new Cervélo road bike at La Flèche Wallonne
Is this the new Cervélo R5 Disc?
For his second-place finish at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, Primož Roglič was riding what looks to be an all-new Cervélo road bike.
On the exact same day that the brand launched its all-new racier Aspero gravel bike, Cervélo has teased even more new tech, with what looks like a new lightweight road bike in the pipeline.
Judging by the aesthetics of the bike and the terrain on which it was raced, it's likely to be the new R5 Disc. However, the brand's recent form of bike model nomenclature - namely the Aspero and Caledonia - does throw doubt on this theory.
Of course, at this stage, no official word has come from Cervélo and details, therefore, are in short supply, but there are a few things we can surmise from photographs taken during the race.
Overall, the bike's update looks to be evolution, rather than revolution. There's no groundbreaking additions or omissions, but a few modernisations to an otherwise popular lightweight road bike.
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The most apparent change comes at the front. The bike's cockpit is notably void of any cables, suggesting Cervélo is following the recent integrated cockpit trend by fully containing Roglič's Shimano Di2 cables and brake hoses within the handlebars and through the stem.
Beyond the cockpit, it looks as though tube shapes have been given the aero treatment, too, but aside from that and the jazzy paint scheme, much of the rest of the bike remains the same, which brings us onto one notably unchanged feature; the positioning of the seat stays.
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In recent years, the majority of road bike brands have switched to dropped seat stays for their combination of improved aerodynamics and vertical compliance. Cervélo has even followed suit with its Caledonia and S5 road bikes, yet this new road bike has clearly eschewed the idea.
Trek is one of the few other brands to stick with the traditional seat stay position, claiming during the launch of the new Emonda that it enabled the frame weight to remain beneath 700 grams. If Trek's reasoning is anything to go by, this new Cervélo could be seriously light.
Looking closer, despite a lack of clear imagery it looks as though the seatpost-frame interface could feature some comfort-enhancing technology. The seatpost itself looks to be thinner than the seat tube, and there looks to be room for the seatpost to flex inside the frame.
Specification-wise, the rest of Roglič's bike remains as expected, with a sponsor-correct FSA cockpit, Shimano Dura-Ace R9170 Di2 disc brake groupset and Dura-Ace C40 tubular wheels from the same R9100-series range.
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As the Tech Editor here at Cyclingnews, Josh leads on content relating to all-things tech, including bikes, kit and components in order to cover product launches and curate our world-class buying guides, reviews and deals. Alongside this, his love for WorldTour racing and eagle eyes mean he's often breaking tech stories from the pro peloton too.
On the bike, 32-year-old Josh has been riding and racing since his early teens. He started out racing cross country when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s and has never looked back. He's always training for the next big event and is keen to get his hands on the newest tech to help. He enjoys a good long ride on road or gravel, but he's most alive when he's elbow-to-elbow in a local criterium.