When Van Rysel launched the RCR Pro, it garnered plenty of attention as the most affordable bike in the professional peloton. And now it has some fresh competition. Cube’s 2027 collection features the redesigned Litening Aero C:68X, which was ridden by the TotalEnergies team in this year’s Tour de France.

With the range starting at under £5,000, and a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2-equipped model retailing at £7,499, it makes a strong bid for the most affordable ride in the pro ranks.

The collection doesn’t stop there. The road lineup includes an updated Attain range, with both aluminium and carbon offerings, while the NuRoad gravel series benefits from refreshed designs and brand new models, which again feature prices that should turn plenty of heads. But first, the Litening Aero C:68X.

For those obsessed with weight, the headline is a reduction in the frame’s weight by a claimed 150g compared to the outgoing model. This allows for complete builds under 7kg. ‘Lighter’ is joined by the familiar promises of ‘stiffer’ and ‘more aerodynamic’, with Cube stating that the update to its best road bike will save you some 6.2 watts, although greater details on these savings are absent from the press material.

For many prospective buyers, it’s the promise of greater comfort that might offer the greatest appeal. Pro bikes aren’t always the most comfortable to ride, and while the appeal of riding something you’ve spotted during the Tour de France is obvious, the reality can be a little bone-jarring at times - but not here, says Cube.

Thanks to a newly designed carbon seatpost, the Litening Aero C:68X is 10% more comfortable; again details are light but presumably the new post does a better job of absorbing road chatter, with the frame still providing the required torsional stiffness to reward your efforts. Clearance for 34mm tyres should also add to the plushness of the ride.

The new seatpost is joined by the IC Aero Max carbon cockpit, which is said to promote a more aerodynamic riding position and likely plays a considerable role in the watt-saving claims. Other noteworthy details include a power meter as standard and a carbon Newman wheelset.

New to the range is the Litening Aero C:68X Orbit, which uses SRAM’s 13-speed Red XPLR AXS groupset. Eschewing a front mech makes this the lightest build available at just 6.9kg. The range-topping SLT weighs 200 grams more and features a Shimano Dura-Ace FC-R9200 groupset, a pair of Newmen Aero/Sprint 60/66 Vonoa hoops and a price tag of £7,499. This makes it cheaper than a comparably specced RCR-F.

The Attain range sees the entire C:62 line receive updated specifications and a lower entry point, with the C:62 Race starting at £1,999. The C:62 SLX speaks of the value for money that appears to run across the 2027 range. Here you get a carbon frameset, an integrated carbon cockpit, a set of carbon Newmen Advanced C.38 J wheels and the ever-reliable Shimano 105 Di2 drivetrain, all for £2,499. Tipping the scales at 7.6kg shouldn’t hurt its saleability either.

Cube’s Nuroad gravel range vows to “cover all the bases from adventure to race and everything in between”. Again, frames are offered in both aluminium and the German brand’s C:62 carbon, with models ranging from the versatile, complete with mudguards and a carrier, to the more stripped-back gravel race offerings.

The Nuroad C:62 SLT is the signature model and, like the Litening Aero C:68X Orbit, uses SRAM’s Red XPLR AXS drivetrain for greater simplicity and improved aerodynamics; it pairs a 42T chainring with a 10-46T 13-speed cassette. Its claimed weight of 8kg is aided by a set of Newmen Streem G.62 Vonoa wheels that tip the scales at just over 1,500g despite the 62mm rim depth; these are the hoops that Lukas Pöstlberger used while winning this year’s Traka 200 race.

At £6,499, value for money is again a clear selling point, certainly when viewed against rival models with a comparable spec. For comparison, the latest Specialized Crux S-Works with the same SRAM Red AXS groupset will set you back almost £12,000. Seemingly only the direct-to-consumer Canyon Grail CFR can compete from a price perspective.

For 2027, Cube has also introduced updates to its City and Trekking hybrid bike lineups. These include belt-driven e-bikes, such as the Editor Hybrid 360 FE series (£1,899), folding bikes like the battery-powered Fold Hybrid Deluxe 540 (£2,999), and touring-specific models like the Kathmandu Hybrid, which boasts automatic shifting and an integrated frame lock.

A range of clothing and accessories completes the new additions for 2007, including Mips-equipped road and gravel helmets and an expanded eyewear range.

Summers are getting hotter, and with that, it's getting more important for riders to look at skin protection - both in terms of sun cream and UV-protective kit, as incidences of skin cancer and melanoma are increasing all around the world. With average temperatures and days of sunshine reaching record highs, should we really be heading out for long rides without giving our skin a thought?

While cyclists in the northern hemisphere are super-keen to get into short-sleeved jerseys and shorts after grinding out a long and cold winter period, is it time to switch to lightweight, long-sleeve, UV-protective garment alternatives instead?

What is skin cancer?

There are two kinds of skin cancer: melanoma, which is faster-acting and more serious, and non-melanoma, which is slower-acting and more easily treatable. Both are serious concerns and require medical attention. They occur as UV radiation from the sun penetrates our skin and damages the DNA in the skin cells, which, over time, can develop into skin cancer. The higher the UV exposure, such as extended periods sunbathing, sun beds, or living nearer the equator, the more likely you are to develop skin cancer.

According to the cancer charity Macmillan, individual risk factors are blonde/red hair, fairer skin or freckles, and green or blue eyes. People of colour have less risk of developing skin cancer due to more melanin being produced in the skin, but areas such as the palms of the hands and soles of the feet are risk factors, and prolonged exposure to UV rays will still cause damage.

There are two kinds of UV: UV A and UV B. UV B is short-wave and causes more surface damage, such as burning and DNA damage, while UV A is long-wave, penetrates deeper, and has a greater impact on aging skin.

Why does this matter to cyclists?

If you cycle in shorts and a short-sleeved jersey, you are exposing your head, arms, hands, and legs to UV radiation. These are common locations for skin cancer development. Cancer Research UK found that between 2018 and 2021, more than a third of melanomas diagnosed in women were on the leg (hip to feet). In men, 40% were diagnosed on the torso. Reasons for this were suggested as men being more likely to remove shirts in the summer, and women wearing shorter skirts or shorts.

Additionally, a research paper published in 2026 by T J Scott et al, found that between 1990 and 2023, the mean length of the summer period has increased by 5-7 days in both hemispheres, but more so in the northern hemisphere. This is also paired with more days of sun and an increase in temperatures, which comes with an increase in UV radiation.

As cyclists, summer and sun normally mean arms and legs come out, which are both areas that can be affected by skin cancer and UV damage. Which really begs the question: why aren’t more cyclists keeping long sleeves on in the summer?

Why would I wear long-sleeved kit in the summer?

For many cyclists, a long-sleeved jersey is typically a thermal fleece-lined offering designed for autumn and winter riding. But there has been an ever-growing trend, in part pushed by mainland European and Asian markets, for lightweight, summer-focused long-sleeved garments that provide greater UV protection.

A good example is MAAP’s Aeon Jersey. This comes in both long- and short-sleeve variants, and both are UV protective to 15 UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor). UPF is the protective rating for clothing, which blocks UV A and UV B, while SPF (Sun Protection Factor) protects against UV B, burning rays, and is the rating for suncream. As a general guideline, UPF refers to the percentage of UV that penetrates, so UPF 50 means only 1/50th or two per cent of UV rays penetrate. SPF rating refers to the amount of time you are protected from sun damage in minutes, times the rating. So if you’d require 10 minutes of sun to burn, SPF 15 gives you 150 minutes of protection; this doesn't account for moisture, sweat, or salt but provides a useful indication. Meanwhile, UPF is a constant, and the protection does not wane over time.

The Aeon jersey comprises Polartec Delta fabric, which is highly breathable and exceptional at moisture wicking. Indeed, the temperature range for the long-sleeve jersey suggested by MAAP is 18-35˚C, so definitely the warmest of summer weather we can expect in the UK, and the upper end of what tends to be tolerable for most. Having tested the long-sleeve jersey on some more tropical summery days, it does a very good job of wicking moisture away while keeping me cool.

Other similar options include the Pas Normal Studios Essential Light LS, Assos Mille GT LS, and Castelli Coretto LS; all are lightweight long-sleeve jerseys that aim to protect against UV damage.

For the legs, the Rapha Pro Team Lightweight Bib tights offer full-length bib-tight protection, but the material is thinner and has no fleece or thermal properties. Both the Velocio Luxe bibs and the Ornot lightweight bibs serve a similar purpose.

The big benefit here, of course, is that UV exposure to the skin is greatly reduced, so the incidence of UV-related damage should be lower, and the risk of skin cancer should be reduced as a result. Yes, these garments are a touch warmer by comparison, especially on more humid days, but I'd argue the potential long-term safety benefits far exceed the slight increase in discomfort.

What about sun cream?

Of course, another way to protect against sun damage is by using sun cream. Normally, these are at least SPF 30, but it is generally recommended to use SPF 50 in Europe. SPF 100 is not uncommon nearer the equator, though. Sun creams do protect well against UV damage, better than most jerseys in fact.

But there is a problem.

Sun creams are generally tested in an environment where there is not as much sweating. When cycling in high summer, this is usually not the case. It's also recommended to reapply them every 90 minutes or so, although some of the best cycling sunscreens do offer a longer window of protection. Although you can get small sun cream bottles or sprays, I have rarely seen any cyclist stop mid-ride to reapply suncream. That 90 minutes recommendation is also generous if you end up sweating heavily. Additionally, salt crystals on the skin left as residue from sweat and evaporative cooling can increase the damage caused by UV to the skin.

As previously mentioned, suncream becomes less effective over time. In contrast, a UPF-rated piece of clothing maintains its UV-blocking capabilities for the entire duration of a ride.

The bottom line

If you are riding in sunnier conditions, to best protect your skin against UV damage and reduce the risk of developing skin cancer, you should wear long-sleeved, UV-protective cycling garments. A lot of brands now offer long-sleeved jerseys and tights that feature lighter, more breathable, moisture-wicking materials designed to keep you pretty much as cool and comfortable as a short-sleeved variant. You can also buy UV Screens from various brands, which are lightweight arm and leg warmers that generally offer UPF 50 protection.

You should also apply sun cream to areas of high UV exposure as well as to any visible scars and the back of your neck, ears, and nose. If you’re planning a long day in the saddle, take sun cream with you to reapply.

For those with finer hair or less hair on the top of their head, wear a lightweight cap. All those helmet vents will let sunlight in and cause both an interesting-looking tan as well as damage to the skin.

While top-tier models might set you back five figures, it's perfectly possible to get a great entry-level road bike – with an aluminum frame and disc brakes – for under £1,000/$1,500. Nobody needs to spend hours restoring an aged steel-frame machine to enjoy cycling on a budget. However, there's a lot to be said for the personal satisfaction that comes from breathing new life into something old.

That's why I chose to restore this Ribble – but how long did it take me, and how much did it cost? Finally, was it worth it? Let's dive in...

Winning the eBay bidding war

I decided to buy this particular bike because it was made from Columbus SLX tubes (with internal helicoidal spine ridges to improve stiffness, if you believe the marketing), so for a steel-frame bike it’s relatively light.

The full Shimano 600 Tricolor groupset was a big plus, and the frame is fully chromed, which means that it’s about as weather and corrosion resistant as a steel bike can be.

Checking an older steel frame for rust is essential, particularly around the bottom bracket, the seat clamp and the headset, not to mention the chain and seat stays. The steerer tube and fork crown are also crucial inspection items.

Having won the eBay bidding war (a minor skirmish, really) for just £199 ($270 for our US readers), I collected the Ribble from Greenwich, which is less than 10 miles away from home. Since Columbus SLX frames alone sell for upwards of £150 (it’s worth getting a general sense of prices before buying your bike), it was a no-brainer. I would have paid the extra £50 or so for courier delivery even if the bike was further away – it can be a worthwhile expense if you find your unicorn.

All used bikes need some TLC to get them running smoothly, and the base condition of the bike dictates just how much time, money and effort you’ll have to put in. This generally works on a sliding scale, with bikes in good condition sporting the highest price tags, and the real dogs being offered for a song.

The Ribble, it turns out, was closer to needing daily walks and regular flea treatments than I’d hoped. But I still got away with spending just less than £370 ($500) for a mechanically sound and delightfully rideable piece of dead sexy British cycling history.

Here's how I did it.

The component search

From careful scrutiny of the eBay photos, I fully expected to replace the tyres (cracked and worn and 23 mm), the saddle (tattered and torn), the bar tape (ditto), the chain (very evident wear), the gear and brake cables and housings (as a matter of course), the brake pads (safety first) and the pedals (I ride Shimano SPD pedals on all my bikes for convenience).

But with older bikes, you often don’t know what you have until you take it all apart, so after a few ‘before’ photos I put my Allen keys and socket set to good use. Once I had all the bits laid out, it was clear that I’d soon be forking out for even more replacement parts.

The lower saddle clamp was inexplicably split in two, the inner chainring teeth were worn to resemble shark fins, and the front brake caliper had corroded into position and refused to respond to my rigorous degreasing and lubrication. The headset was in terrible condition, with multiple grooves worn into the lower cup.

The geometry was spot on for me personally. With a 54cm top tube despite being a 56cm bike, the frame was clearly made in heaven for my slightly off-kilter body dimensions (long legs, short torso). However, the 110mm stem proved to be a touch long, and the gorgeous Cinelli handlebar was too wide for me at 44cm. Perhaps the nastiest surprise was the cracked rear derailleur parallelogram.

In this world of instant gratification, there’s something deeply satisfying about hunting for bike parts that are often no longer in production. Rather than simply clicking online or swiping your bank card at your LBS, you have to trawl the online classified sites and forums to find the specific hens’ teeth you’re looking for. And when you find the right component at the right price, the thrill is real.

So, I subjected my eyes to more blue light from my laptop screen than is strictly healthy and, lo, I found all the bits and pieces that I needed, with the proviso that I wasn’t being overly pedantic about maintaining the original component specs.

The basics, like gear and brake cables and housings, bar tape, chain, ball bearings, and bottle cage I quickly bought new. The other bits took a bit more work, with the 39T chainring and Shimano 600 Tricolor brake calipers (with new brake pads, no less) eventually coming from eBay, the front tyre and Shimano SPD pedals after patient Gumtree searches, and the rear tyre from Freecycle (a Continental GP5000 S TR for free).

A near-mint Shimano 600 headset and rear derailleur (both for more than I was hoping to pay) came from kindred eBay users, while Golden Age Cycles – a great resource for vintage restorations – provided me with the 90 mm quill stem.

The three non-original replacements comprised a System EX seatpost from Tredz, a Fabric Radius saddle (it keeps my bum happy) from Merlin Cycles, and a handlebar from Temple Cycles, one of the only companies currently selling compact bars with a 25.4mm clamp diameter.

These purchases pushed my restoration spend up to £242.68, over and above the bike's purchase price. But I recouped a few quid for the sale of the Cinelli A1 110 mm stem, the Shimano 105 pedals, the Turbo saddle, the Shimano 600 Tricolor seatpost (even with the broken lower clamp) and the Cinelli handlebar (no surprises there). All of this netted £72, bringing the total bike and restoration cost to £369.68.

Of course, I managed to keep the total cost low because I did all the work myself. If the restoration was left to your LBS, you’d be paying anywhere between £200 and £300 for a full strip, clean and rebuild, not taking into account the additional replacement cost of the component parts. But if you have a decent set of Allen keys and a shifting spanner, you can do the bulk of the restoration work yourself, like replacing brake and gear cables and housings, fitting a new chain, installing derailleurs, setting up brake calipers, inserting the stem and handlebars, and wrapping bar tape.

The trickier jobs that require specialised tools aren’t far out of reach either, and I’d argue that they’re worth the investment even in the short run. Buying the relevant cone wrenches for around £15 and learning how to service a wheel hub has paid for itself many times over (a hub service at your LBS will likely cost around £20 per wheel). Servicing a headset and bottom bracket follows the same simple principles as servicing a wheel hub and will comfortably save you £50. Truing the wheels accounts for another £30 saving.

YouTube is a wonderful resource (RJ the Bike Guy and Sheldon Brown are two of my favourites), and you can rest assured that any issue you come across while restoring a bike has already been experienced by someone somewhere, and there’s an online tutorial, blog post or forum thread for fixing it. If there is a better way to learn about the basics of bicycle maintenance, I haven’t found it yet. Also, steel-frame bikes are slightly more forgiving for the home mechanic than the exacting tolerances and torques required by carbon frames. So, if you can do it yourself, do it!

Grunt and labour

More than just a wondrous mechanical learning curve (you have to take something apart to understand how it works), a lot of restoration work is simply about grunt labour. When a frame and components haven’t been cleaned for years, all sorts of gunk builds up in the nooks and crannies. And it’s the assiduous application of elbow grease – and toothbrushes, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, ear buds, wash cloths and miscellaneous cleaning fluids – that peels back the years of abuse to reveal the glory of former years.

When a thorough cleaning doesn’t quite cut the mustard and the paintwork needs more focused attention, you have a handful of options. I decided to leave the Ribble as is, patina and all (as the enthusiasts would have it), but the careful application of colour-matched Humbrol model paint or even nail polish is a surprisingly effective way to touch up an otherwise-good-enough paintjob.

You can, of course, respray a frame that is simply too far gone. Rattle cans are a cheap option that can provide a decent finish if you remember the golden rule – painting is 90 per cent surface preparation. A step up from this is Spray. Bike, a paint developed specifically for respraying bicycles (the clue’s in the name). Touted as a non-drip alternative for amateur users, you can manage a full single-colour respray for under £50, including primer, base coat and lacquer finish.

If you’d prefer a professional to handle the job, the prices ramp up quickly, with a single-colour frame and fork spray starting around £350 if you provide the painter with a stripped and prepped frame. Frame prep, multiple colours, masking, decals and logos quickly push you towards (and even over) the £1,000 mark, so you’ll be reserving this treatment for high-value bikes.

The bit money can't buy

When you buy a bike off the peg, it takes a while before it really feels like yours. But restoring your own bike makes it very much yours because you’ve painstakingly brought it back to life. And you can be assured that yours will more than likely be the only one of its kind out there.

There’s something wonderfully elegant about the slim tubes of an old steel-frame road bike, not to mention classic aesthetics punctuated by ornately filed lugs, smooth fillet brazing, chromed stays/forks, intricate pantographing and myriad other details handcrafted in steel.

Riding a steel-frame bike from previous generations really makes you stand out in the sea of ubiquitous carbon and aluminium, and it’s seldom that I don’t receive a compliment when out riding one of my gleaming restorations.

Megamo is not a leading brand in the road bike space. However, the Girona-based company has a decorated history over on the bumpier side, its mountain bikes have delivered riders to the podium at the Absa Cape Epic with the Buff-Megamo team. It’s only recently that Megamo has expanded into the road bike space. In such a competitive market, however, it takes a lot to stand out – a fact that's become even more apparent with Chinese brands offering high spec builds at increasingly competitive prices.

The bike we tested is the Megamo Pulse 04 SLR - the Iberian brand’s best road bike offering. It looks the part and is handsomely appointed, but value alone is not going to win over new customers – attributes such as aesthetics, value and dynamics need to be met; after thorough testing, I reckon the Pulse has nailed all three. It’s also not as ubiquitous as the mainstream bike companies and model ranges, which might be an issue for some but also a unique attribute to others.

We spent over 500km getting to know the Megamo Pulse 04 SLR and came away impressed by what it offers as a package compared to the perennial favourites.

Technical details

While the Megamo Pulse cuts a pretty sleek facade in profile with a dropped seatstay configuration, it could be argued it looks somewhat generic, but the sublime paintwork helps lift the overall visual package. Dubbed ‘White Ice’, the finish looks completely flat from a distance; but closer inspection reveals an intricately detailed, shimmering pattern that mimics icicles. To further boost the visual clout, a purple Megamo wordmark logo dominates the downtube with Pulse markings on the fork. There’s even a purple chain.

It really is a good-looking bike and one that attracted its fair share of interest from onlookers – as mentioned earlier, Megamo is not a mainstream road bike brand, and this is even more prominent in the UK.

The bike is impressively light, utilising the company’s Super Light Race (SLR) high-modulus carbon fibre chassis that is claimed to balance stiffness, compliance, and weight. In size medium, a ready-to-paint frame and fork weigh 924g/458g, respectively – which is in line with Specialized’s Fact 10r Tarmac SL8 carbon frames. Tyre clearance is up there with the very best road bikes at 34mm front and rear, which should appease those who enjoy the comfort and versatility afforded by wider tyres.

The Pulse is available in five sizes: XS, S, M, L, and XL. At 175cm tall and with longer arms and legs typical of my height, I opted for a size large Pulse - besides, the 55.8cm top tube, 410cm chainstays and a sub-metre wheelbase (997cm) aren't too far off some of the medium frames I enjoy riding.

The frame angles are balanced with a 72.5-degree head and 73.25-degree seat tube angle matched to an aggressive 557 and 390mm stack and reach – these numbers are spot on for the category.

Specifications

The Pulse 04 SLR is handsomely appointed and gains a SRAM Force AXS groupset, complete with a power meter and a 48/35T, 10-33T gearing configuration. In size large, Megamo has paired the Pulse with 172.5mm cranks - shorter (160/165mm) and longer (174mm) options are available depending on the frame size. Call me a traditionalist or maybe even a late adopter, but I much prefer the leverage afforded by longer cranks. I particularly enjoyed the 172.5mm cranks on the Pulse test bike as I prefer grinding a bigger gear as opposed to spinning. Who knows, maybe I’ll convert to shorter options in the future, but for now, 170-172,5mm seems an optimal crank length for me.

Integration was a big focus on the bike, so Megamo has ensured no visible brake hoses or cables and matched the Pulse with an integrated carbon handlebar configuration – 410mm/110mm in this size, which looked wide at first but felt good in practice and performed decently in the ergonomic stakes overall. Again, bar width and stem length are dependent on frame size.

Rolling stock is handled by Zipp’s 303 S carbon wheels and 30mm Pirelli P Zero Race TLR tyres, configured with inner tubes.

The sum of these parts totals a respectable 7.4kg without pedals – again, this is the going weight for this frame size and component configuration. That said, with such a light frame and fork, it won't take much to get the bike close to or under 7kg. As an experiment, I fitted a pair of Zipp 202 wheels, which dropped the Pulse under the seven-kilo barrier at 6.9kg.

Further weight can be trimmed by ditching the Fizik Vento Antares R5 saddle for a 100g lighter carbon-railed version, and then there's the option of fitting TPUs, too.

While Megamo doesn't share complete build weights on its website, I expect the posher models in the range include the Pulse 00 SLR (SRAM Red AXS) and Pulse 01 SLR (Shimano Dura-Ace Di2) to weigh under 7kg.

Performance

The Pulse is a well-balanced bike, and very easy to ride. It’s stable in crosswinds and planted during high-speed cornering, which provides the rider with loads of confidence in challenging conditions. The geometry is spot on for its size and intentions – it is a race bike after all but doesn’t feel overly aggressive. The riding position falls squarely between upright and stretched out, allowing you to assume a semi-neutral position without the back and neck niggles often associated with race bike geometry.

Climbing is a breeze, too. At 7.4kg, the Pulse is neither the lightest nor heaviest bike in the segment; instead it represents the middle ground and doesn't hold you back when gravity comes into the equation. It devours elevation in very much the same way as a Cannondale SuperSix Evo or Specialized Tarmac. During testing, it allowed me to hold a good climbing speed over all the lumps and bumps that comprise the UK's Surrey Hills.

The same goes for rolling roads where very little pedal input is needed to keep it sailing along - it’s very impressive. And when things do ever get super steep, the stiff bottom bracket and head tube provide enough response to quickly power up any kickers.

Once up and over the other side, the bike’s dynamic character comes to the fore, thanks to the neutral frame angles – it’s super planted and predictable on the descents but also reactive to steering inputs. To improve front-end grip and communication, I got the steerer cut to drop the bars and remove some spacers. This not only reduced the effective stack but also helped place more weight over the front wheel for improved front-wheel traction in the corners.

Speaking of grip, the Pirelli tyres offered decent grip - even in the stock inner tube configuration - but should perform better at lower pressures and set up tubeless. I kept the bike as close to stock as possible during the entire test period and was very impressed with its behaviour throughout. It was only when traversing choppier, broken road surfaces that the ride quality became apparent - again, this can be tuned by lowering tyre pressure, but the associated vibrations experienced are expected on poor roads.

The Zipp 303 S wheels offer good straight-line performance and aerodynamics, and are very stable during cross winds. The whole platform is rock solid, and one of the better-performing bikes I've tested all year.

Value

Considering the crowded space, the Megamo Pulse 04 SLR makes a serious case for itself as a genuine race bike. As far as looks go, its unique paintwork and contrasting branding and iconography make for a bold and attractive bike - as does the modern design and silhouette. It’s well specced and will appeal to the ardent racer wanting a reliable performer able to keep up, compete, and hold its own against the established marques.

The Megamo Pulse 04 SLR will set you back £6,199/ $6,500/ €5,999 - which is still a significant outlay, but considering rivals such as the Cannondale SuperSix Evo 1 Hi-Mod, Scott Addict RC Team and Specialized Tarmac SL8 Pro are £700-1,000 more, it’s a bike worth considering – even if it’s still a leftfield option. While it lacks the brand cachet of the more mainstream brands, it delivers an equally engaging riding experience, and maybe even better in some instances.

With an all-new Pulse platform already upon us, you can expect some discounts on the outgoing Pulse pictured here, making it an even more attractive race bike option. Megamo will continue to sell the new Pulse and outgoing Pulse alongside each other.

Tech spec

• Price: £6,199/ $6,500/ €5,999
• Brand: Megamo
• Frame: Carbon Advanced Composite Super Light Race Frame
• Fork: Carbon Advanced Composite fork
• Weight: 7.40kg (actual, Large)
• Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL
• Levers: SRAM Force AXS
• Brakes: SRAM Force AXS
• Rear derailleur: SRAM Force AXS
• Front derailleur: SRAM Force AXS
• Crankset: SRAM Force AXS, 48/35T
• Cassette: SRAM Force AXS, 10-33T
• Wheels: Zipp 303 S
• Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Race TLR Classic, 30mm
• Bar/stem: Megamo Carbon integrated, 110x410mm
• Seatpost: Aerodynamic Advanced Carbon
• Saddle: Fizik Vento Antares R5

Factor has revealed two custom Factor One aero race bikes for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift decked out in SpongeBob SquarePants graphics.

Human Powered Health will ride the yellow-and-blue One XXRAY Plus SpongeBob SquarePants Edition, featuring the hit show's eponymous sea sponge on the radical aero bike's deep fork leg. Ma Petite Entreprise will race the One XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition in pink and purple. A graphic of SpongeBob's friend Patrick, a starfish, runs down the fork.

Nods to the cartoon's setting in the submarine city of Bikini Bottom, such as starfish symbols, cover the vibrant colourways of both bikes. Factor wanted to liven up the looks of its bikes ahead of the fifth Tour de France Femmes, which starts on 1 August in Lausanne, Switzerland.

David Millar, Factor's chief brand officer, said: "The reason for doing it was to create an unexpected meeting of two worlds. The One is Factor’s most advanced aero race platform, developed for performance at the highest level, while SpongeBob, Patrick and the XXRAY concept bring optimism, personality and playfulness.

"Putting them together shows that a cutting-edge race bike can be technically serious without being visually predictable, and that elite cycling still has room for creativity, culture and fun."

The graphics are the artwork of Jason Freeny, who designs the XXRAY pop culture collection. The former professional cyclist said the One's large surface area helped Factor's global creative director Jay Gundzik translate Freeny's artwork onto the bikes.

"The One's broad, sculpted aerodynamic surfaces gave him an unusually large canvas, allowing the characters to appear at a scale and with an impact that would not be possible on a more conventional frame," added Millar. "Rather than simply adding small graphics, Jay was able to make the artwork part of the bike’s overall visual presence."

Human Powered Health, a WorldTour team based in the United States, and Ma Petite Entreprise, a French ProTeam outfit, are both sponsored by SRAM, so will ride the brand's Red AXS groupset and Black Inc 62 wheels from Factor's in-house component brand.

As unlikely as the partnership may seem, it's not the first time we've seen SpongeBob in cycling. Fashion brand Supreme released a SpongeBob range of jerseys and bib shorts with Castelli in 2025.

Factor has a history of collaborations, too. It launched an exclusive version of its aero bike called the Bugatti Factor One, which features an even deeper, vented fork harnessing Bugatti's motorsport know-how. At this year's Paris-Roubaix, some riders from Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, an American UCI Pro Team, and Human Powered Health raced a Factor Monza with graphics designed by Belgian artist Vexx.

Factor says it will sell a limited run of both SpongeBob SquarePants bike designs online and through official dealers.

Shimano has officially unveiled its new Dura-Ace wheel lineup that the WorldTour teams it sponsors have been racing as prototypes – something we spotted at Opening Weekend already. Mathieu van der Poel and his Alpecin-Premier Tech teammates have ridden the wheels in competition and training over the past year, including at the Tour de France, as part of Shimano's development process.

The new WH-RH9370 series is lighter by up to 220g per wheelset thanks to carbon spokes and produces as much as 2.7 watts less aerodynamic resistance than before, according to the Japanese brand.

Shimano has also broadened the hooked internal rim from 21mm to 23mm to better support the wider 28-30c tubeless tyres its pro teams ride.

Shimano's best road bike wheels continue to use the company's adjustable and repairable cup-and-cone hubs, to which it has added replaceable bearing cups.

The Dura-Ace road wheel range includes three rim depths: 36mm, 50mm and 60mm. All cost £2,299.98/ $2,970 per wheelset. The time-trial range consists of a 99mm-deep front wheel (£1,199.99/ $1,595) and rear disc wheel (£2,299.99/ $3,030). Shimano says they will be available to consumers from September.

Weight savings

Shimano says a reduction in weight compared to the outgoing R9270 series improves climbing and acceleration with no detriment to stability or longevity. Most of the savings will have come from the move from steel to carbon spokes, which are a couple of grams lighter per spoke as well as being much stiffer and stronger.

Shimano has also credited improved rim layups and overall engineering efficiencies. It claims to have saved 180g from the C36 climbing wheelset, 159g from the mid-depth C50 and 220g from the deeper section C60. These reductions close the gap between Shimano's wheels and high-performance options from the likes of Scope, Cadex and Roval.

Optimised for wider tyres

The new 23mm-wide internal rim is said to put wider tyres into a more stable and aerodynamic shape, while the external rim width manages speed and stability in crosswinds. Shimano says it adjusts the profile of the front and rear rims to their depth.

However, the purported improvements in aerodynamic efficiency are modest. At 48km/h (30mph) on 30c tyres, Shimano says the new wheels can save up to 2.7 watts.

It adds that it developed the wheels with computational fluid dynamics and certified their performance at wind angles riders are likely to face on the road.

Tailored carbon spokes

Shimano has designed two kinds of carbon spokes, both with hidden nipples to lower drag, to deliver its objectives for each wheelset.

• Super Aero: 5.2mm x 0.8mm
• Aero: 4mm x 1.1mm

Like any other wheel builder, it tailors the spoke type, count and configuration to the wheel's intended use.

For example, the C36 has 18 front and 21 rear Aero spokes to favour low weight and reactivity while the C60 has 21 front and 24 rear Aero spokes to prioritise lateral stiffness in sprints. The C99 front TT rim drops down to 16 Super Aero spokes to minimise drag.

Updated cup-and-cone bearing system

Shimano's removal of cup-and-cone bearings from its latest XTR mountain bike wheels disappointed fans of fully serviceable hubs. Unlike the now-more common cartridge bearings – which have to be binned when enclosed ball bearings, races and seals wear out – a mechanic can disassemble, clean and regrease cup-and-cone bearings and replace individual parts.

Shimano has maintained cup-and-cone bearings in the RH9370 series, it reckons the long-term serviceability, adjustable torque and smoother rotation are better than before.

It says its comparative testing found lower friction in cup-and-cone hubs than cartridge alternatives. To two wheels, it applied 500N of vertical force, simulating the rider and bike weight, 200N of pedaling force, and 500N of clamping force from the thru-axle. The new cup-and-cone bearings displayed 30% less rotational torque than standard cartridge bearings, according to Shimano. But it didn't explain how this translates into performance on the road.

In addition, Shimano has introduced replaceable bearing cups. The outgoing wheelset suffered from water ingress at the front bearings, which caused them to corrode and the internal surfaces to pit, requiring a whole new hub shell or wheel. It also claims to have improved the hubs' waterproofing.

What about the rest of Dura-Ace?

Shimano hasn't announced more details on the prototype SPD-SL pedals that caused Alpecin-Premier Tech strife at Paris-Roubaix. After puncturing in the Carrefour de L'Arbre, Mathieu van der Poel was unable to clip into the pedals of his teammate Jasper Philipsen's bike, fitted with the prototypes. This seemed to indicate that the new pedals use different cleats to the existing Dura-Ace R9100 platform Van der Poel was riding. Nor is there any word on the anticipated update to the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset.

Tune is expanding the Nano platform with six new road wheelsets: Nano Road 35, 45, and 60, plus the Nano CS Road 35, 45, and 60.

The new Nano CS Road wheelsets feature Tune's newly patented carbon-spoke hub technology, enabling carbon-spoke wheel builds with a much wider range of rim designs than previously, while also claiming weight reduction and increased robustness.

Building on the Tune Yokto wheels, this new dual lineup extends the brand's road-market offering and underlines its push to compete at the sharp end of the best road bike wheels.

The new dual lineup features carbon rims in 35mm, 45mm and 60mm depths, with either 24 stainless steel Sapim spokes on the Nano Road or 20 high-modulus carbon-fibre spokes on the Nano CS Road.

While the hookless debate continues, albeit in a more subdued form, Tune has firmly planted its flag in the camp of tradition, with a hooked bead across the entire Nano range. By retaining the hooked profile, Tune says the wheels can be used with both standard tubeless systems and traditional clincher tyres with inner tubes. It also accommodates higher inflation pressures, removing compatibility restrictions around tyre brands and construction styles.

The internal rim bed is wide enough to support modern, high-volume road tyres, helping optimise the tyre footprint for lower rolling resistance and improved cornering grip.

While versatility appears central to the Nano range's design, the Nano CS models are a claimed engineering first, with the spoke system at its heart.

Traditional steel spokes are relatively compliant; they tolerate slight deformation during wheel building. Carbon spokes, by contrast, are far less forgiving. Despite their low weight and high stiffness, forcing them to sit at an offset angle introduces stresses that can lead to fracture.

This creates a wheel-building challenge: keeping carbon spokes perfectly aligned typically requires a custom hub design for each rim depth and profile, a prohibitively expensive solution. Tune says the Nano CS addresses this with a patented ball-milled socket. Instead of forcing the carbon spoke into a fixed slot, Tune says that the spoke head can swivel to align naturally with the rim, reducing stress and the risk of spoke failure.

Balancing aero and stiffness is a fine act, and Tune says it concluded that with the deeper 45mm and 60mm rims, the balance is struck with a symmetrical rim; but when it comes to the Tune Nano CS 35, it transpired that stiffness gains from asymmetric front and rear rims were more important than the aero gains.

That same focus on efficiency carries through to the rear hub, where power transfer is handled by Tune's proprietary Poetry freehub mechanism. In its standard configuration, the system offers 69 points of engagement, up from 40 on the Tune Yokto 4550 wheelset.

For riders still demanding quicker engagement, the internal pawl system can be upgraded to double the engagement points to 138, and the hubs upgraded from the standard Enduro premium steel bearings to Enduro XD-15 ceramic bearings.

But all that titivating will cost you. The current starting prices for the Nano Road wheelset are £1,960/ $2,610/ €2,290, and the Nano Road CS wheelset is £2,390/ $3,200/ €2,790.

Pop in ceramic bearings and the wheelsets jump an additional £540/ $720/ €630. It's a perspective-giving price tag that makes you question whether you need ceramic bearings in your wheels altogether.

While the Nano Road and Nano Road CS share the same UCI-certified rim, albeit with different spoke counts, both come with a 24mm internal width and 32mm external width, tailored for 28mm to 45mm tyres.

The Nano Road tips the scales at 1,280g for 35mm-deep rims, 1,340g for 45mm-deep rims, and 1,440g for 60mm-deep rims.

Opting for the carbon-spoked Nano CS variant, however, sees a significant reduction in mass, shaving off approximately 100g to reach a featherweight 1,180g for the 35mm depth, 1,250g for the 45mm, and 1,350g for the deep-section 60mm wheels (all weights cited within a 3% tolerance and are claimed).

Obviously, any swap-outs will change these numbers, but so marginally so that you probably wouldn't even nudge the kitchen scales.

Tadej Pogačar secured his record-equalling fifth Tour de France title on a custom yellow Colnago Y1Rs after battling Mathieu van der Poel for victory in the final stage in Paris. The Dutchman narrowly held off a stampeding group to win his second stage in a pulsating finale on the Champs-Élysées.

The Slovenian rode a raw carbon version of the Italian brand's aero bike to save weight in the previous 20 stages. But he switched paint to commemorate his third consecutive yellow jersey, which drew him level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on five Tour de France wins.

Six of Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates also received yellow bikes, including Brandon McNulty, who abandoned the race. Isaac del Toro rode a white Y1Rs to match the colour of the Young Rider's jersey he won on his way to third overall.

Colnago painted the frames at its facility in Pisa and added a collection of details specific to the 113th edition of the race to make the frames truly one of a kind.

The elevation profile of the route from Barcelona to Paris runs along the seat stays and the names of every team member are written on the top tube.

Each rider's bike has his national flag on the seat tube and the years of Pogačar's Tour de France victories on the head tube are displayed when the handlebars turn.

Pogačar's frame also carries rainbow flags in honour of his road race world title on the top tube, head tube and seat tube where Y1Rs is spelt out in Morse Code.

Colnago says each frame is one of a kind and they are not for sale. It will not make replicas either.

In terms of the components, the full bike is built to the original specification level of the bike Pogačar and his team raced to Paris. As such, the Colnago Y1Rs is built around a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset with Carbon-Ti taking care of the chainrings and derailleur hanger. As the final stages took in just 88.7km/1,000m of climbing over a shortened course, the Slovenian kept his gearing configuration unchanged at 55/40T, 11-34T with 165mm cranks.

To ensure uniformity across the board, the team paired his Enve SES 4.5 Pro wheels with yellow decals, and switched out all the red anodised Carbon-Ti hardware for the golden equivalent. His golden Bikone ceramic bottom bracket remained unchanged owing to its already complementing colour scheme.

Other details included a yellow Wahoo Elment Bolt with matching Elite Leggero Carbon cages and bidons. Pogačar also matched his shoes with yellow laces and wore a yellow Whoop strap.

Although we've explained why Tour de France riders' setups have become more relaxed lately, there are always exceptions. Kasper Asgreen has an extremely aggressive position on his Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo, with a huge saddle-to-bar drop paired with a long and narrow cockpit.

It's clearly something that works for the 2021 Tour of Flanders champion and stage winner at the 2023 Tour de France. As we know from speaking to Cannondale and the Dane's team, EF Education–EasyPost, Asgreen is one of the peloton's most tech-focused riders and fastidiously optimises his bike.

Being a breakaway specialist who usually wins solo or from a small group, Asgreen's position makes sense. When he gets away, he needs to be in the most aerodynamic position possible. It's not one many pros attempt to hold these days, but Asgreen has shown he can on many occasions. He's also used a few nifty tricks to help him win in these scenarios.

Let's run through the details of his Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo that we photographed at the Grand Depart and featured in our Tour de France tech gallery from Barcelona. We'll pick out a few differences from the Specialized S-Works Tarmac he rode while at Soudal–Quickstep.

Despite standing at 1.92m tall, Asgreen rides a 56cm SuperSix Evo, which is one or two sizes smaller than an amateur of the same height might ride. That explains the massive drop between the saddle, which has previously been measured at 82cm above the middle of the bottom bracket, and handlebars. He does this because the low position he wants would not be possible on the frame size up. The stack of the 58cm SuperSix is about 25mm taller than the 56cm.

Cannondale dropped the stack of the fifth-generation SuperSix by one centimetre across the range, bringing it into line with the Tarmac SL8 Asgreen raced at his previous team. Nonetheless, since joining EF Education-EasyPost, Asgreen told me he has gone slightly up and out, maintaining overall reach while flattening his torso angle. This makes that still-aggressive position easier to hold. He appears to have done this by adding a couple of spacers, using upturned hoods and benefitting from the extra reach these long SRAM Red AXS shifters bring.

At the SuperSix launch last year, Cannondale said all EF racers were narrowing their cockpits and Asgreen has followed suit, dropping down from 38cm to 36cm for this year. His SystemBar Road integrated cockpit has a 130mm effective stem length and 4cm flare. This gives more control in the drops and abides by the UCI's handlebar dimension rules requiring a 40cm outside-to-outside width.

SRAM's wireless sprint Blips are tucked into the handlebar tape on the drops. Although Asgreen isn't a sprinter, these would come in handy during a reduced group sprint, enabling him to change gear at full tilt.

Some SRAM-sponsored teams have taken advantage of the American brand's provision for 1x road drivetrains at this year's Tour. EF Education-EasyPost, however, has stuck with traditional double chainrings. Asgreen is pushing a 54/41T combo.

As pro chainrings have increased in size, so have cassettes. A choice of 10-33T or 10-36T SRAM Red AXS cassettes is the new normal for SRAM teams on rolling and hilly terrain. Not so long ago an 11-28T cassette was considered a climbing gear.

The green around the pedal thread of these SRAM Red AXS cranks denotes they measure 172.5mm. That might seem long these days, but Asgreen is very tall and would have doubtless ridden 175s previously.

A benefit of the SuperSix's low frameset weight is that riders can run deeper rims without much of an overall weight penalty. These look like 60mm-deep Vision Metron RS rims fitted with 700x30c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres. Note that these are the non-time trial version that offers better puncture protection.

A sleeve of black fabric on the fork leg isn't the tidiest nor potentially most aero way to carry an obligatory race transponder, but it does the job here.

This quick link matches EF's pink-themed kit in a reminder than professional cycling isn't all about going fast.

Asgreen's perch of choice is the Argo Adaptive, a 3D-printed saddle from saddle-sponsor Fizik. This appears to the narrower 140mm version which is 265mm long. This level of bike has titanium hardware in the clamp to save a few grams.

Lab71 is Cannondale's highest-tier carbon, equivalent to Specialized's S-Works Fact 12r carbon. This build will set you back £11,000/ $13,499.

Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo specs

Frameset: Cannondale Lab71 SuperSix Evo, Ultralight Series 0 Carbon
Fork: Lab71 SuperSix EVO, Ultralight Series 0 Carbon
Cockpit: Cannondale SystemBar Road, 130mm/360mm
Seatpost: Cannondale C1 Aero 40 Carbon V2
Groupset: SRAM Red AXS 54/41T, 10-33T
Wheelset: Vision Metron 60 RS
Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Pro 30mm
Saddle: Fizik Argo Adaptive

The need to go faster has turned gravel racing into an arms race, with everything from helmets and clothing to frames and components undergoing extensive R&D and wind-tunnel testing to improve overall speed. One of the easiest and cost-effective ways to unlock performance is upgrading to a set of the best gravel bike wheels, and this applies to all disciplines - even gravel riding.

While several companies, such as Zipp and Parcours, have been early adopters of the aero gravel wheel concept with their respective 303 XPLR SW and FKT, West Sussex-based Strada Wheels has also jumped on the aero gravel bandwagon and developed a go-faster gravel wheelset - the Strada Gravel Aero Plus 2.

The Strada Gravel Aero Plus 2 has been designed to provide a reliable gravel wheel at an affordable price, with myriad build options and weights available. I say ‘developed’ because these are not generic, open-mould wheels but rather designed and built in-house by Strada, to improve speed, control and comfort on technically demanding, rough terrain.

We’ve been using the Gravel Aero Plus 2 wheels in all manner of terrain and weather, including traditional gravel and mountain bike trails, and the results have been mighty impressive.

Technical details

The Strada Gravel Aero Plus 2 wheels are constructed from unidirectional carbon fibre and built to modern standards, featuring a mixed front/rear rim height of 40/45mm and matched to a 30mm internal rim width, positioning it squarely between the Parcours FKT (27mm) and Zipp 303 XPLR SW (32mm) wheelsets. Owing to the nature of gravel terrain and the reality of bottoming out tyres at lower pressures, the wheels have been constructed with hookless uprights and a 3.5mm impact zone. Like the Parcours Alta and FKT gravel wheels, the flatter rim edge has been raised and reinforced to reduce stress concentrations around the rim, improving impact protection and compliance.

The front and rear wheels utilise tailored rim profiles and layups, as the air path, rim impacts, and applied forces differ greatly between the front and rear. As a result, while both wheels employ the same internal width and 36.5mm external width, the front rim is constructed from T700 fibres, while the rear rim is made from T800-grade carbon. The big party trick here, however, comes from resin used in the layup to bind the fibres, something Strada calls advanced viscoelastic resin matrix, which is claimed to “absorb vibration, increase durability, and enhance overall ride feel”.

In terms of tyres, the Gravel Aero Plus 2 was optimised around 40-45mm tyres, but is compatible with widths spanning everything from 35mm to a gargantuan 62mm (2.4-inches), so it will play nicely with a slew of recently launched wide-tyre gravel bikes such as the BMC Kaius, Factor Sarana and Open Wi.De 2.0.

Both wheels are laced using 24 aero-bladed Alpina spokes: Ultralite at the front and Extralite at the rear. The wheels can be built to your personal specifications and needs, with hub options from Hope, DT Swiss, ExtraLite, and Tactic. Our test pair came with DT Swiss 240 EXP hubs featuring a 36T ratchet that provides a 10-degree engagement angle.

Visually, the wheels are stealthy yet striking and should complement most gravel bike colour schemes and design themes. Our test pair came with black-on-black decals, but if you require a bolder visual impact, a white decal kit is included in the box.

While system weight was not the chief focus of this wheelset, the Strada Gravel Aero Plus 2 tipped our scales at 1,465g (680g/785g front/rear with rim tape and valves fitted) for the pair - a little heavier than the claimed 1,426g but still lighter than both the Parcours FKT (1,500g) and Zipp 303 XPLR SW (1,496g) wheels.

Performance

While the Strada Gravel Aero 2 has some stiff competition, they don’t feel inferior in any way. In fact, out in the real world, they feel as controlled and fast as rivals from Zipp and Parcours, maybe even better on lumpier terrain and in windy conditions.

At just under 62kg, I paired the Stradas with 45mm Vittoria Terreno T30 rubber, set at 25psi all round – a little lower than I usually ride but, considering my tyre inserts ( a non-negotiable for me since Gravel Burn), wide internal rim width and tall hookless beads, I felt confident with the setup throughout my testing period. The front-end control on my Cannondale SuperX Lab71 was sublime, allowing me to eke out maximum traction around fast, washed-out corners, and the ride quality was plush yet communicative.

While I can't say I actively felt the effects of the viscoelastic resin matrix, it didn't feel like I was wrestling with the bike or bouncing off the pedals when the terrain was choppy and corrugated, unlike with other wheels I’ve sampled. Of course, this reduction in upper-body fatigue can be attributed to the low tyre pressures, but there’s only so much pressure manipulation can do to nullify high-frequency vibrations, and I never felt that the wheels slowed me down during these situations.

I feel the 40/45mm rim depth is a sweet spot for gravel riding and racing. This height is deep enough to improve aerodynamics and shallow enough to stave off crosswinds. Throughout the test period, the wheels tracked accurately on high-speed descents and provided the confidence needed for off-road riding.

Climbing is a breeze, too. They’re not the lightest wheels around, but are far from the heaviest either, so you can wind them up pretty quickly and sail over rolling terrain. The rear hub engages quickly and helps keep progress swift and hesitation-free. It’s only on super-steep pitches where you’ll need to summon your skills to ensure weight is evenly distributed over both axles to avoid wheelspinning and coming to a halt.

I also tested the wheels on some mountain bike singletrack that comprises sections of my gravel test routes. These trails are notably technical, with small drops and very sandy corners, but the Stradas managed comfortably and, dare I say, even smoothed off some of the step-downs and bumps. Very impressive indeed.

Value

With such quality options among the best aero gravel wheelsets, it’s going to come down to preference and brand loyalty, but it’s hard not to recommend the Strada Gravel Aero 2 wheels. While the Strada Gravel Aero 2 wheels are £250 pricier than the Parcours FKT in base spec, they’re £100 cheaper than the Zipp 303 XPLR SW, trumping both when it comes to weight and spread of compatible tyre widths. (Pricing creeps up depending on hub choice).

As someone who considers themselves neutral and objective, I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and stability afforded by the Strada Gravel Aero 2 wheel platform - not only do they feel fast on all terrain, they are super-reliable and durable, and that’s what you want on technically demanding gravel events and even stage races. They comfortably dismissed washboard surfaces and ensured average speeds on flat gravel roads were high.

While it’s hard to quantify whether they’re better than their rivals, based on the ability to run super-wide tyres alone, I’m inclined to say the Strada Aero Gravel 2 wheels will stay relevant for the next couple of years. Well, at least until we know where the whole 32-inch wheel agenda is headed…

Tech specs

• Price: £1,499 / $2,020 / €1,750
• Weight: 1,465g (actual)
• Hubset: DT Swiss 240 EXP
• Freehub options: Shimano HG11/12, SRAM XDR, Campagnolo
• Rim depth: 40mm front, 45mm rear
• Rim width: 30mm internal, 36.5mm external
• Spoke count: 24 front/rear
• Rim: Hookless

As Tour de France cyclists switch between screens on their bike computers and pause them as soon as they cross the line, you may have wondered what they're looking at and recording.

To their detractors, the best bike computers make racing more predictable and diminish the breakaway's chances. But they are here to stay despite a recent ruling by cycling's governing body, the UCI. It announced a restriction on bike computer size, in case riders get distracted by the supposed plethora of data at their fingertips.

These fears seem to be overblown based on what we've found out about how professional cyclists use their head units in races.

Bigger isn't better for racing

Unlike some of the UCI's equipment rules, its ruling on bike computer size isn't set to inconvenience elite riders. Computers such as the Wahoo Elemnt Ace are nowhere to be seen, with most riders opting for smaller models for marginally lower weight and drag.

Wahoo told us the WorldTour teams it sponsors tend to use the smaller Elemnt Bolt instead of the larger Roam or Ace.

Garmin-sponsored teams also prefer its svelter head units in competition over the big Edge 1040 and 1050.

Lotto–Intermarché's Georg Zimmermann says: "I use the Edge MTB because it’s the lightest option."

Bike computers are a good way for pros to save weight because, being removable, they don't count towards the 6.8kg UCI weight limit. Weighing just 58g, Edge MTB is half as heavy as larger models, making it popular among Visma–Lease a bike riders too.

Some riders, like Netcompany-Ineos' Sam Watson, prefer more data and a larger screen in training than in races.

"In training I prefer the Edge 1050 because of its large screen," says the former British road race champion, who was not selected for this year's Tour. "Everything is easy to see, and I almost always ride with maps enabled, as I like seeing clearly where I’m going.

"For racing, I use Edge 850. Because it’s light and smaller, I like to think there’s a marginal advantage in it, and during races I’m generally not looking at my screen very often and focus on the race itself.

"I like to train with the Edge 1050 because the larger display is ideal for navigation and makes all my data easier to read. But in races I keep things simple. My maps screen also displays only distance and time.

"During training, I switch between several screens: one for structured efforts, one for general riding, and a map screen when I am following a route. When I have my map screen on, I also display power and time."

Mapping for safety

Instead of distracting riders, it seems bike computers have a role in safety.

"I always have the map on my screen," says current British road race champion Fred Wright, who races with the Garmin Edge 850. "For me, it’s important to know how long it is until the next corner, especially at the more crucial points in the race.

"Alongside the map, I display power and the elevation profile because I like knowing when the next flatter section of the climb is coming up.”

Wright's Pinarello Q36.5 teammate Tom Pidcock uses his Edge 850 in a similar way.

"I always use the same data screen: power, speed, lap time, lap distance, heart rate and cadence," says the Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion. "I also have a map showing lap time and the distance to my destination, so I know how far I still have to go.”

Zimmermann also displays maps on his Edge MTB and configures nutrition alerts.

"During races my main screen shows the map with the GPX course, current power output and a timer," he adds. "I use the map to know where we’re heading and the time to keep track of my nutrition, so I know when it’s time for me to eat, which is every 30 minutes, and the power data helps me pace myself.”

Data differences

Paul Seixas, the 19-year-old Frenchman who is fourth in the general classification, also has a map screen, but his is busier than most riders'. We caught a glimpse of it on his unreleased Van Rysel RCR-Pro.

During stage 14 from Mulhouse to Markstein Le Fellering, he displayed metres climbed, altitude, average heart rate and maximum speed. The elevation data makes sense on a mountain stage, but the other two readings seem less crucial.

The other data screen on his Bolt is also quite crammed. It displays current and average power, speed, BPM and cadence, as well as distance and time.

His nine data fields contrast to Mads Pedersen's seven. The Green Jersey wearer might have his averages on a different screen, but one we can see only shows current speed, power, BPM and RPM. The Dane must like keeping track of time, as he has clock and ride duration fields.

Alex Baudin has kept the polka dot trim around his Bolt from when he wore the climber's jersey earlier in the race. The Frenchman's data screen has a similar layout to Pedersen's, with additional average speed and altitude.

Only the essentials

Another common theme is that riders are also tracking a few data points during races, such as core body temperature and ventilation sensors, but generally don't look at these metrics while racing.

Cofidis rider Jenthe Biermans did have the Core heat sensor connected to his Wahoo on the rest-day recon of the individual time trial, which he crashed out of. But this appears to be on a 'training' data screen. His map screen is sparse, with only distance and distance to go at the top.

The breakaway star of the 2026 Tour France, Baptiste Veistroffer, also keeps things simple on his Edge 850, which he likes for the "balance of screen size and data visibility."

He adds: "The metrics I pay the most attention to are power and heart rate. The screen I use most often is the map page, with distance and power data displayed at the bottom.”

Garmin has acquired TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic to improve the quality of the coaching it offers to users of its bike computers and multisport watches.

Launched in 1999 to enable coaches to work remotely with athletes, TrainingPeaks is considered one of the best cycling apps and pioneered data-driven training analysis, and has become the most popular online platform for structured endurance training. While you can coach yourself on TrainingPeaks, Garmin seems more interested in letting you buy training plans from human coaches or pay extra for more tailored coaching. This appears to affirm the value of human expertise, pushing back against the spread of AI coaching.

Garmin, the US-based sports-wearable giant that turned over a record $7.25 billion in 2025, says it won't disclose how much it paid for the training planning apps, but, being a publicly traded company, the amount will be included in upcoming financial reports.

The purchase is the latest in a series of consolidations in the fitness app market. Activity-sharing app Strava has also moved into coaching by buying Runna and The Breakaway while Zwift bought Rouvy, another virtual-reality indoor cycling app, this year. Wahoo, Garmin's main rival, also has form in this area, having swallowed up The Sufferfest and RGT Cycling.

Details on how the acquisition will affect TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, which is more focused on weight lifting, are scant. Garmin says the digital platforms' 120 staff will become Garmin employees.

Will Training Peaks become part of Garmin Connect?

Garmin hasn't revealed whether it will integrate TrainingPeaks into its Connect companion app.

Through its Garmin Coach feature, it provides off-the-peg training plans and adaptive coaching.

Logistically, it would seem difficult to mesh these two apps together, in light of the sophistication of TrainingPeaks. So we'd expect them to remain separate, but we can't be sure.

Will you still be able to use TrainingPeaks without a Garmin?

Garmin hasn't said whether Training Peaks will continue to support connections with non-Garmin devices.

Currently users can sync planned and completed workouts between most watches and head units.

Again, it wouldn't benefit Training Peaks' popularity to close it off to users of Wahoo, Coros, Suunto and more, but we can only speculate at this stage.

What will happen to TrainingPeaks Virtual?

Questions also remain over the future of TrainingPeaks Virtual, Training Peaks' own indoor cycling app that it integrated into its platform after buying Indie Velo. This works with most indoor trainers, so it's unclear how this will live alongside Garmin's own Tacx Training app, which is only compatible with Tacx trainers.

A message to TrainingPeaks members from managing director Lee Gerakos suggests continued cross-compatibility.

"As a valued customer, we wanted to proactively assure you that TrainingPeaks will continue to operate as a cross-platform ecosystem, enabling athletes and coaches to use the devices, platforms and services that best suit their needs," he said.

"More authentic coaching experiences"

Brad Trenkle, Garmin co-chief operating officer, said: “TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic share Garmin’s passion for empowering athletes and coaches around the world with world-class training tools, performance metrics and actionable insights. The addition of these highly successful platforms to the Garmin ecosystem will expand access to more authentic coaching experiences—connecting athletes with professional coaches who guide, motivate and inspire them to reach their goals.”

Andy Stephens, CEO of Peaksware Holdings, parent company of TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, said: “We’re thrilled to join forces with Garmin to advance our shared mission of empowering coaches and athletes with science-based training. For over a decade, we’ve worked together to democratise coaching and performance insights, helping millions of athletes reach their peak through data-driven, structured training.”

When To Replace... is a feature series in which we explore when one should replace common cycling products like helmets, apparel and various moving parts on your bike. Curious about a particular product? Shoot us an email at anne.rook@futurrnet.com

Tyres have wear indicators, chains can be measured, and clipless pedal cleats show distinct signs of wear. But how about less obvious things like when to replace your helmet or the sealant in your tyres?

The best tubeless tyre sealant serves two main purposes: it ensures an air-tight seal between your tyres and your rims, and fills small punctures on the fly. While sealant can prevent a puncture from ruining your day, it needs a little more care than a traditional inner tube.

Depending on frequency of use, bike storage environment, riding conditions and weather for instance, you’ll need to perform a bit of maintenance on your tyres and wheels to keep them rolling.

The most obvious time you’ll need to replace sealant in a tubeless setup is if you suffer a puncture and the sealant in your tyres spills out while doing its job. Another indicator it's time to check your sealant levels is if your tyres start losing air more quickly between rides.

Cadex Cycling’s Jeff Schneider likened tubeless tyre sealant to chain lube, as both are consumable products, and not set-it-and-forget-it.

“A common misconception is that tubeless systems are set-and-forget,” said Schneider. “In reality, sealant is a consumable maintenance item, much like chain lubricant. Periodic inspection and replenishment are essential to maintaining puncture protection and optimal system performance.”

Why tubeless tyre sealant ages and how to gauge sealant loss

Silca’s Josh Poertner explained why sealant dries and ages, and characterises the minor difficulties with troubleshooting sealant viability.

“Tubeless sealant relies on solid latex liquified by a high pH solvent. Once in the tyre, some of the solvent evaporates into the tyre air allowing the entire system to maintain a good pH level for that sealant to remain liquid.

“This solvent gas slowly escapes the tyre with the air in the tyre. When you add more air more solvent has to leave the sealant itself to allow the new air to reach equilibrium and the cycle repeats.

“As it loses solvent to evaporation, [the sealant] will thicken to something more like honey before eventually becoming hard.

“You are aging your sealant far faster if you are adding air every two days than if you are having to add it every two weeks,” said Poertner.

There are several methods for checking tyre selant levels, as outlined by Poertner:

• Hold the wheel to your ear and shake it; the sealant in there should sound like water sloshing around.
• Use a dipstick (which requires complete tyre deflation and dragging sealant through the valve stem).
• Weigh the wheel/tyre system to see how much of the sealant liquids have been lost. Most sealants are on the order of 70-80% liquid solvent by weight, so if you add 50 grams of sealant to a tyre, your sealant will be completely dried out when you've lost 35-40g.

Poertner indicated he uses the first method. Whilst using enough sealant that you can hear it sloshing may represent a weight penalty, he's not overly concerned, believing the trade off to be worth it.

“I use the shake method every week or two and then add sealant every 60 days or so even if it still sounds good. Better safe than sorry! Another 15 to 20g of sealant doesn't bother me,” Poertner told us.

Schneider recommends checking sealant every two to four months, depending on the environment.

Factors affecting sealant lifespan

“Riders in hot, dry climates may find that sealant dries out more quickly, while cooler and more humid environments can extend service intervals,” Schneider advised.

Schneider, like Poertner, suggests using the shake method, among others, for determining if your sealant needs replenishment.

“Riders training or racing regularly, particularly those participating in long events where puncture protection is critical, checking sealant before major events is a good practice regardless of the service interval.”

Another sealant aging consideration Schneider cautions is the use of CO₂ cartridges.

“CO₂ gas can accelerate the coagulation and drying of some latex-based sealants, potentially reducing their effectiveness and shortening their service life.

“Riders using high-pressure road tubeless systems, where sealant volume is relatively small compared to gravel or mountain bike tyres, the effects of CO₂ on sealant condition can be more noticeable, making post-ride inspection particularly worthwhile.

“If a rider uses a CO₂ cartridge during a ride to repair and re-inflate a tubeless tyre, it is a good idea to inspect the sealant and, if necessary, refresh it once they return home. This is especially important if multiple CO₂ cartridges have been used or if the sealant was already several months old,” said Schneider.

We asked the cycling maintenance authority Park Tools for its advice about signs and indications for when to replace road tyre sealant.

“This is not a cut and dry answer and depends on climate, amount of riding, tyre choice, and type of sealant being used,” says Park’s Truman Purdy.

“My universal suggestion is that you should replace your sealant at the beginning of your riding season, check and refresh about half way through the season and (for best results) drain [and replace at] the end of the season,” Purdy added.

While this seems like a lot to do, in the larger scheme of cycling maintenance, the time spent proactively maintaining your tyre and wheel systems is well worth the investment to keep you rolling.

Purdy cautioned cyclists who use tubeless systems in hotter and drier regions to do a little more proactive maintenance.

“The goal is to be sure that you have enough liquid sealant in the tyre to prevent small leaks and to fill larger holes as they come up. A person who rides a lot in hotter and dryer climates should be checking sealant monthly,” Purdy said.

How to remove old sealant

Silca makes a sealant removing agent, useful for getting sealant off bikes, kit, floors, shoes, and other surfaces sealant may have leaked or sprayed onto while doing its job. But you don’t want to use sealant remover on the inside of your tyres when refreshing sealant. This would compromise the newly installed sealant.

The safest and most effective way to remove old, dried sealant from tyres is with a crepe rubber block (often sold as a sanding belt cleaner) or a heavy-duty natural rubber eraser. Some elbow grease is also useful—use your thumbs to push and roll out clumped sealant.

If the sealant is tricky, you can submerge your tyres and rims in hot—but not boiling—water to soften it up a bit before going to work on it. While some mechanics suggest using a small, plastic scraper, we think the risk of destroying tyres or marring wheels is great enough to avoid using tools.

Stay away from acetone or other cleaning agents which can compromise new sealant, the materials comprising your tyres, and even your rims.

Canyon launched the new Endurace CFR with one goal in mind: to help Mathieu van der Poel win Paris-Roubaix. And while that didn’t quite work out, with van der Poel opting to use his Aeroad CFR instead, the Endurace CFR platform is still a mighty impressive bike. After all, van der Poel did win the E3 Saxo Classic on the new Endurace CFR in its first outing, proving its prowess for taming cobbles and tough terrain. For riders seeking a more relaxed geometry, the regular Endurace CF and CF SLX are more in line with the endurance-bike recipe and even boast greater tyre clearances than the CFR, as well as provision for mudguards and on-bike storage.

I’ve spent a lot of time on the Endurace CFR – both at the global press camp in the Flemish Ardennes and back home on the rough surfaces of the UK. With upwards of a thousand kilometres in the saddle to date, the Endurace CFR has failed to disappoint me. If anything, the wider tyre clearances (compared to options from the best aero race bikes), combined with the racy fit and aero-inspired frame, make for one of the most entertaining and rapid machines for broken roads.

It’s not perfect, however, and some niggles pertaining to the handlebar configuration and specification choices sully an otherwise impressive package.

Technical details

The similarities between the new Canyon Endurace CFR and Aeroad CFR are glaringly obvious, but by no means a mistake – Canyon’s modus operandi was to create a bike able to compete at the sharp end in the Spring Classics without impacting the fit and rider position of the Aeroad CFR. The most notable changes are the seatpost and seat tube cutouts, which have been tweaked to accommodate wider tyres – 35mm versus the 32mm maximum clearance on the Aeroad. The fork and headset hardware, however, are identical to the Aeroad, as is much of the geometry. Keeping things largely in line with the German brand’s aero bike means the new Endurace CFR is the fastest endurance bike it’s ever made, testing within 1 watt of the Aeroad at 45km/h in the Tour Magazine wind tunnel test protocol: 204 vs 205w.

The Endurace CFR is constructed from Toray T1100, T800, and YS80 pitch-based fibres to balance strength and stiffness. This layup makes the frame naturally very stiff yet compliant enough to ensure comfort over choppy terrain. The Endurace CFR also gets a new SP0093 VCLS Aero seatpost, claimed to improve ride quality - an industry-first aero-comfort post that offers 25 per cent more compliance over a rigid post.

Owing to the Aeroad CFR-inspired geometry and blueprint, the big news pertains to the tyre clearance. Canyon reckons 32mm is no longer the upper limit but rather the baseline for Spring Classic race bikes, with the new Endurace CFR now able to clear 35mm front and rear. According to Canyon, tyre widths can be pushed even further to 40mm in dry race conditions, but this is not recommended outside the WorldTour due to potential frame damage and warranty voiding.

The new Endurace CFR is available in three colour options (Pro Black, Paradigm Shift, and Dark Matter) and six sizes: 2XS, XS, S, M, L and XL. Sizing is a little larger than other brands', so I suggest checking Canyon’s sizing chart to ensure the best fit. In retrospect, I should have sized down to a small, but based on my body measurements (I can ride both 54 or 56cm), Canyon reckoned I’d get away with riding a medium. The fit is not typical of the classic endurance bikes, as the Sport Pro Geometry allows Canyon-sponsored riders to seamlessly switch between Endurace CFR and Aeroad CFR race setups.

While the geometry is not identical to the Aeroad CFR, it is very similar with a marginally longer wheelbase and chainstays for improved stability. In size medium, the parallel head and seat tube angles of 73.25 and 73.1 degrees are spot-on for this racing application and complement the aggressive stack (563mm) and reach (393mm).

Specifications

The Endurace CFR can be specced in one of two configurations: SRAM Red AXS or Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, it all comes down to your preferences. The bike pictured here came outfitted in the latter, complete with 50/37T, 10-33T gearing configuration, which I felt was an ideal spread for the terrain that comprises the Surrey Hills.

As has become de rigueur in the pro peloton, there are a host of crank options available depending on the frame size. My size medium test bike came standard with 165mm crankarms, down from 172.5mm. Your optimal crank length, however, can also be specified from 165 to 175mm in the MyCanyon programme.

System weight wasn’t a driving motivator when designing the new Endurace, but the engineers still made sure it came in as light as possible. Considering that many of the regular aero race bikes are between 7.4-7.6kg (especially in Spring Classics trim), Canyon has nailed the system weight. Our medium test bikes tipped the scales at 7.55kg without pedals – a number you can reduce by 120g by speccing the CP0053 Race bar.

The balance of the build comprises a Canyon SP0093 VCLS Aero seatpost, Selle Italia SLR saddle, 65mm DT Swiss Arc 1100 wheels wrapped in 35mm Pirelli Pzero RS tyres and a Canyon CP0048 Pace bar with classic drops.

Performance

The Endurace CFR doesn’t ride like a typical endurance bike, and I personally don't think it should be classed as one, if I’m honest. It’s more of an Aeroad CFR with more utility. The riding position is aggressive, and the geometry has been tuned to deliver a fit similar to the Aeroad CFR, a race-honed platform with no ties to the endurance concept. As a result, riders need to be aware of this and shop accordingly – the Endurace CF SLX and CF are the bona fide endurance platforms in the range.

When I tested the bike in Belgium, I was blown away by the way it handled cobblestones and poor roads. I was also impressed by its descending prowess and ability to accelerate quickly out of corners, but I was unsure how this would translate to my typical riding routes back in the UK. I didn't expect it to be as fast as some of the racier bikes I’ve been riding on home roads, but it blew me away - particularly the average speeds and overall riding manners of the platform. I do feel this stems from the lower pressures of the 35mm tyres, but also the lateral compliance of the seatpost – the combination of which has resulted in more tyre staying in contact with the road surface, absorbing imperfections and not skimming over the terrain.

I felt the front end was a bit too high for my liking, as the CP0048 Pace bar spacers essentially increased the effective stack height and shortened the reach a touch, resulting in not getting enough weight over the front axle during cornering. The handlebar system, however, is designed to offer 20mm of height adjustment without cutting the steerer or brake hoses, but I couldn’t get it sorted in time for this test.

Overall, the bike is super grippy in the corners, thanks to the 35mm tyres. I went pretty low on the tyres, with 40psi front/rear proving ideal for my weight. I was very impressed by the stock Pirelli PZero RS tyres – the compound is balanced, delivering good grip and rolling efficiency. The shorter cranks also mean you can scythe through corners with ease and confidence, and get on the pedals earlier, thanks to the greater crank clearance at aggressive lean angles. Gearing is impressive, and you won't feel hampered on descents thanks to the 50/37T, 10-33T drivetrain. There’s ample range for steep kickers and longer climbs, too.

The boxy frame profile, together with the 65mm DT Swiss Arc 1100 wheels, means the bike can be a handful in crosswinds or gusts, requiring the drops to be kept in check to improve control. It’s nothing to be alarmed by and can be totally solved by fitting a shallower front wheel.

Value

The Canyon Endurace CFR is an impressive bike. Melding the aerodynamics of the Aeroad CFR platform with wider tyres clearances and comfort has resulted in an outrageously capable machine that can dismiss poor road surfaces at unnoticeably fast speeds.

While it’s not quite what I’d consider a veritable endurance bike, I do undersratnd Canyon made this particular bike to solve an issue riders and teams had with the Aeroad CFR: tyre clearance. Should it be called the Endurace CFR? Maybe not, as it’s more of an Aeroad CFR Plus than a veritable Endurace – the Endurace CF SLX and CF prove this, but that doesn’t take away from a really impressive bike.

I suspect it will appeal more to the Aeroad CFR owner who wants greater tyre clearance and comfort while keeping the same racy fit, but this, coupled with the £8,500 / $10,499 / €9,000 sticker price, puts it out of the picture for a large portion of the cycling demographic. There are other options within the range, including the Endurace CF SLX and CF platform, which offer more relaxed upright fits, greater utility, more affordable pricing and even larger tyre clearances.

Tech spec

• Price: £8,500 / $10,499 / €9,000
• Brand: Canyon
• Frame: Canyon Endurace CFR-Pro
• Fork: Canyon FK0137 CF Disc
• Weight: 7.55kg (actual, medium)
• Sizes: 2XS, XS, S, M, L, XL
• Levers: SRAM Red AXS
• Brakes: SRAM Red AXS, 160/140mm front/rear
• Rear derailleur: SRAM Red AXS
• Front derailleur: SRAM Red AXS
• Crankset: SRAM Red AXS 50/37T
• Bottom bracket: SRAM Dub Press-fit
• Cassette: SRAM Red AXS 10-33T
• Chain: SRAM RedE1 Flattop, 12-speed
• Wheels: DT Swiss Arc 1100 65mm
• Tyres: Schwalbe One TLR 28mm
• Bar/stem: Canyon CP0048 Pace T-Bar
• Seatpost: Canyon SP0093 VCLS Aero
• Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Carbon

Warming up for Tour de France stages has gone from being a marginal gain to a default protocol for time trials and hard-start road stages.

In the extremely high temperatures at this year's race, achieving the goals of a warm-up without overheating and compromising performance is a physiological and logistical challenge.

We asked EF Education–EasyPost's performance coach and technical innovation strategist Jacob Tipper and Wahoo's cycling category director Tyler Harris how the WorldTour outfit overcomes this using sports science, the latest technology and old-fashioned tricks.

The science behind warming up

In a blistering heat wave, 'warming up' sounds counterproductive, so why do Tour de France riders do this?

Sports scientist Tipper says, "A warm-up has to tick a few boxes. The one a lot of people forget is mental preparation. Psychologically, you still need to get yourself ready for exercise.

"You also want to increase core body temperature to an extent and increase vasodilation, the widening of blood vessels. As you breathe harder and levels of carbon dioxide rise in the muscles and blood, vessels dilate and you get extra blood flow.

“And then you want warmer muscles, which good studies show are better for muscle contraction than colder muscles, and neuromuscular activation. That's the ability of the muscles to contract properly. Riders will sometimes work with bands to activate their glutes, and some guys do a few rev-outs on the turbo.

"Finally, you want to activate your VO2 [oxygen uptake] kinetics, which is essentially how well you are switched on aerobically and how efficiently you can use energy. Like when you restart a ride with 'cafe legs', your threshold will be lower than usual if your aerobic engine isn't switched on."

What riders are trying to avoid in warm ups

"All these things have a fine line," adds Tipper. "You don't want to tire yourself out, empty glycogen stores, or cause a lot of muscle damage.

"You don't want to burn the mental matches you need to save for when push comes to shove in the race.

"From a core temperature perspective, you don't want to get too warm [since this lowers VO2 max] because in the Tour de France it's been very hot and we don't have a really hard start."

This contrasts the approach of some track cyclists, who might need to go all-out from the gun, and wear ice vests and heated trousers to make their leg muscles much warmer than their core.

Ahead of a longer effort, Tipper says: "You may decide to compromise and start with lower core body temperature, so you don't feel as good off the line but stay cooler for longer."

"You are always trying to balance these things with the type and importance of the event. At the team time trial in Barcelona we had crazy hot temperatures, so keeping the core as cool as possible, relatively speaking, was important, but in the first few turns you had to ride at 500 watts, so you still had to be warm. That's the compromise between these two objectives."

How riders stay cool while warming up

As you've probably seen at stage starts and at the start of the team time trial in Barcelona at the Grand Depart, riders are wearing ice vests and chilled towels, eating slushies, and getting blasted by fans. Netcompany–Ineos even dunked their forearms in cold water while waiting to start in Barcelona.

Like other teams sponsored by Wahoo, EF Education–EasyPost warms up on Kickr V6 smart trainers in front of Kickr Headwind smart fans. Elite's Aria smart fan does the same job for teams supported by the Italian brand.

"The Kickr Headwind automatically adjusts airflow based on real-time sensor data," says Wahoo's Harris. "Users can pair up to five supported sensors including heart rate, power, and core body temperature, and Headwind dynamically increases or decreases cooling based on the athlete's effort.

"For example, it can respond to a combination of power output and rising body temperature rather than simply running at a fixed speed. The result is a more personalised cooling experience that helps riders stay comfortable during and after their hardest efforts."

However, Tipper says: "We are not looking at the Core sensor in the warm-up and trying to stay below a certain core body temperature because it does not react quickly and accurately enough.

"If someone goes badly in a race, we might look into whether core body temperature goes too high in the warm-up, as research afterward. That is where we are at the moment in terms of our learnings and developing our understanding."

"Using the Core sensor, you could create a warm-up that doesn't overcook you. If before the Zwift races when your core body temperature gets to 39°C in the warm-up, you prematurely blow up, there are almost definitely things you can take from that, but that's not what we are doing with it right now."

During warm-ups, riders will follow the nutritional plan laid out by the team, whether that involves caffeine, carbs or bicarb, for example, while avoiding getting depleted.

"The warm-up shouldn't do any nutritional harm and should keep you topped up on whatever you're losing – fluid, electrolytes, carbs, etc," says Tipper.

Cooling down on and off the bike

Racers will also cool down post-stage depending on the demands of the day.

"Not everyone has the fun opportunity to finish with a full-gas sprint on top of the Tourmalet," says Tipper. "Guys who have chilled in a group further back or in the grupetto have basically done a cool down on the road.

"I hate the phrase 'flushing the legs out' but the idea is to keep blood flowing post-stage."

It seems at this year's race that teams have upgraded their post-race cooling, with some switching from ice-filled paddling pools to dedicated trucks, the idea being that prolonged exposure to frigid temperatures reduces inflammation and thereby speeding recovery.

But the scientific jury is out as to whether ice baths (and inflammation-reducing antioxidants in the form of cherry juice, for example) are beneficial even at demanding stage races like the Tour.

"Decreasing inflammation could have a negative long-term effect and it's debated how harmful it can be during a race," says Tipper. "Inflammation is a main driver of repair and proper growth, so if you did these things after every session you'd be worse off.

"At the Tour it's a fine line between feeling that you could be improving and getting so beat up that it's better to have a bit less inflammation, so you can perform that bit better the next day rather than feeling crap."

After the succession of gruelling mountain days in the final week, an ice bath could benefit a lot of riders in the short-term at least, if they use them properly.

"Jumping in a cold paddling pool for a minute isn't doing a fat lot physiologically," says Tipper. "It's a nice relief, but unless you're spending enough time in there, it's offering no more than a cold shower."

At the Tour de France, bikes cannot weigh less than 6.8kg, a minimum limit set by the sport's governing body, the UCI, which applies in any race under its jurisdiction.

With some of the best teams in the world struggling to ensure they're not under the limit, you might expect every bike to achieve a weight as low as 6.8kg. But that'd be far from true, despite the amount of money and engineering expertise at teams' disposal and the supposed advantage that lower weight brings.

As the Tour de France meets the high mountains, only a select few riders' bikes will be at or near the minimum weight limit. As we'll explain below, this is due to bike and component sponsorship deals, specific rider roles, rider size, and greater emphasis on aerodynamics.

Aero is still everything

We expect to see most riders on all-out aero bikes or all-rounders that combine low weight and low drag, even on the most mountainous days. This is because they climb so fast, with the best exceeding 25km/h, that aerodynamics still trump weight – as they do on flat and rolling terrain.

This is more pertinent if a team can get its aero bike close to the weight limit. Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar have exclusively raced the Cervélo S5 and Colnago Y1Rs in recent years because their teams can get these aero bikes down to the 7kg-mark in their smaller frame sizes. They seem to have calculated that this option is faster overall than riding a 6.8kg climbing bike.

Aero bikes may also be better for riders whose job it is to pull on the flat or set the pace early on climbs. They need to optimise for low drag, not low weight, because they'll drop back when the pace picks up on the ascent.

But a climber or GC favourite who shelters in the wheels at these points will benefit more from a lighter bike, especially smaller riders for whom the bike constitutes relatively more of their system weight (bike, equipment, clothing, body). For example, Paul Seixas is likely to continue to ride his Van Rysel prototype in the mountains while some of his teammates stay on the RCR-F aero bike.

One-race-bike platforms

Many Tour de France teams race the same bike on every road stage. In terms of weight, if they're lucky, this will be an all-rounder, such as the Jayco-AlUla's Giant Propel, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe and Soudal-Quickstep's Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9, or EF Education-EasyPost's Cannondale SuperSix Evo.

These major bike brands have succeeded in making either climbing bikes more aero or aero bikes lighter, making a 6.8kg build eminently possible. At the Grand Depart, we weighed Remco Evenepoel's 52cm S-Works Tarmac SL9 complete with pedals, bottles and cycling computer fitted at 7.05kg.

The trend for team leaders to get a special-edition blacked-out frame, saving 150-200g of weight in paint, makes this easier, as does the option to ditch a front derailleur and opt for a one-by drivetrain.

Frame size is influential too. Movistar's diminutive climbers will be able to get their Canyon Aeroads down to 6.8kg. This will be harder for Alpecin-Premier Tech's taller Classics-style riders.

The less fortunate teams will have one bike that may be fast but isn't that light. In previous years, Uno-X Mobility, for example, has climbed mountains on its Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, which weighs about 8kg. This year, the Norwegian team will probably ride the Belgian brand's unreleased Falcon RS climbing bike, although this might still be above the UCI weight limit. As attractive as it is, Groupama-FDJ United's Wilier Filante SLR ID2 is also likely to be a few hundred grams over the weight limit.

Teams also report that their riders generally prefer to race the same bike all year round. Such tuned-in cyclists like having consistent geometry, handling, contact points and components. They usually don't consider it worthwhile to forsake all this for a slightly lighter climbing bike a handful of times a year.

As aero bikes and all-rounders have become the go-to choices in the WorldTour, several bike brands have differentiated their climbing bikes through renewed focus on low weight – this includes the Canyon Ultimate, Giant TCR and Scott Addict RC Pro, each of which is light and competent enough to be used in the high mountains of the final week of the Tour de France.

This leaves the Scott-sponsored NSN Cycling Team with just the Foil RC for racing. Being quite an old aero bike, released in 2022, it's not the lightest of the pro peloton's do-it-all race bikes, weighing 7.28kg in size 54cm on our scales. We'd expect Scott to address the Foil's weight in the next generation, but for now, NSN is giving away about 500g to rivals whose bikes are at the weight limit.

Budgets and sponsorships

The amount of money, whether in cash or in kind from sponsorships, available to teams influences bike weight, too. The better-funded teams have the means to lower the weight of stock bikes that worse-off rivals don't.

Most wheel brands these days can hit 1,300g or lower in a 50mm-deep wheelset, so teams are on a pretty level playing field regarding rims. But squads whose bike or component sponsor makes a lighter, climbing handlebar can save weight by switching from the thicker, aero bar. EF Education-EasyPost, for example, can save about 110g by changing from Cannondale's SystemBar Road to the SystemBar Road SL, which has thinner, rounded tops.

The biggest budget teams can go aftermarket, too. Lidl-Trek, for example, has been using $1,200 hubs to save 70g as reported by sister site, Cyclingnews while Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG is sponsored by lightweight component company Carbon-Ti. Parts such as its X-CarboRing Evo chainrings cost €436, and its X-Hanger DM integrated derailleur hanger costs €42. While these parts won't cut massive weight from the complete system, they do add up and arguably improve performance, too.

The cost-to-benefit ratio of such modifications is marginal at best and well beyond the means of Cofidis or Caja Rural–Seguros RGA. It goes to show that the richest teams can not only afford the best riders but also equip them with the best equipment, giving them a further advantage.

The ‘Saturday job’ in a bike shop is no longer a viable route into the industry, according to a recent Cycling Weekly article, with a host of store owners citing the complexity of modern-day bikes as the cause of this dying career path.

“We haven’t been able to employ any Saturday staff for some time,” said Sid Soanes from Soanes Cycles, adding “bikes are just too technical these days for an untrained young person to do anything meaningful with.”

The comments really rang true for me. We had a work-experience kid in last week, and there was very little we could let him do. There are only so many cups of tea I think we’re allowed to get them to make.

The article cited the likes of electronic gears, hydraulic brakes and tubeless tyres as developments that require far more experience to work with than most part-time students have in their arsenal. All of this is at odds with what made most of us fall in love with bikes in the first place.

I have fond childhood memories of getting old wheels from the tip, taking them to pieces and rebuilding them for fun; we didn’t have Instagram back then to keep us entertained. Bikes used to be a simple piece of engineering, a delight to behold, ride, and work on yourself. Now, only a hardy few continue to tinker at home.

It is consumer demand that’s driving all this change. Riders want lighter bikes, and they want more aero bikes – all of this means greater integration and more complexity. Customers also want bikes to be cheaper. Manufacturers ultimately have to cut corners somewhere, and often the cost saving comes from engineering solutions that might have improved the maintenance experience. Decent workshop instructions for those who are going to work on these bikes also fall by the wayside.

Quite often, modern bikes feature complicated systems - we only find the correct procedure for servicing them when they break, and the warranty department at the brand talks us through how to repair them. I’m being vague on brands and models because this is an endemic problem. Bikes are becoming more like Formula 1 cars every day, but they’re still sent to Kwik Fit for servicing.

In the past, we’d joke about component T&Cs which stated that incorrect fitting could result in injury or death. The harsh fact is that this used to be funny, but it’s increasingly true.

There are now far more opportunities for dangerous mistakes to be made by untrained individuals; putting mineral oil into a DOT oil brake system, for example, would be very easy to do but could be catastrophic, causing total brake failure.

So, we’ve identified the problem - what’s the solution?

Firstly, find a good local mechanic and be loyal to them. There are only so many times you can ask your mechanic to fit parts you bought on the internet.

Secondly, take a long hard look in the mirror and decide if you actually need to be riding around on the two-wheeled version of a Formula 1 car.

In our workshop, we are seeing our long-term cyclists edging back to simpler, metal bikes with non-integrated cockpits. These bikes are more robust, easy and fun to ride, with the weight penalty of about three gulps of the water bottle.

And my advice for manufacturers? Slow down. Nobody is demanding a new aero carbon gravel bike every year. Make the design well thought out and test it properly, not just in the wind tunnel, but also in the workshop.

When Shimano launches a new product, it’s always accompanied by good solid training materials, ready to go when the new parts hit the market. And thank the Lord, as watching Shimano Tec courses online is one of the very few things we could get our work-experience kid to do, risk-free.

Vast improvements in tyre technology over the past decade have contributed to professional cycling's higher average speeds, as traditional tubulars have been sidelined by faster-rolling tubeless tyres.

With the sealant requiring maintenance and teams often choosing the raciest and most fragile versions available, this is a recipe for regular check-ups and replacement.

But how many tyres do teams use at the Tour de France? Are the stars lucky enough to ride a new set every stage? We asked Vittoria, Continental and UAE Emirates-XRG.

How Tour de France teams maintain tyres

“Tyres are cleaned and checked every evening after each stage and replaced approximately every three to five days depending on the road conditions," says Tommaso Cappella, project manager and team liaison at Vittoria. "With the new tyre, sealant is also applied fresh, to guarantee the best safety and performance."

The Italian brand supplies eight teams with tyres at the Tour de France. Each team has eight riders. If we exclude spare bikes from our calculations, that means one team is changing between 32 and 56 tyres during the race, and 256 to 448 Vittoria tyres swapped in total.

Cappella says 90 per cent of the tyres Vittoria sent to teams this year are 700x30c. If we assume each gets 40ml of sealant, team mechanics will pour in between 10 and 18 litres of the stuff by the time the race reaches Paris.

Continental supports six teams at the Tour, who can choose from the Aero 111, GP5000 S TR, and GP5000 TT TR. Despite nominally being a time-trial tyre, the latter is the most popular across all stages, as riders seek speed over puncture protection. This isn't a big concern on the race route, where riders often encounter freshly laid tarmac.

Elizabeth Walker, Global Athlete and Content Manager for Continental, said: "For the TT TR, teams are mostly racing the 28mm and 30mm versions, depending on the preference of the athletes. The Aero 111 is being used least frequently, and when it is, it's the 29mm version.”

In terms of maintenance, a UAE Emirates-XRG mechanic told us they check sealant every rest day, and top up as required. The team is exclusively using the GP5000 TT TR in 28mm or 30mm width, depending on rider preference. We even saw Tadej Pogačar going as narrow as 25mm on his Colnago TT2 at the team time trial in Barcelona.

UAE Emirates-XRG doesn't replace tyres at set intervals. Instead, mechanics fit brand-new tyres at the start of the race, then change them based on road conditions, temperature, and any damage. They estimate they swap a total of 30-40 tyres in the race. This broadly corresponds to Vittoria-sponsored teams' practices and would require 240 to 320 tyres and 10-13 litres of sealant for all the Continental teams. combined.

With that much work involving tyres to do alongside checking and changing other components, it's no wonder Tour de France mechanics work such long hours.

More riders are using single chainrings than ever before at the 2026 Tour de France, as the 1x (or one-by) trend spreads beyond time trials to road stages.

The 2023 Tour de France was the first at which major teams, including Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike, went 1x for flat and mountainous days. One-by configurations have been popular during the Spring Classics, and we saw this used liberally by teams at Opening Weekend given the relatively flat terrain on offer and higher average speeds.

One-by drivetrains involve replacing a traditional double chainring set-up with a single ring, usually with a narrow-wide profile and sometimes with a chain guide for chain retention, and removing the redundant front derailleur. A larger-than-usual cassette normally compensates for the loss of gear range, to help riders find the right gear.

It was no coincidence that both the teams adopting the tech are sponsored by SRAM. The American brand officially supports 1x on the road, unlike Shimano, where teams tend to use 2x exclusively. Even Mathieu van der Poel, riding for Shimano sponsored Alpecin–Premier Tech and usually running a double set-up at races dominated by 1x like Paris-Roubaix, has used a single chainring at this year's race. Campagnolo has introduced single road chainrings, but has just one team at the Tour de France - in wildcard squad Confidis - and no WorldTour squads.

In addition to Visma-Lease a Bike and Lidl-Trek's continued use of 1x, SRAM teams such as Uno-X Mobility and Pinarello Q36.5 have joined in for certain stages in 2026.

However, that's not to say double chainrings are on the way out. The extra range they provide makes 2x the best all-round option. And stage six's Tourmalet day, where Pogačar put minutes into Vingegaard while running larger chainrings, exposed the limitations of the Dane's 1x approach in the eyes of notable observers, such as the 2017 Giro d'Italia champion Tom Dumoulin.

We asked Xavier Disley, PhD, the director of AeroCoach, who advises some of the world's best cyclists on how to go faster, about the pros and cons of single chainrings on the road.

Why we're seeing more single chainrings

One of the key reasons why 1x is becoming more popular at the top of the sport is SRAM's increased presence, as we noted in our overview of which teams are riding what at the 2026 Tour de France.

The Illinois-based company introduced single-ring road drivetrains as far back as 2015, with Force 1 and Rival 1. Since then it has ensured that its road groupsets work as well with front derailleurs and double chainrings as without, by adding tension to its rear derailleurs for increased chain security.

It also has a line of pro-level SRAM Red AXS Aero chainrings, whereas Shimano does not yet make an equivalent. For even more range, riders can combine a large SRAM single-ring with a Red XPLR AXS rear mech and cassette from the brand's gravel line-up, as we've seen Mads Pedersen do at hilly one-day Belgian races. SRAM-sponsored teams also say that SRAM's technical support is very good at educating mechanics on how to use its intercompatible components.

Until Shimano releases single-ring road chainrings, teams that receive or buy groupsets from the Japanese brand will have to buy and bodge 1x set-ups if their contracts allow. Tim Wellens has been seen running a one-by Carbon-Ti single chainring at times this season, and Netcompnay-Ineos also used one-by Drag2Zero chainrings with Shimano XTR rear mechs at Paris-Roubaix - so rider interest is there.

Aero advantage

The lack of a front derailleur and inner chainring makes 1x a little more aerodynamic.

"It's a definite advantage," says Disley. "If you have two equally powerful riders, one on 1x and the other 2x, the first will win the sprint every time."

At speeds more attainable to amateur cyclists, the 1x benefit is only a watt or two, but this scales up to three to four watts at speeds of 60km/h and above that pro sprinters reach.

A larger chainring can help keep you in the middle of the cassette, which ups drivetrain efficiency by reducing chain articulation. But Disley says this is outweighed by lower drag.

"Aerodynamics becomes much more of a resistive force the faster you go," he says. "So drivetrain efficiency becomes less important.

"Whereas if you're going really slowly, aero drag isn't very much and so you should look at things like gravity, rolling resistance and drivetrain efficiency.

"When you're travelling at 60km/h an hour, the only thing you really should care about is your aero drag."

Lower weight

In the UK hill climbing scene, weight weenies run single chainrings to save weight. Tour de France pros could be motivated by the same rationale on climbing days. Going 1x on SRAM Red AXS drivetrain could shed about 200g – 157g from the front derailleur and battery, 78g from exchanging integrated double chainrings for an aero single ring, plus roughly 30g to add a chain catcher.

That's not a dramatic amount, but it's enough to get aero bikes, which the GC favourites tend to ride every day, closer to the 6.8kg UCI weight limit.

"It won't help that much," says Disley. "Taking a kilo off would make a decent difference, but again, not an awful lot and 200g is just a fifth of that."

The argument against 1x

Critics of 1x say the bigger jumps between gears disrupt your cadence. This is true if having only one front ring obliges you to fit a wider-range cassette, such as SRAM's 10-36T.

After Jonas Vingegaard used what appeared to be a 50T or 52T 1x chainring and a 10-36T cassette on stage six over the Tourmalet, Tom Dumoulin criticised his equipment choice. On the De Avondetappe show as reported by IDL Pro Cycling, the Dutchman said 1x would have left Vingegaard in a harder or easier gear than desirable on the climb.

At flat Classics races, we'll sometimes see riders reduce these gear jumps with a tighter cassette, but this seems less common at the Tour, perhaps because riders need to save their legs for days to come.

Sprinters on SRAM-sponsored teams like Decathlon CMA CGM's Olav Kooij have been optimising for sprints with a 56-tooth single ring and 10-36T cassette. On the other hand, a Shimano-equipped sprinter like Tim Merlier has been running a 56/44T double and an 11-34T cassette. That gives Merlier an easier bottom gear to get over a climb before the sprint.

"Climbing on a 56-tooth single an hour into the race might be a bit of a pain," says Disley. "But generally speaking, these riders are able to accommodate that quite happily.

"After getting over the hills, they have that aero advantage in the sprint, and having a 10-tooth sprocket gives you a bit of an advantage in terms of top-end speed over an 11-tooth."

Did gearing efficiency cost Vingegaard?

Dumoulin might be on to something here, due to the difference in steps on a SRAM 10-36T vs Shimano 11-34T cassette.

On this SRAM Red cassette, the four lowest sprockets have a one-tooth difference. You skip the 14T and have two-sprocket differences until you get to the 21-tooth cog. From there, you have a three-tooth difference to 24 and then fourth-tooth steps (24-28-32-36). By contrast, Shimano's 11-34T skips up three teeth between cogs 21 and 30, then a final fourth-tooth step to 34.

At higher climbing speeds of 30km/h, Vingegaard would be lower down the cassette, where the jumps are smaller. But on the Tourmalet, where his rival averaged 23km/h, he would have been experiencing fourth-tooth steps.

"On Shimano, when you're climbing in the inner ring, and you're on the 17/19/21, you've only got a two-tooth change in between gears," says Disley. "That's only going to cause a six or seven-revolution change in cadence.

"But if you're in a massive SRAM single chainring, a 50T or 52T, at the top of the cassette you've got a four-tooth change between gears. That's double what you have on Shimano and changes cadence by 11 or 12 RPM.

"At a crucial moment in the race, that could cause you to become incredibly overgeared and unable to pull away, or being so undergeared that you can't jump away because you can't spin fast enough."

We'll never know whether this applied to Vingegaard. The gap that opened might have been purely down to his legs, with watts per kilo being the decisive metric on climbs. But those larger jumps between gears at the top of the SRAM cassette might not have helped.

Vingegaard's single chainring wouldn't have limited him on the descent, though. With a 52-10T hardest gear versus Pogačar's 54-11T, he actually had a slightly harder gear and the potential for higher top-end speed, although his smaller chainring would have been marginally less efficient.

Visma-Lease a Bike defended its tech choices, pointing out that Vingegaard has ridden 1x multiple times, including to win this year's Giro d'Italia and beat Pogačar at the 2023 Tour. But since Vingegaard needs all the help he can get against the unstoppable Slovenian, it will be interesting to see whether his team reconsiders his gearing for the upcoming mountains.

Remco Evenepoel is riding what appear to be unreleased Specialized lace-up shoes at the Tour de France. Black Specialized branding on the toe and outside of the shoe, and a black heel cup differentiate them from the American brand's existing lace-up racing shoe, the Torch Lace. They could be an update, a lace version of the S-Works Ares 2, which has similar styling, or an entirely new model.

The double Olympic champion, who is currently fourth in the general classification, is wearing these shoes with red laces, potentially to draw attention to the fact that they are new. Remco is known to test unreleased kit in the open, as we saw at the opening team time trial in Barcelona, where we spotted him riding an all-new Specialized S-Works Shiv TT bike.

Some of his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe teammates have gone white-on-white, as have riders from Soudal-Quickstep, which is also sponsored by Specialized, such as 2022 Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle.

Despite Specialized having named the S-Works Torch Remco after him, claimed to be one of the peloton's lightest and best cycling shoes at 287g a pair, Evenepoel has worn these shoes at several races this year. Laces are generally considered to be more aerodynamic than Boa dials and straps and can save weight. They are possibly something Dan Bigham, Red Bull's head of engineering, has pushed the already very aero Evenepoel towards.

The use of these lace-ups could also be a move to improve ventilation and avoid hot foot and other temperature-induced conditions, in what has been described as one of the hottest Tours de France on record - Stage 9 was shortened due to exceptional heat.

In addition to the different branding and heel cup, when seen side by side with the Torch Lace, the unnamed shoe appears narrower, with lace eyelets spaced closer together. This could just be the way Remco has tightened the laces, or it could be an attempt from Specialized to smooth out the front-facing part of the shoe to further cut drag.

In the intense heat of this year's Tour de France, the apparent ventilation of these shoes would seem to be advantageous. Like on the Torch Lace, the upper is dotted with tiny holes for airflow. That said, many of Evenepoel's teammates, including his GC rival Florian Lipowitz, are apparently happy with the ventilation and weight of the S-Works Torch and S-Works Ares 2.

We have contacted Specialized for comment and will update this article when we have more information.

Cannondale dropped the covers off its fifth-generation SuperSix Evo to mixed reception, with many pundits calling out the American brand for a lack of design creativity and progression. Cannondale says it’s not a mistake that its best road bike resembles its predecessor – after all, the SuperSix Evo version four was ridden to great success, bagging top honours at the World Championships, Olympic Games, and Grand Tour stages during its tenure, but there was still room for improvement.

To capitalise on an already superb formula, the Connecticut-based firm elected to refine rather than revolutionise the SuperSix Evo platform by improving aerodynamics through subtle changes to the tube shapes and new layups. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with this trend, and the lack of radical design progression suggests Cannondale might have other plans to renew the SystemSix platform down the line.

The SuperSix Evo portfolio is comprehensive enough to offer something for every budget, including the range-topping Lab71 models, but it's no surprise that the best value is found further down the range – the SuperSix Evo 2 we've managed to get our hands on is a case in point.

Technical details

The new SuperSix Evo bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor, and every shape save for the upper seat tube cross-section has been reworked. Closer examination reveals a deeper head tube and reprofiled fork legs and crown, introduced to improve aerodynamics. As it’s compatible only with electronic groupsets, all ports and holes from the previous model have been removed. There’s even a new dust cover on the headtube, a new integrated seatpost grommet, and a redesigned Di2 battery holder to improve the fit and finish.

This particular model is available in two colourways – Raw (grey) or Tungsten Blue, as pictured here. I quite like this paint scheme as it adds a premium look and feel to the package. As a more affordable model in the range, the SuperSix Evo 2 is constructed from lower-grade, standard-modulus carbon fibre but retains the same proportional-response philosophy as the Hi-Mod and Series 0 carbon layups. This ensures the stiffness indexing of the head tube and bottom bracket is progressive across frame sizes, delivering optimal mechanical properties scaled to rider size.

The geometry numbers are, for the most part, the same as before, with the chainstay length and head tube angles unchanged. However, due to a 10mm reduction in stack height, there are variations in the top tube, seat tube angle, standover height, wheelbase, and reach compared to the model it replaces. The frame sizing philosophy has also been tweaked, with the 51cm model of the previous generation replaced by two new sizes – 50 cm and 52cm - bringing the total number of frameset options to eight (44, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 61cm).

Specifications

Despite lacking the posher specification sheets of its siblings, the SuperSix Evo 2 is outfitted with some decent componentry, including a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset, complete with a 52/36T, 11-30T chainset driven by 170mm crankarms. While you could upgrade the stock cockpit with the integrated SystemBar Road or SL cockpit from Lab71 and Hi-Mod models, the standard Vision Trimax Aero Carbon bar and Cannondale C1 Conceal alloy stem make it easier to swap parts. The bike rolls on 45mm DT Swiss ERC Log carbon wheels and 28mm Schwalbe One TLE tyres. Completing the build is a Cannondale C1 Aero carbon post and Fizik Vento Antares R5 saddle.

The only omission and something that isn't always expected at this price point is a power meter – it’s not a dealbreaker, though, and there are many aftermarket options if it's a major requirement.

Despite the third-tier carbon and second-tier components, the SuperSix Evo 2 is still a fairly feathery thing, coming in at 7.75kg without pedals – 150g heavier than claimed in size medium.

Performance

As mentioned in my February launch report, the new SuperSix Evo is quite sublime in the handling stakes – not that there was anything glaringly wrong with the dynamic prowess of its predecessor. If anything, the previous model lacked the front-end precision and speed of its rivals, but this appears to have been addressed. The lower stack height, reprofiled headtube, fork, and crown have bolstered the feel and communication from the front end, notably during high-speed cornering and descending. Granted, this change will have made it a little less attractive to riders who prefer the 'more relaxed' geometry of the outgoing.

As before, the SuperSix Evo has clearance for 32mm tyres, but some manufacturers reckon this width is no longer the upper limit for race tyres, with many citing 35mm as the new standard. Much like the new Specialized Tarmac SL9, which has also stuck with 32mm, you can shoehorn 34mm into both ends provided there’s 4mm of clearance. I feel 32mm is ample for UK roads, and from what I’ve been seeing on local rides, chaingangs, and races, 28mm is still the most common size across the board.

The SuperSix Evo 2 test bike came fitted with 28mm Schwalbe One TLR tyres set up with inner tubes. While I was craving the softer tyre pressures afforded by a tubeless configuration, the stock setup did a decent enough job of balancing comfort with communication and grip – granted, you’ll need to experiment a bit with a tyre pressure that complements your weight.

The ergonomics are excellent, both in terms of the Fizik Vento Antares R5 saddle and Vision Trimax Aero bar (the latter, however, is not perfect). My only bugbear was the stack of spacers under the stem, which lifted the front end and skewed my weight distribution over the front axle, and the two-piece Vision Trimax Aero bar and Conceal stem, which neither look as refined nor possess the same level of stiffness as the integrated SystemBar Road assembly I sampled at the launch. Other than that, I have nothing negative to report about how the bike rides and behaves.

As expected, it climbs well, too, and sails up inclines and rolling terrain with ease. While it doesn't stand out in any one area, as an all-rounder, it does a good job of dismissing anything that comes its way.

Value

Cannondale has done a good job with the fifth-generation SuperSix Evo. While some might see it more as a facelift than a genuine new model, the structural tweaks are more than meets the eye and have notably made a great bike even better – perhaps even perfected the all-rounder recipe in the process. Sure, the Vision Trimax Carbon Aero and Conceal stem lack the ergonomics and stiffness of the integrated SystemBar Road used on the premium model, but this is merely nitpicking on what is essentially a solid package.

While the SuperSix Evo 2 is one of the most affordable models in the range at £5,995 / $6,499 / €6,299, the SuperSix Evo 5 is another option that is hard to ignore based on all-round value. For £4,495 / $4,999 / €4,499, you get electronic shifting, carbon wheels, and a similar cockpit and saddle arrangement to the Evo 2. It is heavier, though, but the geometry and overall rider connection are unchanged.

If these options are still out of your price range, some markets - including the UK and US - still offer the previous-generation 105 Di2-equipped SuperSix Evo 3 for £4,000 / $4,499 (this model is currently discontinued across Europe).

Tech spec

• Price: £5,995 / $6,499 / €6,299
• Brand: Cannondale
• Frame: SuperSix Evo, carbon
• Fork: SuperSix Evo, carbon
• Weight: 7.75kg (actual, 54cm)
• Sizes: 44, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 61cm
• Levers: Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8170
• Brakes: Shimano Ultegra RT-CL800, 160/140mm front/rear
• Rear derailleur: Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8150
• Front derailleur: Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8150
• Crankset:  Shimano Ultegra R8100 52/36T
• Bottom bracket: Shimano BB-RS500, BSA 68
• Cassette: Shimano Ultegra CS-R8100 11-34T
• Chain: Shimano Ultegra CN-M8100
• Wheels: DT Swiss ERC LOG 45 Carbon
• Tyres: Schwalbe One TLR 28mm
• Bar/stem: Vision Trimax Carbon Aero, Cannondale C1 Conceal
• Seatpost: Cannondale C1 Aero 40 Carbon V2
• Saddle: Fizik Vento Antares R5

The original Pinarello Dogma X was introduced in 2023, offering amateur riders an alternative to the WorldTour-focussed Dogma F, with improved comfort and a geometry that blurred the lines between race and endurance bikes. Cycling Weekly tech contributor Tim Russon and I spent several months on the original Dogma X and shared the same views on the riding position, the stability afforded by the relaxed frame angles, and the relative comfort provided by the 32mm tyres.

In many ways, it didn't feel like a traditional endurance bike; instead, it paired race-bike-like speed and handling with comfort and compliance – attributes that don't usually go hand in hand but seemed to work in this format.

So how do you improve such an already impressive bike without ruining the recipe?

For Pinarello, the objectives were clear: refine the layup, reshape the tube profiles, and improve rear-end compliance. The designers elected to retain the 35mm tyre clearance rather than increase it, which I feel preserves its road-bike intentions and avoids it straying into all-road/gravel territory, but also sees it languishing behind the 40mm-plus provisions of some of its rivals.

X marks the spot

The original X-Stay design was conceptualised by Pinarello's design team in 2022 and was always reserved for implementation on the Dogma X. Not only was it claimed to improve compliance by absorbing vibrations at two contact points, but the X-shaped inserts within the X-Stay configuration also served as a nod to the bike’s name.

Dubbed X-Stay 2.0, it’s still the central feature of the bike and adds to its pageantry and position as a unique model within the Dogma range. Like before, it adds a third triangle to the frame, but it's been updated with a lower, double-arm four-point attachment interface. It looks simpler and less complicated than before, with the inserts removed, but functionally, the thin seat stays and rear end are said to provide some flex and vibration damping.

Pinarello says, “The new configuration disperses road vibrations more efficiently through the four connection points, while the lower linkage minimises rebound, delivering a smoother, more controlled ride."

While it looks similar to the model it replaces, the new bike borrows the Dogma F's narrower, more tapered downtube and deeper headtube, as well as the same Torayca M40X carbon-fibre layup to improve stiffness and durability, and reduce weight.

The new model also benefits from the same elliptical steerer tube technology as the Dogma F. While nothing new and something we've seen used by Cannondale (Delta steerer) and Specialized (offset steerer), it not only bolsters front-end stiffness but also allows easier plumbing of the brake hoses through the headset bearings and front end. It also prevents nasty cable rub and damage to the steerer tube over time.

Keeping with the outgoing model's sizing philosophy, the Dogma X comes in 11 frame sizes from 43 to 62cm – which accommodates the riding demographic Pinarello has targeted: the competitive amateur. To ensure the best possible fit, there are 16 handlebar combinations as well as the choice of two seatposts, inline or offset.

At 7.06kg in Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 trim (size 53cm), the Dogma X is the lightest endurance bike on the market, pipping the Specialized S-Works Roubaix (7.25kg), Canyon Endurace CFR (7.58kg) and Colnago C68 (7.3kg) in similar build configurations. While Pinarello didn't share any weights of the SRAM Red AXS model I tested, we expect this particular model will dip under the 7kg mark.

Like its predecessor, the new Dogma X is compatible with electronic groupsets (no provision for mechanical), UDH dropouts, and new groupsets, which helps future-proof the platform. The frame has clearance for a maximum chainring size of 54T and can also accommodate one-by groupsets. Pinarello Chairman Fausto Pinarello rode a one-by-specific Pinarello Dogma X outfitted with SRAM Red XPLR AXS at GF Strade Bianche and praised it for its simplicity and ease of use. He also used 35mm tyres to maximise its utility and test the frame clearance.

There are four new colors exclusive to the new model: Moonlight Frost (white), Etna Lucente (black and gold), Aqua Veil (blue and black), and Jade Eclipse (green). If these hues don't tickle your fancy, the Dogma X can be customised in myriad colour options (up to 1.4 million combinations) using the company's MyWay platform. This process can take between 2 and 4 months to be implemented.

Pinarello Dogma X - first ride impressions

The global press launch took place in Treviso, Italy, 30km north of Venice – the home of Pinarello. The surrounding environment is peppered with winding tarmac, gravel roads, and punchy climbs, which proved to be the ideal test bed for sampling the new Dogma X.

The first thing I noticed on the new Dogma X was the riding position, which feels unchanged over the previous model – while it’s more upright than your typical race bike, it's not as relaxed as traditional endurance machines such as the Cannondale Synapse. Like the outgoing model, this means less pressure on your wrists and stress on your lower back, allowing you to concentrate on pedaling and keeping things swift.

That said, the position doesn’t feel noticeably upright; if anything, the longer-than-typical reach strikes a balance between traditional endurance and race bike.

My test bike was a size 54.5cm and is basically identical to the Dogma X I tested two years ago in terms of size and frame angles. The seat and head angles are fairly relaxed at 73.7 and 71.5 degrees, respectively, which is noticeable in the handling – the front end feels more stable during high-speed descending, something that was even more pronounced on some of the gravel sections we traversed on the test ride.

I think one of the reasons for the improved front-end connection is the Most Talon Ultra Fast integrated handlebar configuration, which it borrows from the racier Dogma F. The stiffer and lighter bar has improved communication with the road surface and significantly bolstered the manoeuvrability of the bike.

The 422mm chainstays and near-one-metre-long wheelbase (997mm) reaffirm the endurance theme and help add stability to the platform, but the 379.4mm and 559mm reach and stack numbers are on the racier end of the endurance spectrum. It’s a beautifully balanced bike, surefooted on negative gradients but no slouch on the climbs either. It’s more responsive than its rivals in hilly terrain – a trait also attributed to the lighter system weight of 7kg. It's around 180g lighter than the outgoing Dogma X model, making it significantly lighter and easier to pedal uphill.

While descending is a confidence-inspiring exercise, it’s in the handling stakes that the new Dogma X sets itself apart from its contemporaries. Of course, the extra grip afforded by 32mm tyres, helps in the corners, but the wheelbase and chainstays have made for a confident and stable descender – even on loose, gravel surfaces.

The outgoing Dogma X was sublime on the UK's rough roads, but this was difficult to assess on the billiard-smooth roads in Treviso. It was only once we hit some gravel roads that I was able to sample the frame's ride quality. The bike felt controlled and absorbed the washboard surfaces without fuss. Whether this was indeed from the new X-Stay design or 32mm tyres set up at 48/55psi front/rear, I can't comment just yet – I'll need a little more time on the bike.

Overall, the Dogma X proved a competent endurance bike on a mix of road surfaces, but UK testing awaits.

Build and pricing

The Pinarello Dogma X is available in five premium builds and a frameset. There are two Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 options, one with a power meter and one without. Both models come equipped with DT Swiss ERC 1100 45 Dicut wheels wrapped in 32mm Continental GP5000 ST R tyres, with a finishing kit compliments of Most.

Like the Shimano-equipped models, the two SRAM Red AXS builds are also available with or without a power meter. Rolling stock is handled by Princeton Grit 4540 Evolution wheels shod with 32mm Continental GP5000 ST R tyres. Again, the handlebar, seatpost, and finishing kit are all taken care of by Most.

Of course, there's a Campagnolo build, too. This model comes outfitted in Campagnolo Super Record, complete with Bora WTO 45 wheels and 32mm Continental GP5000 ST R tyres, and receives the same ancillary items as the Shimano and SRAM versions.

Pricing is on the upper end of the spectrum and in line with the current Dogma F range. The Dogma X frameset will set you back £5,500 / $7,250 / €6,700, while full builds are £12,500 / $15,750 / €14,900.`

While there's no news on an updated Pinarello X Series platform, based on the rollout plan for the previous lineup, we expect it to launch in the coming months.

With deep enough pockets, you could buy nearly every bike being raced at the 2026 Tour de France, but what road bikes do the best cycling teams in the world actually use? In this article, I'll run through some of the best road bikes in the world and nominate five road bikes that deserve to be raced in the Tour de France.

There aren’t many sports where you can purchase exactly the same equipment as your idols, so cycling is different in this respect. Take the Colnago Y1Rs, for example. It’s the bike on which Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) has been making history, and for a pretty penny (£11,999) you could ride it too…

Tadej usually races a lightweight, unpainted version of the radical aero bike, complete with Enve SES Pro wheels with silver hubs and spokes.

But would you choose it over Jonas Vingegaard's Cervélo S5?

The Cervélo S5 (Visma-Lease a Bike) is widely regarded as one of the best aero bikes in the world. This latest version, which was released in July last year, is supposed to be much lighter and comfier than its predecessor.

Like the Y1RS, it has a bayonet-style fork which decouples the steerer from the head tube, meaning this can be made effectively deeper and thinner to improve aerodynamics. The S5's V-shaped integrated bar-stem is also similar to the Colnago's while its Reserve wheels are deeper at the rear than front.

The two favourites do use different groupsets. Pogačar's Team UAE Emirates-XRG is sponsored by Shimano, so the defending champion runs a 2x Dura-Ace Di2 setup. Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike is sponsored by SRAM, which supports both double and single chainrings on the road. On certain road stages, he'll go 1x and in the mountains he's likely to pair a 1x SRAM Red Aero chainring with a Red XPLR AXS gravel cassette and derailleur.

As for the most popular bike in the pro peloton, it’s a three-way tie. The Pinarello Dogma F is raced by Q36.5 and Netcompany-Ineos, the Canyon Aeroad CFR is used by Movistar and Alpecin Premier-Tech, and the brand new Specialized Tarmac SL9 is ridden by Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe and Soudal-Quickstep.

The all-round Dogma F is unchanged since 2024 but Canyon gave the Aeroad CFR a new handlebar, the flared and long CP0053, earlier this year. Specialized says the Tarmac SL9 is marginally more aerodynamic than the SL8 thanks to a thinner and better integrated head tube and a slimmer seat tube which curves around the rear wheel.

Of course, Remco Evenepoel once again gets a rather special paintjob to commemorate him being the reigning Olympic Champion.

Remco and Lipowitz aren’t the only ones with new bikes. Team Total Energies has a prototype Litening Aero C:68X from German brand Cube. The key differences to the current model are its more carved out head tube, sawn-off seat cluster and very deep-topped integrated cockpit. The French team may roll out the lighter Litening Air C:68X climbing bike for mountainous days.

Bahrain Victorious lines up with a brand new Bianchi called the Specialissima RC. As has become increasingly common, it’s an all-rounder that combines aero performance with low weight.

The Italian brand claims the frame weighs just 750g and that the bike is 16 watts more aerodynamically efficient than before at 50km/h. It was released a few weeks ago, so we haven’t managed to swing a leg over one yet. But Bianchi promises good compliance from its exclusive use of Countervail carbon fibre. It will be interesting to see whether Bahrain race the Specialissima instead of the Bianchi's Oltre RC aero bike.

Orbea, ridden by Lotto-Intermarché, was another brand to officially launch a bike on the eve of the race: an updated Orca Aero. Among the usual 'stiffer, lighter, faster' marketing material, the Basque brand said a lower bottom bracket confers a big aero advantage over the old bike by lowering the rider's position.

Unsurprisingly, all 23 teams are using carbon fibre bikes. Oliver Naesen was the last Tour de France cyclist to race a metal bike, a steel Eddy Merckx Corsa, on the final stage of the 2019 Tour into Paris. The last Tour de France-winning metal bike was the Pinarello Dogma FP belonging to Oscar Pereiro. The Spaniard was awarded the 2006 title after Floyd Landis' disqualification. Made mainly from magnesium alloy, the Dogma FP had carbon seatstays and a carbon fork. The last steel bike to win the maillot jaune was Miguel Indurain's 1995 Pinarello. Let me know if you prefer that era of bike or the current crop of race machines in the comments below.

One of the best-looking Tour de France bikes is the bright red Wilier Filante SLR ID2 ridden by Groupama-FDJ. The Italian brand says the lightweight aero bike uses a deeper fork, aero bottles and a narrower, flared handlebar to be significantly faster than the model Mark Cavendish rode to set his Tour de France stage-win record. Wilier really seems to be delivering some excellent performing bikes at the moment so this one is well up our list of bikes to review in 2026.

You can't yet buy all the 2026 Tour de France bikes because some are prototypes. These include an unnamed Van Rysel for young French GC hopeful Paul Seixas. The blacked-out bike seems to marry aspects of the French brand's existing road race bikes, the aero RCR-F and the lighter RCR Pro, into an all-rounder platform. Watch our video for more info.

Uno-X Mobility also has an unreleased Ridley climbing bike we spotted at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. We imagine the Norwegian team will choose what could be a new Falcon RS in the Alps and Pyrénées over the heavy Noah Fast 3.0 aero bike.

Have I missed any? Oh, yes quite a few. Cofidis has a new Look Blade 795 RS 3, which is said to come with 350 fit options. EF Education-Easypost will race the more aggressive fifth-generation Cannondale SuperSix Evo, another all-rounder which killed off the American brand's full-fat aero bike, the SystemSix. Team Jayco-AlUla is set to exclusively race the new Giant Propel Advanced SL. Claimed to be 355g lighter and 18.4 watts faster than before, mainly thanks to fancy new Cadex components, the fourth generation Propel is an aero bike that can meet the 6.8kg UCI weight limit, leaving no room for Giant's TCR climbing bike.

Just popping back to that Look bike quickly, Cofidis is the only team at the 2026 Tour de France using a Campagnolo groupset. Everyone else is using either Shimano or SRAM. Ten teams are on SRAM Red and 12 are on Shimano. SRAM is definitely on the rise in pro cycling, having increased from two WorldTour teams five years ago

Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan will be looking to add to their haul of Tour de France stage wins for Lidl-Trek on the eighth-generation Trek Madone SLR. Featuring a hole in the seat tube for comfort, the latest Madone SLR amalgamated the Madone aero bike and Émonda climbing bike into one model in 2024.

NSN Cycling Team, Biniam Girmay's outfit, has the oldest bike in the peloton with the Scott Foil RC, an aero bike which hasn't been updated since 2022. Scott's newer road race bike, the Addict RC Ultimate, is too light to be raced in the WorldTour.

Picnic PostNL race the Lapierre Xelius DRS while Tudor Pro Cycling is a Swiss team using Swiss bikes, the BMC Teammachine R.

Caja Rural is a Spanish team with a wildcard entry using bikes from Spanish brand MMR. This is the MMR Aelion all-rounder bike which we really don’t see a lot of in the UK or US.

But a brand that is currently taking the world by storm is X-LAB, having partnered with hundreds of dealers in North America. XDS-Astana race the Chinese brand’s flagship race bike, the AD9.

The Factor One is quite unlike the cookie-cutter designs that dominate the contemporary road bike recipe, many of which look conservatively tame in comparison. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than a tool designed to scythe through the air and unapologetically keeps with the company’s radical design philosophy and Formula One-rooted history. Strip back the layers, however, and there’s an incredible story to be told about how it came to be and its forward-thinking geometry, not least how it rides and performs in the real world. It’s absolutely bonkers-fast.

Factor as a company is not new to creating machines of this nature - both the Vis Vires and Aston Martin One-77 bikes pushed the boundaries of design, aerodynamics, and integration and still look contemporary in today’s landscape. While the Factor One draws many parallels with those two bikes, the company’s ultimate goal was to push the design team's restless creativity to the absolute limit and build the fastest UCI-legal road frame ever - something that the brand claims to have achieved.

Our friends at Cyclingnews corroborated Factor's claims in their independent bike-only evaluations at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub. When tested with a rider, the Factor One effectively tied with the Cervelo S5.

With over 1,300km of saddle time, we’ve put together the most comprehensive test of the Factor One to date. It sure feels as fast as Factor claims, but what does that mean to the average rider, and are you better off with a regular aero bike?

Technical details

The Factor One’s visuals echo its speedy intentions with a blueprint designed to provoke rather than conform to UCI rules, some of which were relaxed in 2024. This allowed Factor’s head of engineering, Graham Shrive, and his design team to rethink how the fork and downtube intersect, resulting in a clever overlap and a deeper, forward-set fork configuration. Even though the ruleset was updated again for 2026 with a new law that caps the internal fork width at 115mm, the Factor One still falls within the safe zones. The result is one of the most extraordinary-looking front ends in modern bicycle design and something no other manufacturer has ever dared to explore.

The One has an outrageously narrow leading edge when viewed front-on, and the wide-set fork, forward-set chin fairing system, and super-deep headtube resemble those of a time-trial bike. The bayonet fork configuration not only ensures the steering axis remains in its traditional position but also pushes the front end out, reducing the effective stem length by 20mm. The long top tube, combined with the steeper 76-degree seat tube angle, places the rider forward relative to the bottom bracket.

On all my test rides, cyclists and non-cyclists alike were drawn to the Factor One in droves, often guffawing with delight at its unique facade and neapolitan ice-cream-like hue Factor calls ‘Blush’ – it really is a playful colourway, no riding incognito here. If the Blush theme doesn't tickle your fancy, there are three other options, including Silverstone (grey and cyan), Nimbus Grey (basically the Blush theme but in greyscale), and Onyx Black. I foresee the latter being the most popular colour among buyers, but the bold blue of the Bugatti Factor One is also a pretty awesome shade, albeit an outrageously expensive one…

The numbers are as radical as the bike looks and are fairly consistent across all five frame sizes (47, 52, 54, 56, 58cm). The 43mm fork rake, together with the steep 73-degree head angle, results in a 58mm trail figure – ideal for quick, reactive steering. The rear end is categorised by particularly short 405mm chainstays, while a sub-metre (988cm) wheelbase rounds out the headline numbers on our size 54cm test bike. Despite these progressive angles, the One is easy to set up.

Factor reckons many riders are already adopting forward-biased riding positions, categorised by slammed saddles, narrow handlebars, inline seatposts, shorter cranks and longer reach from massive stems. To counter the taller saddle heights that result from shorter cranks, Factor adjusted the bottom bracket drop to lower the centre of gravity and retain stability, ensuring the front-to-rear weight balance remained neutral.

Specifications

The stock gearing, however, lets down the package – in this instance, a 48/35T, 10-33T gearing assembly which is the same across both Force and Red AXS groupsets. While a 50/37T double chainring would have been the logical option, I didn't feel negatively impacted or held back at any point during the test period – even on long, fast descents. Furthermore, the 48-10T offers a marginally lower gear ratio of 4.8 when compared to the 52-11T of Shimano Dura-Ace or Ultegra Di2 groupsets, both of which are pegged at 4.72. That said, the front mech is adjustable and can accommodate a maximum chainring of 68T in one-by and 60/42T in a two-by configuration.

Several parts are handled by Factor’s in-house components division, Black Inc, including the 62mm-deep wheels, which are wrapped in 28mm Continental GP5000 S TR tyres, the brace of Black Inc aero bottle cages and the matching computer mount. The standard gullwing integrated bar system is also a Black Inc creation and quite a unique-looking system. Sizes are designated as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, corresponding to stem equivalents of 110-150mm, with three high-rise options that provide an additional 20mm of stack. For reference, our test bike uses a fully slammed 38cm handlebar configuration matched to a 120mm effective stem length.

That said, a range of handlebar widths, spacers and effective stem lengths is also available, including a ‘Hi Rize’ configuration available in sizes 1, 2, and 3 (110-130mm effective stem lengths), ensuring a better fit for a wider range of riders. There are also two seatpost options (inline and offset). The offset post fitted to our Factor One test bike equates to zero setback on a bike such as the Ostro VAM, pushing the rider more forward towards the bottom bracket in ‘standard’ trim.

Performance

To fully appreciate the Factor One, you’ll need a solid understanding of weight distribution and grip, and the confidence to push it to the limits it was designed to reach. It’s got ride quality that some might describe as harsh, even unforgiving at times, but the upshot is a bike that’s full of feel and communication, something often lacking in modern aero bikes, which tend to prioritise comfort over precision. Much of this comes down to the oversized tubing and carbon layup, which make for an incredibly stiff frame and front end - comfort is not part of the package.

This is a bike that feels very much like a stripped-out track-day car, and in the same way you’d limit driving it to do your groceries owing to the lack of creature comforts and driver aids, the Factor One should be reserved exclusively for the habitat it was designed to tame: road races, time trials and circuit events.

It’s unbelievably agile with a direct and razor-sharp front end. The gullwing handlebar elevates this sensation with no discernible flex during sprinting and out-of-the-saddle attacks. The ‘stemless’ bar is fixed directly to the fork structure, a full 20mm ahead of the steerer axis, delivering incredibly precise steering. Keeping it at 40km/h requires very little effort, and once it inches past 50km/h, it becomes a game of how fast it can reel in the horizon line. I tested the One in a few time trials at varying distances, and the bike felt stable and as fast as a time-trial bike, limited only by my position. In fact, Factor told us that it will shortly be offering a time-trial cockpit for the One and that it tested within a few watts of its dedicated Hanzo time-trial bike.

While it’s pretty stable overall, it can be a handful at times, especially if you’re a nervous descender and typically struggle in crosswinds. The surface area of the frame and wide-set fork can catch gusts - but it’s a matter of weighing the front end by using the drops to help keep it planted and tracking accurately. In ideal conditions, it’s a precision tool that can be positioned and set up for every corner, allowing you to carry speed and avoid unnecessary braking. Choose your line, weight your outside leg, rail the apex and repeat. It’s super-intuitive and so much fun to ride at the limit. While you can unlock extra grip and maybe even a smidgeon more comfort with wider 30-32mm tyres, the stock Continental rubber (at 55psi front/rear) paired well with the Black Inc 62 wheels and measured slightly wider than the claimed 28mm.

And what of its climbing ability? Well, the Factor One does climb better than expected. At 7.9kg, it’s not the lightest bike around, but weight was never the focus of the project. Instead, you’ll need some tactical nous to cheat the terrain - as the Factor One can effortlessly flatten most rolling terrain with very little input, granted you keep the speed high. It’s only when traversing double-digit, punchy topography that you will need to work a little harder to overcome gravity.

Value

The Factor One is a superbly designed and engineered machine for the rider or racer who wants a deep-rooted, symbiotic connection with their bike. The experience is not as muted as a regular race bike - the steering is more precise, and it requires concentration and confidence to ride at the limit. The frame is also notably stiff but not to the detriment of the overall ride experience.

In terms of rivals, the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, Cervelo S5 and even the Argon 18 Nitrogen are close competitors with a similar user case, but lose out marginally to the One’s precision and unfettered sense of purity. This alone will either endear it to riders or send them in the opposite direction – as will the £11,309 / $12,199 / €13,399 sticker price, which is on the upper end of the pricing spectrum in this SRAM Force build. Add Red AXS or Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, and it gets even more costly.

During the entirety of the test period and with many other bikes in for evaluation, the Factor One was the bike I kept reaching for and the one I’d always find myself looking at from across the room. This is the effect it has on people – bystanders and riders alike. The expressions and excitement etched across the faces of those seeing Factor One for the first time demonstrate why we desperately need more companies that create and challenge the status quo rather than settle for mediocrity.

Am I sad to give it back? Yes. Do I want one? Of course. Do I have space? No, but I’ll make some. It’s the fastest and most entertaining bike I’ve ridden this year.

Tech spec

• Price: £11,309 / $12,199 / €13,399
• Brand: Factor
• Frame: TeXtreme, Toray, Nippon Graphite with Pan-Based Fibre
• Fork: One Wide Stance Fork
• Weight: 7.9kg (actual, 54cm)
• Sizes: 47, 52, 54, 56, 58cm
• Levers: SRAM Force AXS
• Brakes: SRAM Force AXS, 160/140mm front/rear
• Rear derailleur: SRAM Force AXS
• Front derailleur: SRAM Force AXS
• Crankset: SRAM Force AXS 48/35T
• Bottom bracket: SRAM Dub Press-fit
• Cassette: SRAM Force AXS 10-33T
• Chain: SRAM Flattop, 12-speed
• Wheels: Black Inc 62mm
• Tyres: Continental GP5000 S TR 28mm
• Bar/stem: Factor Integrated Barstem, 38cm
• Seatpost: Factor 30mm setback
• Saddle: Selle Italia SLR Elite

When To Replace It is a feature series in which we explore when one should replace common cycling products like helmets, apparel and various moving parts on your bike. Curious about a particular product? Shoot us an email at anne.rook@futurenet.com

Have you ever been in a group ride, sitting behind that one cyclist who’s showing a bit too much skin through threadbare shorts? What about those compressive bibs that now wrap—instead of compress—your legs, mostly held in place by loosely fitting straps? Do you have cycling shorts that used to feel so amazing, with a chamois that was like no other, but now you feel like you cannot get them into position for most of a ride?

When asked about cycling shorts’ lifespan, Castelli’s Steve Chapin offered a circumspect and environmentally conscious perspective: “If you’re still comfortable in the shorts, even with the less cushioned seat pad, then definitely keep riding it. No reason to fill up the landfills prematurely,” said Chapin.

But, shorts won’t last forever. “The Lycra can break down due to high heat, exposure to chlorine as well as sunlight. Ultraviolet radiation causes the molecular chains of the polyurethane segments in Lycra to degrade, much like old rubber bands becoming brittle,” Chapin said.

“This leads to a loss of elasticity, fabric thinning, and permanent stretching out. The first place this usually happens is on the back of the short and when the Lycra degrades then you’ll get some transparency back there.”

What are the timeframes?

If you want to put a number on it, Scott Sports Marketing Director Chris MacKay pegs shorts’ lifespan about the same as bike helmets.

“For most bib shorts made from polyamide/elastane blends, you can expect about three to four years of consistent performance with regular use. Higher compression fabrics can sometimes extend that lifespan slightly,” said MacKay. “Longevity really comes down to two key factors: construction and care.”

And Gianluca Caliari, president of Nalini’s U.S.A. importer Albabici, agreed with MacKay’s suggestion regarding chamois lifespan of about three years. “Cycling shorts generally need to be replaced after 10,000 to 15,000 Km (or after two to three years of regular use), as indicated by signs of wear and tear,” said Caliari.

The signs to look for

Timeframes, of course, will vary by rider depending upon mileage and care. So what other signs can we look for? “The fabric may begin to look thin or slightly see-through, though that typically means they’re already well past their prime. On the chamois side, watch for pilling on the surface, which can increase friction and lead to discomfort on longer rides,” MacKay said.

"A good pair of bib shorts will gradually tell you when they're reaching the end of their life,” MAAP representative Tom Copeland told us. “The biggest indicator is usually chamois fatigue. If the insert feels softer than it once did, or you're starting to feel your sit bones through the pad on rides that were previously comfortable, it's probably time for a replacement,” said Copeland.

Rapha's Head of Product Management James Stannard offered a few clear indicators. “If the chamois stops cushioning, the fabric goes thin or sheer, or the fit goes baggy, it’s probably time to replace,” said Stannard.

“If you're getting saddle soreness you didn't used to get and you haven’t changed your saddle, bike fit or shoes, trust that feeling over how the shorts look, that's your cue,” Stannard offered. “Pinch the chamois between your fingers. If it feels thin, flattened, or doesn't spring back, the cushioning is gone.”

One of the most obvious and prone-to-wear parts of cycling shorts are the panels above the chamois in the rear. “Bib shorts should ideally be replaced well before the seat panel starts going sheer. When the rear panel starts offering more ventilation than compression, it's probably time to upgrade,” suggested Copeland.

Rapha’s Stannard added: “Fabrics in the seat panel are particularly important as they have to be more resistant to abrasion from the saddle. If you notice there is pilling (or bobbling) it’s a sign that the bibs are wearing.

“If you notice fabric is riding up or sagging or the bibs don’t fit like they used to, the fabric may have worn out. This might be particularly noticeable if the bibs change a lot during the ride and feel like a different product by the time you get home.”

“Fraying threads or separating seams” are also a sign to look out for. “If seams have failed it could mean a moving chamois, which can lead to saddle sores and discomfort,” Stannard cautioned.

Another indicator it’s time to retire your favourite kit is if, after washing, they still smell stale at best. “If you find there’s a smell that survives a proper wash – or it starts to smell not long after you’ve set off – the bibs may be past their best,” cautioned Stannard.

How to Prolong the life of cycling shorts

It bears repeating: don’t tumble dry your shorts the same way you’d care for a terry cloth towel.

“Always wash in cool temperatures and avoid heat. Heat is the fastest way to break down both the compression and the knit structure of the fabric, significantly shortening the life of the shorts,” advises Scott’s MacKay.

Castelli’s Chapin concurs, and reminds cyclists to wash shorts in warm water, and skip the dryer. Chapin said, “One of the main culprits is washing at too high of temperature and high-temperature drying, so please make sure to wash your shorts in warm water and then air drying.”

DO

• Wash in delicate/gentle cycle
• Use gentle detergent safe for delicate synthetic materials
• Wash inside out after each and every use
• Replace when chamois is pilling, is compressed, or panels are sheer

DON'T

• Expose to spray-on sunblock
• Use fabric softener or scented detergents
• Tumble dry
• Hang-dry from straps
• Wear more than once between washing

The 2026 Tour de France has started in Barcelona with a team time trial for the first time since 1971. Team Visma-Lease a Bike won and put Jonas Vingegaard into the yellow race leader's jersey, following on from Eddy Merckx's Molteni 55 years ago.

Team time trials (TTTs) have infrequently featured in La Grande Boucle lately – coincidentally, Visma-Lease a Bike won the last one in Brussels (yet another Grand Depart on foreign soil) on Stage 2 of the 2019 race. This year's TTT was raced under new, arguably more dynamic, rules. Previously, the fourth rider to cross the line gave the whole team their time. Now individual riders get their own times, with the first finisher's time counting for the team.

The change has spiced up what can be a formulaic discipline – ride strongly and steadily to keep as many riders together as possible. In TTTs raced in this format earlier in the season at Paris-Nice and Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, teams dropped more riders earlier and gave their GC favourite or strongest climber a lead-out to the finish. This is exactly what happened up the final climb on Saturday.

In terms of tech, the new rules have exacerbated the extent to which riders optimise their equipment for their role. At the team buses before the start, we saw bikes belonging to riders whose job it is to pull on the flatter, earlier parts of the course fitted with bigger chainrings, while their lighter teammates, expected to break away on the climbs, focused more on weight reduction and slightly easier gearing.

In addition to that trend, in our Tour de France Grand Depart tech gallery below, we noticed a move towards narrower tyres, 3D-printed accessories, bling titanium parts, more stem spacers, and chain retention devices. We photographed World and Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel's prototype Specialized S-Works Shiv TT and defending Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar's Colnago TT2.

Ahead of Sunday's first road stage, a hilly 168.5km route between Tarragona and Barcelona, we also featured interesting road bikes, including those ridden by the overall contenders, such as young French star Paul Seixas, who is expected to do battle on the double ascent of Montjuïc. Scroll down to cast your eyes over photos of Seixas' prototype Van Rysel all-rounder, Pogačar's Y1Rs road bike and Evenepoel's S-Works Tarmac SL9. There are also unreleased helmets, custom bikes, and nifty mechanics' hacks.

We've already published an article dedicated to the ins and outs of Tadej Pogačar's Colnago TT2 time trial bike, which the Italian brand says can meet the 6.8kg UCI weight limit. So we'll just run through the talking points here.

Most interestingly, his Enve SES Pro wheels (100mm-deep front and a disc at the back) are wrapped in 700x25c Continental GP5000 TT TR tyres. By today's standards, these are pretty narrow even in a time trial. Given the Colnago TT2 has clearance for 30mm tyres, this must be a deliberate ploy either to reduce weight or drag, or both.

The four-time Tour de France champion pushed an enornmous 64T Carbon-Ti single chainring. Nothwithstanding its narrow-wide profile which improves chain retention, Pogačar also used a K-Edge chain catcher. He was one of the most notable adopters of short cranks and stuck with the 160mm size for the TTT, where a low aero position and open hip angle are high priority.

Here is Jonas Vingegaard's Cervélo P5, a double Tour de France winner and Pogačar's main rival for the general classification.

There's no paint to be seen here. The Dane's time-trial machine is stripped back to bare carbon, which is probably covered with a clear coat for protection. Going paintless can save a decent amount of weight (in the region of 100-200g), but it's an advantage reserved for team leaders. Vingegaard's teammates rode painted frames.

His base bar looks very low. It's already slammed flush with the head tube, then dips below it. This was potentially to give him a more aggressive position when riding solo on the last climb.

Because the UCI's saddle setback rule still applies to TT bikes, Vingegaard's Prologo TGale TT saddle sits far back in the rails to keep the nose at least 5cm behind the bottom bracket.

Like his Slovenian nemesis, Vingegaard has a deep-section front wheel, a Reserve 77, and disc rear wheel, a Reserve Infinity Disc. But his 700x30c Vittoria Corsa Pro Speed tyres are much wider.

This is the Van Rysel XCR TT of Paul Seixas' Decathlon CMA CGM teammate Olaaj Kooij.

Developed in conjunction with Swiss Side, whose Hadron wheels it rolls on, the XCR is a beefy-looking TT bike on account of its deep tubing.

At the end of his base bar, the Dutch sprinter has custom 3D-printed Leap brake levers and blip holders. We're seeing more of these on SRAM-equipped bikes as riders seek a more elegant and secure way to attach blips, which enable you to change gear from anywhere on the bike.

Unlike Shimano, SRAM makes its own 1x chainrings. Kooij ran a 64T single aero ring, which seemed a popular size on the day.

The Decathlon CMA CGM team wore as-yet-unreleased Van Rysel time-trial helmets. We don't know much about these for now, but they do have a seamlessly integrated and slightly concave visor, rounded top, and a tail that looks to nestle into the gap between the rider's neck and shoulders.

The Specialized Shiv was raced in the time trial by Soudal-Quickstep and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe. This is the rig of Jan Tratnik, who rides for the second, German team.

The Shiv is one of the lighest time-trial bikes in the WorldTour, as its relatively skinny tubes, especially at the back, suggest.

That said, the prototype Shiv Remco Evenepoel rode looks to have turned that on its head. The rear end is significantly chunkier and appears to incorporate a version of the 'Win Fin' that Specialized introduced to the new Tarmac SL9. Continue scrolling to see our photos of this bike.

We've also gone into depth on Tom Pidcock's Bolide FF time-trial bike, which is also raced by his former team, Netcompany-Ineos. The Bolide F has a distinctive wavy, deep fork and ribbed pattern along the front of the seatpost and seat tube. Both are claimed to reduce drag.

Mauro Schmid's Giant Trinity Advanced SL is a good-looking bike in the Jayco-AlUla team colourway. The latest version of the bike, and the first to have disc brakes, came out in January 2025. The Cadex Aero four-spoke front wheel is one of the more eye-catching designs on the market.

Cannondale also updated its SuperSlice time-trial bike in 2025, claiming a thinner head tube and deeper tubing elsewhere made it 10 watts faster than before. This is EF Education-EasyPost rider Max Walker's Lab71 bike, which is blacked out, probably to save weight.

These look like the Leap blip covers we've seen on other SRAM bikes, but here they are unbranded.

At the end of his extensions, Walker has more Leap TT mounts for his blips. The textured tape could be there for grip or to cover up the branding.

Despite the new SuperSlice having room for 32mm-wide tyres, Walker is running 700x28c Vittoria Corsa Pro Speeds. The pink Muc-Off tubeless valves are a nice match for the team's kit.

Walker and his teammates wore this new POC time-trial helmet. Because it's not officially released, there's not much we can say other than it looks sculpted and light – similar to the Giro Aerohead MIPS II. Its profile is more bullet-shaped than the Van Rysel lid above. The low peak seems like it would meet the shallow visor quite far down the rider's forehead.

Tim Wellens' Enve TT extensions are labelled left and right, presumably for Team UAE Emirates-XRG mechanics' benefit, not his. The white stains on the pads look like salt deposits from sweaty training sessions.

This is the unreleased Specialized S-Works Shiv Remco Evenepoel raced in the time trial. It is very different from the current version his teammates rode (see below). The head tube tapers dramatically, while the fork legs splay wider.

Now look to the back of the bike where material extends from the back of the seat tube to hug the rear wheel. One of the world's best time trialists has a typically whopping 68T chainring.

For context, this is the current generation of the Shiv with shallower, svelter tubes.

While 'warming up', riders are trying to prime their aerobic system for an intense effort, not to raise their core body temperature, which negatively impacts performance. Here, EF's Ben Healy is riding a Wahoo Kickr V6 smart trainer and getting blasted by the brand's Headwind fan. This may well be controlled by a Core body temperature sensor the former yellow jersey wearer has attached to his heart-rate monitor strap.

Prototype Shimano Dura-Ace rims, hubs (as seen here on Alpecin-Premier Tech's Canyon Aeroad CFR) and pedals have been regularly spotted at races this year. This means an official release is imminent because UCI rules mandate that products become commercially available within a year of their first race.

There are rumours of a new Canyon Speedmax CFR, but Mathieu van der Poel looked to be on the current bike.

Tudor Pro Cycling raced the recently updated BMC Timemachine TT bike, with strikingly wide and deep fork legs and seat stays.

The Trek Speed Concept SLR TT bikes we saw on top of a Lidl-Trek team car had a mixture of Bontrager (Trek's in-house component brand) and Princeton Carbon Works wheels. Since these were probably spare bikes, this could have been down to availability, the needs of specific riders, or other reasons we're not aware of.

Last year's third-place finisher overall, Florian Lipowitz, is the co-leader of Red Bull alongside Remco. His Tarmac SL9 has what looks to be about 25mm of spacers. We're seeing fewer slammed stems in the WorldTour as riders favour comfort and a sustainable aero hoods position over getting low at all costs.

The sunlight shows off the raw carbon on Tadej Pogačar's Colnago Y1Rs. Last year, he raced this aero bike exclusively over Colnago's V5Rs climbing bike because it is probably faster, despite being a little heavier. As usual, his Y1RS is kitted out with boutique, lightweight parts.

Using 3D-printing to perfectly integrate accessories with the bike seems to have really caught on at this year's race. It might only deliver a marginal aero gain, but that's enough for this level of racing. When this mount is holding a Wahoo Elemnt Roam or Bolt, there'll be no space between the gullwing handlebar and the computer.

On what looks to be Pogačar's spare bike, he has a 3D-printed titanium computer mount. Whether this brings any performance advantage or not, it looks very cool.

Pogačar's super domestique Isaac del Toro, who has a decent chance of finishing on the GC podium himself, has a healthy spacer stack.

In a neat touch, the seat post cover doubles as a number holder, saving a couple of grams. This also looks to be 3D-printed.

Another raw carbon bike. This time among Jayco-ALUla's fleet of Giant Propel Advanced SLs. The weight reduction from the lack of paint must bring Giant's updated aero bike very close to the UCI weight limit. It's already so light that Jayco-ALUla have no need for the TCR on climbing days.

It belongs to Aussie puncheur Michael Matthews, who will look to benefit from the weight saving on uphill finishes.

This finish would sell like hot cakes if Giant made it publically available.

The fantastic-looking paint on Felix Engelhardt's Propel celebrates his German national title win. He, too, has several spacers under the stem of what is a very low bike.

This fabric sheet holds his race transponder. It looks ungainly compared to sleeker attachment methods other teams use.

Even a shorter rider like Tom Pidcock doesn't slam the stem on his Pinarello Dogma F.

A Leap computer mount holds the Garmin Edge 840 right against the Most Talon Ultra Fast one-piece cockpit. That screen needs a clean though.

Tour de France stage winner Kasper Asgreen can always be relied upon for an aggressive set-up. Check out the saddle-to-bar drop on his Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71. That's a new bike for EF this year after Cannondale dropped the stack and slimmed down most tubes to save a handful of watts over the outgoing model.

The 2021 Tour of Flanders winner has a fabric sleeve and a paint chip on his fork.

Lab71 denotes Cannondale's highest tier of carbon - dubbed Series 0 - with the best stiffness-to-weight ratio. The pencil-thin SuperSix seat tube is designed to disperse dirty air coming off the rider's legs.

If you put your spectacles on, you'll notice the Tipp-Ex markings on Asgreen's saddle rails, which help mechanics set it up the way he likes. This seems to be as far forward as possible to promote a more powerful and aerodynamic position. He's on a 3D-printed Fizik Vento Argo saddle.

The blips on the drops will enable the breakaway specialist to change gear while sprinting out of a reduced bunch.

That's all from the Grand Depart for now. We'll be searching for more tech over the coming days, so stay tuned for additional news, bike checks and trends.

While the Red Bull–Bora–hansgrohe mechanics tried their best to keep it under wraps, the camouflaged Specialized S-Works Shiv TT bike of World Champion Remco Evenepoel has garnered a fair bit of attention at the Tour de France Grand Depart.

In the automotive industry, striped camouflaging is used to hide the shape and detail of a new test mule, but the downside is a vivid and easy-to-spot object - no riding incognito here. The same can be said for Specialized and what is clearly an all-new S-Works Shiv TT bike, a fact validated by the UCI prototype sticker on the upper seat tube.

Originally launched in 2019 at the Tour de France Grand Depart, the Specialized S-Works Shiv TT has long needed an update - despite still being competitive and winning races, Olympic gold medals and World Championships under the legs of Belgian Remco Evenepoel. Known for its lightweight chassis and sleek aerodynamic design, the Morgan Hill-based company has looked to up the ante of its best time-trial bike and bestow it with a more contemporary design.

Like the newly launched Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9, the new Shiv will undoubtedly benefit from a fresh Fact 12r layup, entirely new tube shaping, and balanced weight distribution throughout the chassis. In terms of the new blueprint, the bike benefits from a radically narrower leading edge on the headtube, which is also deeper in profile than the current model.

The fork, downtube and seat tube are also notably deeper and sharper, and more in line with current aero trends, while a distinct Win Fin-style seat tube cutout extends over and hugs the rear wheel.

The rear triangle, in particular, is akin to an arrowhead: the seat stays join the seat tube at 90 degrees, mirroring the chainstay below, and then meet at the dropouts. We expect this to have been implemented for a boost in aerodynamics, compliance, and tyre clearance (presumably up to 32mm) - and one that visually sets it apart from its chief rivals. Like his teammates, Evenepoel's prototype Shiv was running 30mm Specialized Turbo TLR tyres.

Closer examination of Evenepoel’s spare bike on the roof of his team car showed a SRAM Red AXS groupset complete with a whopping 68T chainring paired with a 10-36T cassette and 160mm cranks. There’s also a new aerodynamic seatpost clamp allowing saddle tilt and fore-aft adjustments.

The cockpit is fairly similar affair to what we’ve seen used by Remco in the past, with a vee-shaped basebar attached to custom carbon-fibre extensions. As has become commonplace on SRAM-sponsored teams at this year's Tour de France, Remco is using custom Leap Components Aero Grip Blip Mount shifters emblazoned with his initials, R.EV.

While the Roval solid disc rear appears unchanged, the front Roval wheel is notably deeper than that of his teammates, all of whom are riding the current Specialized S-Works Shiv TT.

We'll update this with more information and details as we receive them.

I spent a lot of time on the outgoing Orbea Orca Aero and lauded it for its speed and handling finesse back when I tested it in 2022. With a blueprint inspired by the Ordu time trial bike, it was discernibly aerodynamic and looked the part, too. It was not, however, without fault - it was on the heavier side when compared with its rivals.

In fact, depending on the configuration, the outgoing Orca Aero was upwards of 8kg with lighter models hovering around the 7.5kg mark. As seen at last year’s Tour de France, aero bikes were chosen ahead of dedicated climbing bikes by some teams for the high mountain stages, with some bikes dipping under 7kg thanks to stripped-off paint and lighter wheels.

While Orbea already has a dedicated climbing bike, the regular Orca, the goal for the new Orca Aero was to make its best aero bike even faster and also reach parity on the weight front - the brand claims to have achieved both. The new bike has been in the making since 2024, and we managed to get a sneak peek at it in the paddocks of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a race long considered a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France.

The company has put a lot of resources into making the Orca Aero even faster - not because the outgoing model needed it but rather because WorldTour average race speeds are getting faster, with 2026 set to become the fastest road racing season ever. As a result, the design team took a total-system approach (rider and frameset combined) this time around, since having the fastest frameset alone is meaningless in real-world racing scenarios.

Shaped for the new racing speeds of the WorldTour peloton

The design team fitted various shapes and fairings to the outgoing model to see which combinations were faster in the wind tunnel, and conducted CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis to examine the tube shapes of the whole bike. These studies showed significant savings but not massive improvements across all yaw angles.

Orbea even considered widening the fork as seen on the Factor One, but found that a narrower, slimmer, and deeper fork was the best way forward. Unsurprisingly, the designers found that a more pronounced leading edge on the headtube tested fastest. Compared to its predecessor, the head tube is also deeper when viewed from the side.

An interesting finding was the introduction of a keel on the base of the bottom bracket junction. This shape reportedly reduces resistance and turbulence, smoothing airflow around the underside and rear of the bike. There are also thinner seatstays with a lower attachment point, which improve the stiffness-to-weight ratio and vertical compliance.

As before, an aero bottle cage system has been retained and refined to make the downtube even wider, aiding aerodynamics and the sailing effect at various yaw angles. Orbea found that positioning the cage and bottles lower on the downtube reduced drag and created a better surface for passing wind.

The seat tube and seatpost have also undergone a makeover, becoming thinner and deeper thanks to the relocation of the Di2 battery to the bottom bracket.

All these changes have resulted in a claimed drag reduction of 5.1W at 50km/h over its predecessor (frame-only). Add a rider to the mix, and this equates to a 14W improvement. On steeper eight-per-cent gradients, Orbea claims a 2W saving thanks to the OMX-level carbon frame's stiffness-to-weight ratio.

As before, there's a Service Box that fits under the downtube, serving as a fairing. While it's UCI-illegal, triathletes and amateurs can benefit from the 1.1W saving.

The new model also has the lowest bottom bracket drop on the market - 78mm across all frame sizes. Orbea claims this has improved stability and control in corners, lowered the center of gravity, and reduced rider frontal drag, too. Despite the 4mm lower BB than the current model, Orbea says there's still ample clearance in corners, even with 175mm crankarms.

Other changes include a new seatpost clamp design with a two-bolt system and two seatpost options: zero offset and offset.

System weight

The outgoing Orbea Orca Aero was far from light, which held it back from achieving greatness, but the brand always had the Orca climbing bike to fall back on. With modern aero bikes now reaching weights as low as 6.8kg, Orbea has had to step up and provide its customers, not to mention WorldTour team Lotto-Intermarché, with a fast-riding aero machine capable of overcoming gravity like a climbing bike.

Much of the weight savings has come from reducing excess carbon and improving the layup and recipe of the brand's premium OMX carbon fibre. High-end models are now more in line with direct rivals from Colnago, Giant, and Cervelo, with a 53cm Dura-Ace Di2-equipped model tipping the scales at 7.04kg. This drops to 6.9kg when specced with SRAM Red AXS.

Tyre clearance, handlebar sizes and futureproofing

Tyre clearance is up 7mm to 37mm, making it one of the most versatile options on the market. Orbea says the bike can maintain its full aerodynamic performance with tyre widths ranging from 29-35mm, and that it can save 6-7 watts at 40 km/h on cobbles or rough asphalt by reducing vibration losses.

There are 13 handlebar combinations to choose from with widths pegged at 36-, 38-, and 40cm. These widths can be matched to various stems that increase in 10mm increments: 90-140mm (40cm) and 80- 140mm (36 cm and 38 cm).

The Orbea Orca Aero is compatible only with electronic groupsets and plays nicely with UDH dropouts, too. There's a new 90-degree 'Spin Block' to prevent the handlebar and fork from spinning and knocking the downtube, as well as fork protection on the bottom of the drop-outs to prevent damage when fixing a puncture.

Crank length (165-175mm), handlebar/stem size, and seatpost offset are specifiable at purchase.

Model range, specifications and pricing

Six models are available in seven sizes (47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 60cm) with groupsets handled by Shimano, SRAM, or Campagnolo.

The Orbea Orca Aero M10i LTD and M11e LTD are priced at £9,999 / $12,127 / €10, 999. The M10i LTD gets a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset complete with power meter, while M11e LTD comes ressed with SRAM Red AXS. Both models are outfitted with the same components, including Oquo Road Aero RA57LTD wheels and a Fizik Vento Antares R1 carbon saddle.

One level down is the £6,599 / $8,268 / €7,499 Orca Aero M21e LTD, which gets SRAM Force AXS, Oquo Road Performance RP50LTD wheels, and a Fizik Vento Antares R1 carbon saddle. The Orca Aero M20i LTD gets the same components as the M21e LTD but swaps Force for a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset. It comes up cheaper at £5,899 / $7,386 / €6,699, but doesn't get a power meter as standard. You'll need to upgrade to the optional left-side 4iiii power meter to bring it to the same level as the Force AXS bike. At the same price as the M20i LTD Ultegra Di2 model is the Campagnolo Record-outfitted M22i LTD. It shares most of the components, save for the Oquo Road Performance RP50Team wheels

The lowest rung is occupied by the Shimano 105 Di2-equipped Aero M30i LTD. At £4,999 / $6,284 / €5,699, it's the most affordable option in the range but loses out on the fancier wheels and carbon-railed saddle of its siblings in favour of more durable parts.

After first peeking at the two prototype gravel bikes at Unbound Gravel, Giant and Liv have officially revealed that we all guessed correctly - the new Giant Revolt Advanced SL and the Liv Devote Advanced SL gravel bikes.

It was a textbook move by the Taiwanese brand, which just two years ago pulled a similar stunt by strategically leaking a prototype of the current-generation Giant Revolt Advanced Pro ahead of its then official launch.

As two of the best gravel bikes, the new models move away from the do-it-all adventure roots of previous generations, with both platforms completely reimagined with a single aim: unconditional race speed.

Engineered as fully integrated, holistic speed systems rather than a collection of standalone parts, these new platforms claim to deliver large aerodynamic drag reductions, dramatic weight savings, and aggressive geometry tailored for demanding gravel races, and doing away with the gravel adventuring modus operandi of the previous models.

While marketed to different audiences, these two elite platforms are cut from the same cloth. Built in the same specialised facilities, they share the same composite manufacturing processes designed to achieve weight savings and aerodynamic efficiency.

Shared carbon architecture

To truly understand these bikes, you have to look at their identical underlying skeletons. Both the Revolt and Devote Advanced lines utilise Giant Bicycle Group's most proprietary high-modulus carbon resin. This shared advanced composite framework relies on a triad of manufacturing systems:

Carbon Nanotube Technology (CNT): A resin blend that boasts strengthened microscopic bonds between fibre layers, aiming to improve impact resistance.

Continuous Fibre Technology: The application of long, unbroken sheets of carbon fabric, which aim to eliminate overlapping joints, and therefore strip away dead weight while maximising structural strength.

Precision Cold-Blade Cutting: Laser-precise, mechanical cutting of individual composite swatches, which claims to ensure a flawless, minimised layup with zero wasted material.

Translating this industry jargon into plain English: both brands are using high-tech glue, longer carbon strands, and a much sharper knife to craft their frames. This carbon-equivalent aerospace-grade alloy allows engineers to strip away unnecessary material, ensuring both frames remain featherweight yet stiff enough for the highest echelons of racing.

All in all, it's a relatively new, though not cheap, process for Giant Bicycles.

Translating shared tech to unique metrics

Because they share the same technological foundation, both bikes have achieved performance improvements over their predecessors.

For the Giant Revolt Advanced SL, this system-engineered approach yields a complete bike that is claimed to be 288g lighter than the previous generation. The bare frame boasts a drop to a scant 839g (a 151g reduction), while its fork shaves down to 385g, saving a combined 176g on the chassis alone.

Meanwhile, the Liv Devote Advanced SL uses the exact same layup process but with Liv's female-specific ergonomics. Optimised in the wind tunnel using "Georgia," its 3D-printed mannequin modelled after professional athlete Georgia Baker. Its core racing setup (frame, fork, wheels, and cockpit) tips the scales at a claimed 4,223g, cutting nearly 300g from the previous model.

Integrated cockpits and progressive geometry

The similarities extend beyond the carbon sheets. Both platforms integrate their front ends to optimise stiffness. The flagship builds for both models utilise ultra-light integrated handlebars, the Contact SLR XR, which weighs a claimed scant 295g.

They also share a major shift in progressive gravel geometry. Both the Revolt and Devote feature lower stack height, longer reach, steeper head tube angles and reduced fork trail. With the framesets more closely resembling road-faring bikes.

Giant and Liv both say these reworked geometries deliver substantial aerodynamic savings, with the Giant Revolt boasting a claimed 18.99-watt advantage and the Liv Devote promising a massive 20.03-watt saving, both over the previous incarnations.

Looking at the Revolt at a granular level, Giant says that total wind-tunnel testing confirms a 13.81W linear drag, 3.03W rolling resistance, plus rotating-wheel savings.

Compared to the previous generation, the new Revolt SL has a lower frontal profile (557mm stack height vs 586mm), 10mm more reach (395mm reach vs 385mm), and a +1.0-degree seat tube angle (74.5 degrees vs 73.5 degrees).

Sliding the microscope over the Liv Devote and the numbers are even more impressive. Taking advantage of 'Georgia', Liv's 3D-printed, fully adjustable mannequin modelled after the exact body dimensions of professional Liv AlUla Jayco athlete Georgia Baker, the brand claims to have optimised the Devote's AeroSystem Shaping to maximise real-world efficiency.

The new Devote is much more aggressive. Across almost all sizes, with a lower Stack and a longer Reach. Taking a size medium, for example, the stack is now 17mm lower and 8mm longer than the outgoing model.

To make it even more aggressive, the Devote comes specced with longer stems across the board (70–90mm vs. the original 50–80mm).

It is slightly disengenous however, to claim that the full wattage saving comes from the geo alone, with Liv confessing that the two bikes were measured differently in the wind tunnel, with the original Devote configured in a more upright, traditional all-road position.

Back to the joint launch statements, and both brands state that this reworking of the Revolt and Devote promise highly stable front-ends to achieve a composed ride feel, even on high-speed fire roads and in loose, unpredictable corners. Furthermore, they both offer a maximum 53mm of tyre clearance, giving racers total flexibility to adapt to changing course conditions.

Mirrored wheelsystems

While the heart of any bike is the frameset, it could be argued that the lungs are the wheels.

It will come as no surprise by now that this is another shared platform for Liv and Giant.

The top models, the Liv Devote and Revolt Advanced SL, use the brand new Cadex Max GRX Wheelsystem, which is a carbon 50mm hookless wheel with carbon spokes, fitted with Cadex GXR 45c tyres.

The Giant Bicycles house-brand wheelsets were launched just a couple of weeks ago, with the Advanced SL models being the first to be specc'd with the wheel-tyre combo.

The team behind Cadex say that the wheelset weighs just 1320g (1280g without valves and tape). Weight with the tyres is, as yet, an unknown quantity, despite the system-based approach, and the Cadex and Giant is quick to share stats such as the total aero drag reduction (linear + rotational) is now -15.96W and the total system resistance reduction saves 18.99W, both when compared to the previous Cades GX 40mm wheels.

It's worth noting at this stage that the wheelset can also take up to 53mm tyres, which, according to Cadex, isn't the optimal set-up for speed, but I would say it could be for the gnarlier gravel.

Purchased on their own, the Cadex GRX Wheelsystem is priced at $ 4000/£3499, and the GRX tyre is $ 85/£65 each.

The Reality Check: old vs new

When you look past the matching marketing claims - like Liv's "25% Better Pedalling" and "38.5% Better Handling" - the shared physical reality of these frames comes down to raw stiffness-to-weight efficiency.

Making a frame harder and lighter means less energy is lost when you pedal. It doesn't mean 25% more speed; it means they cut weight and used a better carbon layup and resin than in previous iterations.

Without some context, you'd think the previous models rode like wet spaghetti;

However, understanding that Advance SLs that gain (or lose) these headline numbers are totally new bikes.

The range name is about all they now share, so it feels very disengenous of both Liv and Giant to make any comparisons on improvements between old and new.

To be honest, I suspect it's only down to the immense cost and time involved in registering and trademarking a new range that these new bikes fall under the Devote or Revolt umbrella at all.

That's no shade on the brands for this naming-keepsake move; it's a cost that would have been passed down to end consumers, so it saves money in the right places. However, to try to wow us with the 'improvements' is pretty naughty.

Will that stop me loving the new bikes - probably not. There aren't many Liv bikes I haven't wanted to keep forever, and I suspect the same for my colleagues with their thoughts on Giant; I can't see why either of these two gravel platforms would be any different.

Specifications: models and prices

I'll spare you the granular specification charts for both new bikes and every model in the range and share more on that when we have the bikes.

But as a quick summary, the Advance SL tops the range, and both the Devote and the Revolt use the same SL-grade carbon for the frame and fork, Giant Contact SLR XR D-Fuse carbon seatpost, and, interestingly, the same Cadex Amp saddle.

The Contact SLR XR integrated handlebars differ between the Liv and Giant brands, but only in size: Liv specifies slightly smaller cockpit dimensions depending on size; for example, on size-small bikes, the Liv Devote uses a 70x420mm setup, while the Giant Revolt scales up to 420mm.

The other area that is matched, but not identical, is the SRAM Red cranksets. This time, both smalls run 165mm cranks with a powermeter as standard, but the 1x chainring on the small Devote is 42t, while the small Revolt again sizes up to 44t; both, however, get the same 13-speed 10x42 cassette.
As expected, both top models run the flagship Cadex Max GRX wheelsystem mentioned above.

Depending on the model, the bikes will cost between $7,300/ £5,499 and $12,000/ £10,000 for either the Liv Devote or Giant Revolt.

We'll bring you more details about all the models and their specifics once the new bikes have landed with us, but in the meantime, both bikes will be available to purchase in the EU and UK only, while Giant's CEO still unpicks the import tangle. which is currently still enforced in the USA.

Wheelset prices are getting out of control, and finding a lightweight, performance option at a reasonable price from the established Western brands has become a rather futile exercise. Add carbon fibre architecture into the equation, and things get even pricier – especially among the upper echelons of the best road bike wheels.

SRAM-owned component manufacturer Zipp, however, claims to have a solution, unveiling a new carbon-fibre wheelset aimed at attracting new customers without watering down the brand's substance.

The Zipp 404 S replaces the 303 S, a model that became the go-to training wheel for WorldTour riders and regular consumers, thanks to its versatility as an all-road and gravel wheelset.

When Zipp unveiled the 303 XPLR SW and S-level gravel-specific wheel and 1Zero HiTop S cross-country mountain bike wheels in 2023, this left a gap in the range for a dedicated road wheel, and so the 404 S was born. The 404 S takes everything the American brand knows about carbon layups and aerodynamics and packages it into a wheel that Zipp says ‘punches well above its weight’ with a two-watt improvement over the 303 S.

The specifications look pretty good on paper, with a combined system weight of 1,585g per pair. The hoops measure 50mm deep and are built around a contemporary 23mm hookless internal rim, allowing tyres ranging from 28-29mm to be run at low pressure. Like most wheels in Zipp’s range, the 404 S was developed to work best with the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyre, claiming a 1-watt improvement over other 28mm tyres paired with the same rim. The wheels utilise the company’s tried-and-tested 76/176 hubset and are laced with 20/24 Sapim-CX Sprint spokes in a two-cross pattern.

The hubset employs a three-pawl system with 30 points of engagement, eschewing top-end performance in favour of durability. Customisation is fairly limited, with decal options available in white and dark grey. Owing to Zipp targeting the lower end of the best road bike wheels, tyre pressure sensors are not included, as they would significantly drive up the price.

In terms of durability, the wheels are constructed with standard steel spokes and contact seal bearings to prevent contamination during wet-weather riding. There’s also a handy lifetime warranty and crash replacement policy for peace of mind.

Zipp has done well to price the 404 S in a space it currently doesn't occupy – the sub-£1,000/$1,300 category. At £985 / $1,300 / €1,100 for the pair, these are among the most affordable 50mm-deep performance-wheel offerings from an established brand on the market.

We'll be getting a pair on test soon and will report in detail on how they perform in racing and training scenarios, as well as putting their durability to the test over the wet season.

Zipp 404 S tech specs

• Price: £985 / $1,300 / €1,100
• Weight: 1,585g
• Disc layout: Centrelock
• Spoke count: 20/24 front/rear
• Rim depth: 50mm
• Internal rim width: 23mm
• Rim type: Hookless

After months of speculation, Specialized has officially dropped the covers off its flagship do-it-all S-Works Tarmac SL9 road bike, just in time for the Tour de France.

The redesign hasn't been the brand's best-kept secret, with leaked images surfacing online and a blacked-out version spotted in the wild at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Specialized is touting the new S-Works Tarmac SL9 as "the fastest road bike ever made". A bold claim indeed, especially given the frame looks - to the eye - almost identical to its predecessor.

However, Specialized says it's the result of an entirely new approach to optimisation. Rather than basing the claim on isolated wind tunnel data, it instead used a physics-based simulation output that predicts racing time over specific real-world courses, using a collection of measured inputs from aerodynamics and rider power to environmental conditions and more.

Specialized is calling this its ‘Time to Finish’ metric, and it's the first time we've seen a bike brand take the concept of computational race simulation - used by WorldTour teams to optimise set-ups and tactics - and use it to inform engineering.

In this instance, the brand has benchmarked the SL9 over various races, from Monuments to Grand Tour stages. In one of its simulations, Specialized claims Demi Vollering would have crossed the line some 14 seconds faster than she did on her SL8 at the 2024 Tour de France Femmes stage up Alpe d’Huez, and ultimately won the General Classification by 10 seconds.

In testing, the design team used a mannequin with moving legs (dubbed the Moving Leg Mannequin) to analyse how a rider in motion affects airflow across the bike, a step up from frame-only or half-mannequin tests carried out elsewhere. While the result looks largely the same as before - a subtle overhaul, if you will - every tube shape has reportedly been redesigned at the brand’s Morgan Hill Innovation Center.

The re-sculpting created a bike that’s claimed to be four watts faster - using Specialized's 'Moving Leg Mannequin' at 45km/h - than the previous model, and lighter; the claimed frame weight for the S-Works SL9 is just 687 grams, with complete builds of 6.2-6.5kg possible depending on wheels and cockpits (there's a choice of Rapide and Aplinist).

As before, every size from 44-61cm gets a size-specific layup to ensure stiffness, compliance, and handling are consistent across the range.

Let's get into the details.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

While the S-Works Tarmac SL9 looks a lot like the SL8, there are a few ways to tell them apart.

For starters, the 'Speed Sniffer' headtube, introduced with the SL8, is now narrower thanks to the rerouting of the rear brake cable along the right side of the steerer. While the new S-Works Tarmac SL9 utilises the same headset bearings and hardware as the outgoing SL8, the slimmer headtube means the design team had to get creative with the internal plumbing of the brake hoses. To get around this, the steerer tube is slightly offset to the left so that the hoses can pass through the right side without added friction and interference to the steering.

Specialized says the slimmer, hourglass shape makes for a 10 per cent reduction in the SL9’s frontal area. There’s also a steerer stop to prevent the rear crown from making contact with the downtube.

The fork appears much deeper than before, with the legs now ‘twisted’ outwards to better guide airflow along the frame and reduce drag across the front of the bike. Both the head tube and fork are designed to work with a dropped downtube, featuring a reduced gap between the fork, head tube, and front tyre to reduce drag.

There's also a redesigned seatpost that resulted from additional Moving Leg Mannequin analysis. During these tests, it was shown that as a rider pedals, their legs accelerate airflow into the space between their thighs and the frame, which then strikes the seatpost. To improve airflow in this zone, Specialized has created a deeper yet thinner post.

Dubbed the 'Win Fin', the seat tube and rear triangle junction has been reimagined and inspired by breakaway riders who ditch their second bottle for improved aerodynamics. Specialized adjusted the design through this real-world configuration, and says it saves 0.5 watts.

Specialized says the redesigned, optimised tube shapes eliminate unnecessary carbon layers, which explains the drop in the frame’s weight. As for the Fact 12r layup, each ply is reportedly designed to help the SL9 respond positively under load, thereby allowing fine-tuning across the bike, balancing stiffness and compliance to match those of the SL8.

What about the geometry?

As before, seven frame sizes are available, with the geometry numbers nearly identical to those of the outgoing model across the sizing chart. The only exception the 54cm, where an increased fork offset (44 to 47mm) and a 0.5-degree reduction in the head tube angle (73 degrees to 72.5 degrees) were implemented to increase toe clearance with the front wheel.

Other than that, the trail and chainstay numbers remain the same, but there are subtle differences in reach and stack, headtube length, and wheelbase measurements.

Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9 - first ride impressions

Having spent six months on a long-term Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, I was pretty excited to get my leg over the new model and test the new claims for myself. I was invited to Specialized UK's headquarters in Dorking to sample the bike on UK roads, but more importantly, roads I use to test most of the bikes I review for Cycling Weekly.

With frame angles pretty much unchanged over the previous model, the new S-Works Tarmac SL9, unsurprisingly, feels a lot like the model it replaces – it's very direct and responsive to pedal inputs and possesses the same well-balanced handling characteristics and precise steering as before. It's this sense of familiarity that will help current owners quickly adjust to the new platform and transfer their bike-fit measurements without fuss.

While Specialized was quick to dazzle me with all the improvements and marketing glitter regarding ride quality, and with claims that it's a faster bike than before at speeds upwards of 45km/h, I approached this bike with no expectations and assessed it as objectively as possible. Having spent a lot of time on its chief adversary, the Cannondale SuperSix Evo, I was eager to see how the S-Works Tarmac SL9 stacked up on the same roads.

Ride quality is always a personal thing and can vary with rider weight and tyre pressure, but the S-Works Tarmac SL9 remains buttery smooth without sacrificing detail or feel. My test bike came fitted with 30mm Specialized Cotton TLR tyres set up tubeless, which delivered a superbly cosseting ride quality and grip levels. Like before, the Tarmac can fit tyres up to 32mm with 4mm of clearance, but that's based on rim width and pressures.

With a full SRAM Red AXS groupset and 50/37T, 10-33T drivetrain assembly, my test bike tipped the scales at 6.89kg without pedals. That's more than light enough for the average rider and ideal for the lumpy terrain that snakes around the Surrey Hills.

Climbing is unsurprisingly easygoing, and despite the larger-than-usual gearing (most SRAM Red and Force AXS-specced bikes come with 48/35T, 10-33T gearing), I didn't feel the need to use the small ring on any of the climbs – this included Combe Lane (7.1% average grdient), Box Hill (5% average gradient) and Newlands Corner (4.5% average gradient). Having a taller final drive ratio means you shouldn't spin out like a rabid hamster on the descents either.

In terms of outright speed, the S-Works Tarmac SL9 sure feels quick. While it's impossible to quantify whether it is, in fact, four watts faster than its predecessor, it certainly holds momentum incredibly well, and the 50-10T means you can carry more speed over rolling terrain. Once it reaches speeds of 40km/h and above, like many of its rivals, it doesn't require much effort to keep it moving, and the sensation of speed and the sound from the tyres provoke you to ride it harder and faster.

At speeds typical of the average rider, however, and we're talking 25-30km/h here, it doesn't feel any different to the SL8 and perhaps most riders would be better off not upgrading to an S-Works Tarmac SL9 and rather waiting for the 'more affordable' sub-S-Works level grades to launch. After all, Specialized is pitching this bike at the WorldTour rider, where average race speeds are as high as 46km/h, and that four-watt improvement actually matters.

Either way, Specialized has refined the recipe rather than tampered with it, and created one of the most complete bikes in the pro peloton. It's super smooth, rich in communication and feedback, and descends as well as it climbs. Is it the best all-round bike on the market? Well, that's tough to call after just 70km on the bike, but it sure has all the markings of a segment leader.

Bring on the group test!

Build and pricing

As expected, the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL9 is available in two high-end build options: SRAM Red AXS and Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, which differ slightly in pricing.

SRAM Red AXS-equipped bikes come in at £11,999 / $14,000 / €13,999 and feature 50/37T, 10-33T chainsets complete with a power meter. Most of the components come from Specialized's in-house component arm, Roval, and gain Rapide CLX III wheels, a Rapide cockpit, Ceramic Speed bearings, and an S-Works Power with Mirror saddle.

Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 builds utilise the same finishing kit, wheels, cockpit, and saddle, and cost the same as the SRAM Red AXS version in the United Kingdom and Europe (£11,999 / €13,999), but $500 less for the American market - a small saving that is quite significant at this level.

If you want to merely swap over the components on your current bike, Specialized offers a frameset-only option at £5,249 / $5,800.

While there's no news on the balance of the Tarmac SL9 range, like the new Crux lineup, we expect Specialized to roll out its new S-Level and Expert models in the coming months.

Are 32” wheels cycling’s new rage bait? No matter what content you consume, these wheels spark conversation and very strong opinions.

The larger diameter wheels — which in theory would roll faster and smoother over bumps — potentially rule out a huge segment of the market. As I wrote when wheels and tyres appeared at the Sea Otter trade show: “the geometry simply doesn't work at smaller frame sizes without some significant engineering resulting in a good chunk of the cycling population locked out before the format has even properly launched.”

Allison Schmitz, however, disagrees. And, she’s designed the bike to prove it.

Standing at 5'2" (158cm), Schmitz is a design engineer at Salsa Cycles — and she rides a size small. Which is exactly why the Fargo, Salsa's new 32" wheel bike, is the first one I've seen that actually fits a frame that small.

As a 5’5 female myself, the buzz around 32” bikes had been completely lost on me. In my mind, I was just too darn short to ride them. So you can imagine my surprise when I was walking about the Sea Otter Classic this past spring, to find a 32” wheel bike in a size small. A frame I could actually stand over. When I asked the rep at Salsa how this was possible, the answer was simple: “Allison would never make a bike that wasn’t available to everyone.”

I recently caught up with Schmitz to hear a little more about why 32” wheels aren’t just for tall people.

THE 32" PROBLEM NOBODY WAS SOLVING

In case you’ve been shielded from the endless chatter about 32” wheels, the bikes built around this soon-to-be wheel standard are essentially designed for riders 5'9" and taller. It’s just math. Bigger wheels mean longer forks, higher stack, and an elongated wheelbase to help with tyre clearance, and the dreaded toe overlap. All this translates into a bike that fits a 6’ rider beautifully, and leaves the rest of us standing on the sidelines.

That is, until you get the right people involved in the conversation.

As Schmitz shares, when the Fargo project kicked off, the team had that same original intent: to follow the trend and create a bike around the 32” platform in size medium and up. And then things changed.

"We have this big team to help challenge the product design process and ask the questions. So why are you stopping there? Why not small? It was this perfect confluence of me being the engineer on this project and being a person who rides a size small, to really put that effort and focus into small prototypes," Schmitz shares.

A GAME OF MILLIMETRES

How does one shrink a size large into a size small? You don’t, as Schmitz shares. You start anew.

Like most ideas, Schmitz began with a simple sketch: “a 2D stick figure,” as Schmitz describes it. A basic outline of what a bike looks like on a screen in a software program called SolidWorks, and then slowly, tube by tube, you start hanging parts on it. She talks about it as pulling geometry numbers, checking clearances, asking what happens if you move this millimetre here or that angle there. It's methodical, iterative, and the kind of detailed work that could send your head spinning.

One principle she works by: always start with the smallest size. "That frame is honestly going to give you the most challenges because you've got less space to work with." Solve the small, she says, and the rest tends to follow.

Schmitz and the team were able to push the front wheel just far enough forward to solve the toe clearance problem. A negative rise stem manages the higher stack. A shortened head tube brings things back into proportion. Small decisions, made carefully, added up into a bike that actually fits everyone.

The next step was to ride it. With an in-house welder, the team was able to create rapid prototypes, bringing three different bikes to life for testing: a 29" variant, a 32" with a rigid fork, and a 32" with a suspension fork. The three builds weren't just variations for variation's sake, each one let Schmitz test how the small-frame constraints, toe clearance, stack height, fork length, behaved differently depending on wheel size and suspension setup. This was critical to nail down before any geometry was locked in for production.

"Bike design is a game of millimetres," she says. "You're just trying to squeeze every little millimetre you can get." And she feels those compromises personally. "It can be a little frustrating. You're like, is this a different experience? I understand why you had to do that, but also, what can I do to just make this a better compromise?"

RIDING YOUR OWN WORK

Schmitz rode the first Fargo prototype around Minneapolis and remembers the moment clearly.

"I was like, this bike looks cool. I'd like to keep this."

She rode those prototypes all summer. The decisions about geometry, about what compromises were acceptable — she was making them as a rider as well as an engineer.

"I'm not designing this bike for me," she's careful to say. "It's for a wide range of users."

So how did the bike feel? The impact of bigger wheels is significant, Schmitz says. "It has better rollover and momentum to get you there faster or take you farther," Schmitz said. But it isn’t necessarily the most intuitive, at least not at first. "There was an adjustment period, it felt like a lot of bike to get my leg over the wheel, but I was surprised how quickly that feeling went away and how normal it became.”

To help alleviate this issue, Schmitz added a dropper post. “It helped me get used to the handling, even just coming to stops and getting on and off the bike."

After that, something shifted. "It became my preferred ride," she said. "The better rollover, traction and maintained momentum is noticeable and I find myself more confident and daring on the 32" bike. The big wheels open up more trail for me, with the forgiveness of poor line choice because the wheels can overcome a lot."

32” WHEELS SHOULDN’T BE EXCLUSIVE

For Schmitz, this was never just about one bike. It's about access.

"Everyone deserves the benefits of 32" wheels and the choice on what wheel size is best for them," she says. Her argument is grounded in a very real, very practical need. "32" wheels have a higher angular momentum and a lower angle of attack, which means these wheels roll faster and farther under the same amount of power. This translates into tangible and measurable advantages. “The longer contact patch improves traction and, paired with the other benefits (faster rolling, more momentum retention) it allows for new line choices through difficult terrain."

These are benefits that every rider, regardless of height, should have the option. Just like any other bike, cyclists should be able to decide whether they want this performance, or not. Sadly, this isn’t even an option for most riders. There isn’t even the illusion of choice. The door isn’t simply closed—it doesn’t even exist. Until now.

"The only way to have this choice is if more brands to challenge and expand the size range for 32" bikes," she says. "We know it's possible, the Fargo 32 is a great example. But even with Fargo's versatility, it is one example with a specific set of design parameters in mind. I'm excited to see how the industry will innovate and serve a larger bike community with this new wheel size."

While one bike doesn't fix the entire size challenge across the cycling industry, it does prove a point. The next question is whether the rest of the industry will answer. Or is even willing to try.

WHAT SHE'S RIDING TOWARD, PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY

Schmitz describes herself as a casual rider. And then in the same sentence drops that she used to be a competitive distance swimmer and once did a 24-hour race in Minneapolis on a tandem, with her husband, that they found on Craigslist. She also wants to ride across the entire state of Minnesota and eventually, the United States… on rail trails. It’s this understated confidence that comes through in her professional life too.

She wants to keep learning, expanding her skillset into more carbon frames and even some full suspension projects too. It’s not about notoriety for Schmitz, instead, it’s about seeking solutions with the ultimate goal of becoming a subject matter expert. Not famous. Just genuinely good at the thing she's spending her time on. When I press her for a little more she keeps it cool and low-key with a simple: "I'm just ready to work on my next project.”

What makes Schmitz’s story so interesting isn't that she's a woman in a male dominated field (though she is, and that matters). Instead, it’s that she's proof that the best products come when there are more perspectives involved. When you invite different people into the conversation.

Schmitz didn't set out to make a statement. She just showed up, and asked the questions nobody else did. Ultimately, building something that made a difference and creating a bike that fits everyone because she needed it to fit her.

The rest is just millimetres.

Two generations ago, heart rate monitors were clunky devices found only in hospitals and sport science labs. A generation ago, power meters were for WorldTour pros and a few weekend warriors with plenty of extra cash to burn. Until about a decade ago, a bike-mounted rear-facing radar that gave you early warning to traffic approaching from behind was science fiction.

Sure, riding L’Eroica—on a steel bike with downtube friction shifters, wearing wood and wool—may be a fun experience. But have you ever wondered if you could be safer on your daily jaunt?

Ignoring technological advancements in cycling might bolster your bank account, but given the current state of cycling tech, are you doing yourself a disservice?

Radars

When I’m doing a very short commute to the gym on my city commuter, I’ll leave my Garmin radar at home. But even if I’m out for a short, leisurely coffee ride, I’d feel naked without it. Although a radar cannot affect traffic approaching from the rear, it gives me ample warning about vehicle proximity and closing speed. The latest generation of radar can discern a motor from an 18-wheeled flatbed, too, with enough early warning to allow for evasive action if needed.

Of course, you don’t need all this info to have fun on a bike. You can simply put your head unit in your jersey pocket and listen for the audible radar alerts. Given the life-saving potential of this device, why more people don’t have them is beyond me.

Bike Computers as Dashboards

Bike computers used to be small and awkward contraptions requiring wires wrapped around brake cables or zip-tied to downtubes. Wheel and crankset magnets never seemed to stay in place. And forget getting speed/distance data if you needed a neutral spare wheel in a race.

Current head units from Hammerhead, Garmin, and Wahoo sit at the centre of electronics ecosystems that provide more data processing power to crunch ride info than was available for the entire U.S. space program from start through the lunar landing.

Even if you don’t need or want to know your effort, basic bike computers act as a display to alert you to hazards approaching when paired with a radar.

Mapping and Navigation

When riding on strange new roads, using a printed cue sheet is low-tech and functional. But to be safe, you’ll need to pull off to the side of the road to use it. And hope it’s a rain-free day.

Of course, you can use your phone’s map, but what if you ride where mobile service is spotty? And if you’re using your phone in lieu of a bike computer, you're putting it at risk of violent ejection at worst, and a drained battery at best.

Route mapping and turn-by-turn navigation available in even modestly-priced bike computers may not be indispensable, but for those who find thrill in exploring new roads, these features can help get you home safely, with relatively few worries.

Wearable Tech

Do you ignore the check engine light when it comes on in your car?

Accurate wrist-worn heart rate monitors have been available to consumers since the early 1990s. Today’s generation of wearables are more powerful than many bike computers since they offer 24/7 monitoring.

And wearing sport watches or recovery monitors allows for basic biohacking (like when to take more rest, or have one less post-ride pint) backed by data that takes the guesswork out of when and how much to rest.

You don’t need this info to enjoy your ride, either—but it can inform you on how to make your riding more enjoyable when not as tired or fatigued.

Power Meters

Around the same time when heart rate monitors became ubiquitous for athletes, wired SRM power meters were seen on a few pros’ bikes. At the time, they cost more than a set of top-tier race wheels, (but also ensured a bike would be over the UCI minimum weight). Downside: they had to be returned to the factory for a battery swap, and could be fickle when used in rapidly changing outdoor conditions.

The latest generation of power meters can be had for the cost of a few sets of tubeless tyres. This democratising tech can help with pacing race-winning moves or confidently completing an epic randonneur.

When matching watts with heart rate data and recovery metrics, and comparing against terrain and environmental factors, you’ll have your own human performance lab at home. If you race and you’re not doing this, your competition will thank you.

Indoor cycling tech

Even for those who are fortunate enough to live in climates where one can ride year-round, there are always circumstances where cycling indoors means not missing a ride due to weather, daylight, safety, or obligations.

Tools like Zwift, MyWhoosh, and TrainerRoad mean you don’t have to skip saddle time. Why is this so crucial? If you race or have a big ride on your calendar, maintaining consistency is massively important for being successful. If you Zwift, you already know this. If you swore off riding inside, maybe you just don’t know what you’re missing?

Drivetrains

Electronic shifting isn’t a must-have, and ignoring it isn’t perilous.

But the big three component manufacturers are heavily leaning into battery-driven shifting, and many new bikes will be electronic-only going forward.

Should you start stockpiling shift cables now?

Tubless tyres

Much like the polarising disc brake debate of the late twenty-teens, tyre- and wheel systems are kindling for heated discussion.

Those not already in the tubeless tyres camp claim they know what they’re missing. But it’s a lot easier to carry a handful of plugs than more than two spare tubes. Like disc brakes and electronic shifting, most major bike manufacturers are shipping bikes with tubeless-ready wheels and tyres.

Parcours’ latest addition to the best road bike wheels segment is the Strade GT - a wheelset that employs recycled carbon fiber to enhance the user experience and improve overall performance, while also reducing waste and landfill. With performance gains in weight reduction and aerodynamics becoming increasingly marginal, Parcours considers material exploration the next meaningful step in cycling performance.

We’ve been testing Parcours products for a while now, starting back in 2020 with the original mixed-depth Strade wheels. This was followed by the brand’s foray into the gravel discipline with the Alta and FKT gravel wheels, and to this day one thing has remained consistent - Parcours’ propensity to stay abreast of trends and sometimes even beat more internationally established brands to market.

The secret recipe comes from what it calls VibraCore, a structural integration of recycled carbon material laid up within the wheel, designed to minimise vibration at the spoke bed before it is transmitted to the bike and rider. It’s very clever, and it works - transforming the way your bike performs on poorly surfaced roads. I wrote about it in more detail when we covered the launch news of the Strade GT wheels.

Technical details

Like the FKT gravel wheels, the optics of the Strade GT are premium, incorporating beautifully typeset logos that accompany the trademark Parcours wordmark. You’ll also notice the new GT nomenclature, along with two entirely new Lineat and AFFT logos. Gone is the typical unidirectional carbon-fibre look, and in comes a unique, ornate pattern attributed to the AFFT (Aligned Formable Fibre Technology), selected for its aesthetic qualities. Closer inspection also reveals a GT logo on both the front and rear hubsets, another nod to the quality and detail of this wheelset.

I quite liked the initial set of Parcours Strade GT wheels sent to us for early testing, especially their aesthetic qualities. Unlike the current Parcours wheel inventory, the prototypes featured a holographic, keyline Parcours wordmark that contrasted vividly with the carbon-fibre backdrop, but this design language was abandoned because Parcours founder Dov Tate opted for a uniform look and feel. Still, I do hope the company perhaps applies this to a special edition wheelset or gives customers the option to personalise their wheels.

One of the standout attributes of the Strade GT wheels is the company’s decision to utilise a hooked-bead interface rather than the now-de rigueur hookless system, intended to improve tyre security when paired with lower pressure. The rim profile is an evolution of the existing Strade wheelset’s 49/54mm heights and was optimised for use with 30mm tyres. The most notable change is a one-millimetre increase in internal rim width (23.5mm vs 22.5mm), which places the Strade GTs in line with contemporary standards.

The hubs feature a captive design and are laced with 21/24 front/rear in a two-cross radial pattern at the front and a one-cross (NDS)/three-cross (DS) configuration at the rear. The drive mechanism uses a four-pawl freehub and 60T ratchet, chosen for its notably quick engagement and light system weight. Looking at the performance metrics, according to Parcours, the Strade GT is 3.2W faster than the current Strade at 48km/h and 15 per cent more stable in the handling stakes, which is big news given how predictable the original Strade wheels performed in the wind. The GTs are also 390g lighter, which translates to a considerable improvement in rotational inertia and is something you’ll instantly notice.

The standout attribute of the wheels, however, is the VibraCore technology, which integrates reclaimed carbon material from AFFT (Aligned Formable Fibre Technology) into the spoke bed - a process carried out by industry specialists, Lineat. It requires state-of-the-art machinery to be done properly, but it's essentially carried out using processes such as pyrolysis and solvolysis, which remove plastics, resins, and solvents to obtain short carbon fibres. After the resins are burned away, the remaining fibres are realigned by Lineat and combined with resin to form new composite sheets. The AFFT retains a proportion of the tensile properties of virgin carbon fibre, accounting for approximately 12–15% of the rim's total material and ultimately helping eliminate landfill waste.

During manufacture, the placement of the reclaimed carbon fibre sheets is channelled in the thickest area of the wheel as part of the structural layup. VibraCore influences how vibrational energy is transmitted through the rim at the earliest possible stage, rather than acting as an external damping system.

VibraCore has also enabled the introduction of carbon-fibre spokes as it mitigates the harsh vibrations often associated with the material – in this case, Alpina Carbolite spokes laced in a 21/24 front/rear configuration and chosen for their narrow-bladed design, which rivals the compliance of steel spokes.

According to Parcours, the differences between a non-VibraCore and VibraCore rim are stark. Real-world testing in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, with multiple riders on varied surfaces and equipped with vibration sensors, showed that VibraCore reduced vibration energy by 19-23%. These results are comparable to a 10-15psi reduction in tyre pressure without negatively impacting associated rolling efficiency or speed.

Performance

You can feel the vibration-damping qualities of the VibraCore tech pretty much instantly, and while it's hard to quantify, road buzz feels notably subdued – delivering a softer, quieter ride with no discernible effect on speed or wheel stiffness. The wheels respond well under load and transfer pedalling force effectively. During all my testing, I purposely sought out rough roads and rumble strips to assess the wheels, and they handled everything impressively while keeping progress swift. Compared to my riding mates who were using regular carbon wheels, I often opened a bit of a gap on them as we crossed rougher, broken roads, as the VibraCore ensures better system conformity over choppier surfaces.

I’m not sure how they would cope with more severe terrain such as cobblestones, but paired with larger-volume tyres and lower pressures, comfort and overall control are significantly better than with a traditional racing wheel. While the Strade GTs are best paired with 30mm tyres, I fitted them with a pair of 28mm Pirelli PZero TLR SL-R tyres to better assess the ride quality and the claimed reduction in road vibration at my usual 55/60 psi front/rear pressures. I like the way the sidewalls of Pirelli PZero TLR SL-R tyres seamlessly integrate with the rim profiles, creating a complete system that looks flush and aerodynamic.

Interestingly, I spent time testing both a prototype of the Strade GT and the finished product, and apart from the slow-engaging 30T ratchet and prototype graphics, there wasn’t much difference between the two wheelsets in terms of ride feel and behaviour. It was only when I switched them for the production-ready Strade GT wheels that the differences were instantly notable thanks to a four-pawl 60T ratchet system and a three-degree angle of engagement.

In terms of straight-line performance, the wheels accelerate like any other performance wheel offering and sail up inclines thanks to the low system weight of 1,140g (495/645g front/rear). It’s worth noting that the wheels reduced the total system weight of my Cannondale SystemSix by 475g compared to my standard Shimano Dura-Ace C60 setup.

The 49/54mm front/rear rim profiles are close to perfect. They’re neither overly deep nor shallow – instead, they strike a balance often missing from the best road bike wheels when it comes to overall handling. They don’t suffer in crosswind situations either, which is a big plus for nervous descenders. They feel super stable, providing controlled handling and confidence in windy conditions and during fast descents. Compared to other wheels I’m currently testing, including my stock Shimano Dura-Ace C60 wheel arrangement, the step up in comfort and overall speed is undeniable, and I’m looking forward to this technology being applied to other wheels in the company’s range.

Value

As it stands, the Parcours Strade GT wheels have no direct rivals. The wheels occupy a unique space where performance and comfort converge – attributes that don't typically go hand in hand. Based on the mixed-depth rim profiles, the closest competitors come from Tune and Roval.

The Tune Yokto 4550 wheels we tested last month are pricier at £3,050 and do get ceramic bearings as standard, but also weigh 150g more than the Strade GT. We noted that the Yoktos do very little wrong but are not outstanding either and also possess a notably firm ride quality given the wrapped spokes.

Roval offers the mixed-depth Rapide CLX III in a reverse 63/58mm front-to-rear configuration. They also get ceramic bearings and carbon spokes, but have a narrower internal width and weigh more than both the Parcours and Tune wheels at 1,305g for the pair. They’re also pricier items at £2,998.

The Parcours Strade GT will set you back £2,499 with steel bearings. In fact, even if you spec them with ceramic bearings (£2,719), they still come up cheaper than both Tune and Roval, and quite frankly, offer better bang for your buck.

Based on their price, weight, all-round performance and superb ride quality, they are one of the best wheelsets I’ve ever sampled, and are close to perfect if I’m honest.

Tech specs

• Price: £2,499 / US$3,299 / €3,199
• Weight: 1,140g (495/645g front/rear)
• Disc layout: Centrelock
• Spoke count: 21/24 front/rear
• Rim depth: 49/54mm front/rear
• Internal rim width: 23.5mm
• Rim type: Hooked
• Freehub options: Shimano HG11/12, SRAM XDR

Cannondale's CAAD line has always attracted a following of riders who appreciate things done a little differently. And Los Angeles-based Team Dream has basically built an entire brand around that idea. Bringing the two together for a collab seems like it was only a matter of time.

Those who attended the Los Angeles Invitational at The Cub House in San Marino, California, this past weekend got an early sneak peek. And today, Cannondale is officially opening sales on this very limited-edition release.

Built around Cannondale's newest-generation aluminium race bike and infused with Team Dream's edgy visual language, the Cannondale x Team Dream CAAD14 framesets celebrate everything that has made both names cult favourites. The result is two framesets with eye-catching retro paint schemes and a cycling kit and other soft goods to match.

Only 100 framesets will be produced worldwide. Fifty will be available in the "Player 1" red-and-purple colourway and another fifty in the "Player 2" blue paint, with every frame individually numbered from 1 to 50. Each Cannondale x Team Dream CAAD14 frameset purchase includes access to a private Team Dream portal, where owners can select an exclusive Cannondale x Team Dream cycling kit and have it shipped directly to their door.

Founded in Los Angeles in 2012 by Sean Talkington, Team Dream began life as a fictional race team that served an outlet for creative expression. Over time, that fictional team became a small-batch apparel brand built around the philosophy of "looking good & having fun." Along the way, it developed a devoted community of riders drawn to its playful spirit, distinctive artwork, and refusal to separate performance from personality.

Those values align well with the CAAD lineage.

For decades, CAAD bikes have occupied a unique space in the road cycling world, delivering race-level performance without the price tag or perceived fragility often associated with carbon frames.

Stiff, fast and aluminium, the platform has developed something of a cult-like following among racers and hard-riding enthusiasts who believe performance metal still has a place in a carbon-dominated road scene.

The new CAAD14 continues that tradition. Rather than attempting to imitate a carbon race bike, Cannondale designed the frame around aluminium's natural strengths. Oversized tubes, smooth welds, and the classic double-diamond silhouette return, paired with modern updates including internal cable routing through Cannondale's Delta steerer system, UDH compatibility, a threaded BSA bottom bracket, clearance for 32mm tyres, and a new race-focused geometry designed to deliver the lively handling that has long defined the platform.

The Cannondale x Team Dream CAAD14 framesets go on sale for $2,499 / €2,499 at 10 a.m. Pacific on June 15 via the Cannondale website. With only 100 numbered framesets available worldwide, demand is likely to be high.

The accompanying apparel and soft goods collection will launch simultaneously on the Team Dream website.

Buying kit from a brand you know and love is all well and good, but sometimes you’re after something a little different. There are numerous reasons to buy custom cycling kit: wanting to show off your own design, needing matching jerseys for a group event such as a charity or corporate ride, sourcing a supplier for your cycling club’s clothing, or designing a leader’s jersey for a stage race. Customised cycle clothing allows riders to stand out from the bunch, individually or as a group. owayo creates the opportunity to blend style with functionality and performance, delivering professional-quality designs on premium fabrics. The 3D Kit Designer provides complete creative freedom to the user; explore numerous patterns and colours, and have fun creating exactly what you dream of wearing.

Read on to see how easy it is to design high-quality, unique cycle clothing and why owayo’s 3D Kit Designer is the perfect tool for the job.

Choose what you want to customise

You probably already know what you’re looking for: a single jersey, a matching jersey and shorts or a whole collection of kit for a club order. owayo offers a complete men’s and women’s range of long and short sleeve jerseys, bib shorts, skin suits, bib tights and casual wear, plus a unisex collection of jackets, gilets and accessories.

Just because you’re purchasing from a custom kit supplier, there’s no need to compromise on quality and performance. The fabrics are durable and the colours made to last. The collection includes more relaxed and race-fit items to suit recreational and competitive cyclists alike, and all are constructed from advanced, lightweight fabrics that’ll wick moisture effectively and remain comfortable on big rides. If you’re ordering shorts, you’ll have a choice of pads (or no pad if you prefer), and many of the tops allow you to choose different pocket and reflectivity configurations. Regardless of the item you choose to customise, you can expect to find all the features you would in your current favourite brand, such as breathable materials, aerodynamic cuts and practical touches such as high-vis details and secure storage, except you can really make this your own.

Available globally, including across the US, UK, and Australia, owayo combines its international reach with high-quality German manufacturing. With an environmentally responsible ethos, all their fabrics are Oeko-Tex certified, ensuring that everything you’re purchasing is free from harmful substances. They only manufacture clothes to order, minimising waste, and everything is done in-house: R&D, design and manufacturing.

Pick your favourite design

Designing your kit begins with choosing from one of the 32 base designs. These templates have been thoughtfully created in terms of aesthetics and functionality, ensuring that the placement of patterns and shapes works on the fabric, complements additional logos and text, and will be visually appealing when worn on the bike. They’re a starting point for your creativity and can be used as is or completely customised. If you need extra inspiration, you can start with one of owayo’s suggestions and build from there.

Get creative with colours, logos and text

This is where the customisation really starts, and is where owayo really stands out from the rest. Unlike other suppliers, where you’ll send in your design for them to print onto their clothes, you’re in charge of the whole process using the 3D Kit Designer. Test different patterns, combinations of colours, logo and text placement as much as and for as long as you like before committing.

There are over 150 colours in the OCOL colour system (created by designers and colour experts) and a huge range of patterns, think animal prints, geometric designs, hand-drawn sketches and many others. You can choose from logos in the system or upload your own, and add text such as the name of your club, team or group, placed exactly where you’d like it on the front, back or arms. Select from different fonts, colours and sizes.

There’s no need to worry about whether the colours will turn out how you hope, as if you’re in doubt, simply contact owayo in advance of your order and they will send out a piece of fabric with all your chosen colours printed on it. You’re then guaranteed that what you ordered is exactly what will turn up. If you can’t find an exact match to your brand’s colours, owayo can help you out — just email them with the Pantone, HKS or RAL colour code and they can add it into your account for use in the 3D Kit Designer.

Personalise your order

Once you’re happy with your design, add it to the shopping basket for further personalisation. Choose how many you would like — there is no minimum order but big groups and teams get significant discounts with tiered pricing. When choosing sizes, owayo offers more than the standard XS to XL. The jerseys, for example, have nine different sizes to choose from; every person in your order can really fine-tune the fit and won’t have to compromise with something that’s a little too small or a bit baggy. If you’ve added text, this can now be personalised for each jersey if you wish.

Send your order for checking

Before ordering, your 3D render will be thoroughly checked by the owayo team. They will ensure that all the logos and text fit well and are going to look perfect when they arrive.

Place your order

There’s no minimum order with owayo and pricing is all-inclusive, so no matter how extravagant your design or how many logos you want included, the price remains the same.

Once your design is checked and you’ve paid for your order, production begins. You don’t have to wait months for your order to arrive at your door. Delivery times vary between two and five weeks depending on whether it’s peak spring/summer or off-peak. You can view the current fixed lead time on the website, making it easier to plan in advance of an upcoming event.

Owayo’s custom kit design process is incredibly simple, and thanks to the 3D render, you know exactly what it will look like when it arrives. Designs are stored indefinitely, making owayo the perfect choice for cycling clubs and teams who wish to make repeat orders year after year.

Shipping is worldwide, so whether you're in the UK, or you need to ship your owayo custom kit elsewhere, request a free fabric sample to feel the quality for yourself, and explore owayo’s 3D Kit Designer for building your dream kit.

While the trend for WorldTour pros to ride the team’s aero bike regardless of the terrain continues, it hasn’t sounded the death knell for the do-it-all race bike just yet. The most recent proof of this comes in the shape of the Bianchi Specialissima. Regarded as the Italian marque’s flagship all-rounder, it's received a complete redesign that has helped it to become the lightest bike in its lineup.

At a claimed 750g in a size 55, the new RC frame is a claimed 40 grams lighter than the previous version without compromising stiffness. But this is no mere nip and tuck. Bianchi states it looked at every component and recalibrated them to improve the bike’s performance. The result, it says, is a Specialissima that’s faster, by the tune of 16 watts at 50km/h. While this is a stat that’s of more relevance to the Bahrain Victorious riders, who’ll have the option of riding the bike, than the rest of, it does suggest that plenty of stones have been turned in the pursuit of improvement.

Both the fork and the RC integrated cockpit have been redesigned with aerodynamic improvements in mind. Bianchi says these parts are now 14% and 25% more efficient than before respectively; the bars have helped to reduce drag by being more convergent with the shifters as well as promoting a more aerodynamically enhanced hand placement. Similarly the D-shaped seatpost has been updated to assist in making the bike faster overall.

Geometry has an obvious effect on just how aero a race bike might be and Bianchi has listened to feedback from the Bahrain Victorious riders. The result is that while the geo numbers have rolled over from the previous model, the aforementioned cockpit now offers a more optimized position thanks to changes in stem length that impact the rider’s reach.

However it’s accepted wisdom that an efficient race bike also needs to be comfortable over the duration of a stage. With this in mind Bianchi has equipped the Specialissima with its Countervail technology, which aids the frame’s ability to absorb road chatter.

There’s a new wheelset, used on the RC and Pro models, to accompany the frame in the shape of the RC 49R carbon hoops. They feature a 49mm rim depth and an internal rim measurement of 25mm, presumably to partner well with the wider race tyres that are now commonplace.

"With the new Specialissima, our goal was to create a bike capable of dominating on any incline and providing serious athletes with a competitive edge, whether that be in a valley, on a mountain pass, or in the final sprint of a Grand Tour stage,” says Bianchi CEO Alberto Cavaggioni. “The Specialissima isn't just a lightweight all-rounder bike; it is the ultimate expression of our performance DNA, and sits proudly alongside the Oltre RC at the very pinnacle of our road range.”

The bike is offered in three builds: the range-topping RC, the Pro and the Specialissima. The RC is equipped with the aforementioned RC 49R wheels, and either a SRAM Red AXS or Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset. It retails for €11,500.

The Pro uses a different carbon layup but still results in a frame with a claimed weight of 850g. Groupset options are SRAM Force AXS and Shimano Ultegra Di2, with a price tag of €7,700. The entry level option extends the groupset choice to include Shimano 105 Di2 and uses a standard 49mm deep Bianchi wheelset. Prices start at €5,200.

Riding a bike is meant to be fun, and no one wants to think about the times when things don’t go to plan, but investing in some dedicated cycle insurance can potentially save you money, time and stress, and give you peace of mind so you can go out and enjoy every ride. Tens of thousands of bikes are stolen in the UK every year and many cyclists are injured, and in these unfortunate situations The Insurance Emporium can have your back. They offer varying levels of cover, plus the option to add ‘competitive use’ to the White Jersey, Green Jersey and Polka Dot Jersey levels, alongside a number of other optional benefits. Whether you’re a commuter, an adventurer or a racer, read on for six reasons to get yourself insured this summer.

1. Extensive cover for bikes, kit, and family members

The Insurance Emporium policies cover a range of bikes whatever the level of cover you choose. Mountain, road or gravel, acoustic or electric (the latter needs to fall within the UK definition of an e-bike), tricycle, tandem, trailer bike or push scooter – all are included, plus more.

Not only is your bike covered, but you’ll get up to £5,000 (level dependent) to replace bike accessories such as bottle cages, lights and panniers, cycle clothing, technology (cycling computers and dedicated cameras) and bicycle trailers. Other gadgets and mobile phones can be included if you pay an additional premium.

You can also insure up to three additional family members on your policy. Enjoy exploring with your partner, siblings, parents or kids, even your grandparents or grandchildren (all bikes must be insured and ridden by someone 14 years or over), and they will get worldwide cover from 65 days to 90 days per trip for theft, loss and accidental damage.

2. Cover for theft and accidental damage

Whether it’s the daily commute, a road ride with friends or club mates or a trip to the bike park, there’s always a risk of theft or your bike getting accidentally damaged.

If your bike is taken unlawfully and not found or returned in 28 days, provided it is appropriately secured, including from an unattended vehicle, you will be eligible for a replacement up to the value of £10,000. The ‘new for old for life’ settlement means your bike will be replaced by another of the same make and model, or an equivalent, as long as the sum you have insured it for covers its value as new.

If you have an accident, a crash, or your bike is in some other way suddenly and unexpectedly damaged, you will be covered for repairs, or replacement (if unrepairable), in the same way as above, and while waiting for a new bike or a repair, you’ll be able to hire a replacement bike for up to four weeks, so you needn’t cancel upcoming trips or events.

3. Protection for yourself

You need to be aware that there’s risk involved when cycling: the more you ride, the further you go, and the more extreme the terrain you explore, the bigger the risks. Not to say you’ll ever need to use it, but The Insurance Emporium will cover you in the event of a crash or other type of accident that causes a permanent, disabling impact on your life within 12 months of the incident. This includes death, loss of hearing, limbs or sight, or any other permanent disablement. You’ll also be covered for any dental treatment caused by an injury to your mouth.

4. Protection for others

Even when you’re experienced, things can still go wrong, and sometimes these incidents can affect others too. Imagine you’re involved in a collision with a pedestrian or another road user and are found responsible for the accident; legal costs can add up, as can the costs you incur for damage to third party property.

The White Jersey, Green Jersey, and Polka Dot Jersey levels of cover include public liability insurance, ranging from £1M to £3M, and if you feel like you’d benefit from additional cover, you have the option to top this up to £5M.

5. Be covered for theft, loss or damage anywhere in the world

Considering a summer bikepacking trip to somewhere as remote as Kyrgyzstan? Want to challenge yourself to some of the most famous climbs in the Alps or Pyrenees? Or are you planning to sign up for a training camp in sunnier climes? Your bike will be covered for up to 65/80/90 days on any trip worldwide (depending on your cover level), so that’s one less thing to plan, and you can head off knowing you’ll get the support you need if something goes wrong.

6. Racing

All types of commuting and leisure cycling are included in the three policies, including non-competitive sportives. However, if you’re already racing or thinking about giving it a go, then you should consider adding on the ‘competitive use’ benefit. This extends standard cover to include road racing, time trials, cross country, track, cyclocross and triathlons — essentially anything where there’s a chance you might step onto a podium. Choose competitive use and you will be covered during a race if your bike is stolen, lost or accidentally damaged. If you have to withdraw from an event due to injury or illness, you will be able to claim back any non-refundable event fee when choosing the event withdrawal optional benefit.

Any time you ride, there’s always risk, and having bike insurance can help you deal with issues if or when they occur. With varying levels of cover to choose from, plus a number of optional extras, The Insurance Emporium’s cycle insurance allows you to tailor a policy to work for you.

Lifestyle Policy Limited is an appointed representative of The Equine and Livestock Insurance Company Limited. The Insurance Emporium is a trading name of The Equine and Livestock Insurance Company Limited (registered in England and Wales no: 294940) which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority no:202748.

All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. We make no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link on this site. We will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. We will not be liable for any loss, injury, or damage arising from the display or use of this information. This policy is subject to change at any time.

We offer a variety of cover levels, so please check the policy cover suits your needs before purchasing. For your protection, please ensure you read the Insurance Product Information Document (IPID) and policy wording, for information on policy exclusions and limitations.

When To Replace It is a feature series in which we explore when one should replace common cycling products like helmets, apparel and various moving parts on your bike. Curious about a particular product? Shoot us an email at anne.rook@futurenet.com

Pedals and cleats do a massive amount of work to keep you connected to your bike each and every pedal stroke. They are relatively inexpensive, easily replaceable and never in short supply. So why do so many riders neglect proactively replacing them?

These touchpoints are second only to tyres in keeping you grounded and connecting you through your bike. Worn cleats can allow your shoe to come free from your pedals when laying down power, which could result in your foot coming off at the worst possible moment.

Every time you come to a full stop and put your foot down or walk into a coffee shop, you wear down your cleats. And every time you clip into or out of your pedals, you put a bit of wear on them, too. So how do you know when it's time to refresh them?

A clear indicator for replacing your cleats is when the rubber no-slip pads on the corners are worn away. But what if you use cleats that don’t have these rubber bits, or other tell-tale wear indicators?

Cleats with built-in float allowing some side-to-side play will noticeably feel looser, and there may even be some vertical play to them, letting you know it’s time for new ones. If you use cleats with zero degrees of float, it’s probably time to replace them as soon as you notice any play in your shoe-pedal connection.

Deciding when to install new cleats onto your shoes is relatively easy if you don’t ignore simple tell-tale signs.

What do the manufacturers say about replacing cleats?

Cycling component manufacturer Shimano suggests cleats should be replaced when clipping in or out becomes harder or easier. A bit vague, perhaps, but it comes down to this: if you notice a change in how the pedal/cleat interface feels in use, then it may very well be time for a replacement.

The Japanese cycling component giant also suggests that when the coloured portion of the cleat is worn away, it’s time to throw them out.

"It’s time to change your cleats when you can see the cleat body underneath the coloured pads on the front and back of the SPD-SL cleats," advises Shimano.

Look KEO cleats, which appear similar to Shimano in shape but are not interchangeable with other systems, also have colour-coded wear indicators. As soon as you see the contrasting colour cleat material flush with the grey, red or black portion of the cleat, you’ll know it’s time to bin them and install new ones.

Time, part of the SRAM family of bike components, suggests when the walking pads that double as wear indicators on its iClic system feel like they are sticky when clipping out, it’s replacement time. Be aware that Time's cleats are known to wear quickly if you do a lot of walking in them.

Like other types of cycling parts and accessories, wear is dependent upon so many different factors. Wahoo suggests its SpeedPlay cleat life may range greatly—from 3,000 to 5,000 miles—depending on rider weight, riding surface, frequency of use, and more.

The SpeedPlay pedal and cleat system is slightly different from other brands—the cleat comprises most of the size and mass of the system. Wahoo cautions against using a combination of new and old cleat parts when servicing your cleats.

New Cleat Installation Tips and Tricks

Use a small amount of high-quality bearing lube (or similar) on cleat mounting bolt threads. These bolts are exposed to sweat, road spray, and other dirt ingress, which could 'freeze' the bolt/shoe interface. The next time you replace your cleats, you’ll be happy you properly prepped them.

To be sure you install new cleats in the same place as your existing cleats, you can use a Sharpie or a paint marker—or even a bit of chalk if you don’t want to graffiti the soles of your cycling shoes with ink—to trace the outline of your worn cleats before removing them.

Some pedal and shoe systems have built-in guide indicators to assist in replacing cleats. If you’re not sure if your system offers this feature, or how to use it, the aforementioned outline method is simple and as accurate as your hand allows.

For optimal outcomes, use a torque wrench to tighten the bolts to the manufacturer’s guidelines.

When to replace cleats:

• When colour-coded indicators are worn away
• When the cleat is loose, and unintentional clipping out is a problem
• When clipping in is hit or miss

Do road pedals even need to be serviced or replaced?

The short answer is yes, but not nearly as frequently as other wearable components. While pedals wear at a slower rate than cleats, you’ll want to service them as needed, paying attention to how they perform.

Worn pedal bodies don’t offer the same positive engagement when clipped in, or make clipping in a challenge. Unwanted side-to-side or vertical play, allowing you to lift your shoe from the pedal even when engaged, can cause you to clip out, similarly to a worn cleat.

Signs of wear include grooves and scuffs in the forward part of the pedal (except for Speedplay) and in the retaining clip at the rear top of the pedal. Wear and tear on pedal bodies is normal, but be mindful of rusty springs.

Diagnosing pedal spindle problems can be trickier, since wear can be mistaken for bottom-bracket or drivetrain issues. Spin the pedal in place while holding your crank steady, and feel for clicking, movement or rough spots.

To be sure, when spindles feel rough or the pedal body has side-to-side play on the spindle, you’ll want to service them sooner rather than later, to save yourself from having to replace pedals outright.

Many pedals feature serviceable bearings, and bearing swaps are easy to do.

For pedals with open internals, or exposed retention springs, a little bit of dry chain lube can prolong life and performance.

When to replace pedals

• When the body is grooved and worn
• When clipping in/out is inconsistent
• When the pedal has lateral play or wiggles on the spindle

The 1,500W Avinox M2S motor, which recently disrupted the e-MTB market, is making its road debut on the Megamo Upon road bike. This marks the first time the high-torque system has been integrated into a road-focused chassis rather than an off-road platform.

The bike's maximum speed with power assistance will still be limited by local laws (15.5mph/25kmh in the UK and EU), but the claimed 1,500W peak power and 150Nm of torque will mean riders get a dramatic helping hand on the likes of steep ascents.

Avinox, the e-bike division of drone manufacturer DJI, launched the second-generation M2S in April.

With a claimed 1,500W peak power and 150Nm of torque, it effectively doubles the output of typical premium mid-drive systems from Bosch and Shimano from the best e-bikes. This performance has sparked industry debate over whether such powerful motors belong on pedal-assist bicycles, leading to calls for regulatory power caps.

Avinox maintains that innovation should not be constrained by arbitrary limits, arguing that power represents possibility rather than excess. While some manufacturers suggest regulating bikes by weight instead of wattage, the Upon combines high-power with a relatively low overall weight; Megamo says the provisional weight is under 14kg.

What the power figures actually mean on the road

On the road, the full 150Nm of torque is primarily available in a time-limited boost mode, with continuous output closer to 1,300W and 130Nm.

Because UK and EU laws mandate a 15.5mph (25kmh) assistance cutoff, this extreme power is most relevant during steep climbs and rapid acceleration rather than high-speed cruising.

The Upon differs significantly from established e-road bikes like the Specialized Turbo Creo SL or Orbea Gain. While those competitors prioritise "super light" (SL) systems with subtle 50Nm motors and 250-360Wh batteries to mimic an unassisted ride, the Upon embraces raw performance with a much larger 600Wh battery and significantly higher torque.

We reviewed the Canyon On-Fly Endurace road bike recently and praised it for it's inobtrusive, low power, discussing how the road rider is looking for a hand, not a shove. The Avinox system goes the other way.

A point of contention could remain, in that the Upon’s regional speed limits are enforced via software rather than fixed hardware. While Avinox consistently closes loopholes through firmware updates, the potential for software-based de-restriction remains a concern. An unlocked Megamo Upon would legally shift from a pedelec to an unregistered motor vehicle with moped-level output.

Here, Megamo has paired the Avinox motor with a carbon frame featuring all-road geometry and plenty of tyre clearance; the bike is fitted with 42mm Vittoria Corsa Pro Control tyres. The frame is UDH-compatible and features a fully integrated 600Wh battery and 27.2mm seat post.

Megamo is positioning the Upon as a road bike of course, with geometry borrowed from an all-road bike playbook, the bike features a 71 degree head angle, and 75 degree seat angle.

Stack and reach is 568 and 398 respectively. The rear end is 435mm, on a wheelbase of 1051mm with a bottom bracket drop of some 80mm. Those numbers are designed for stability on the road with an accessible fit, rather than razor sharp race-bike handling. The Upon comes in four sizes from S to XL.

Megamo says the bike targets experienced cyclists aged 45-70 who want to maintain their pace on climbs and group rides. Three builds are available: the range-topping Upon 05 with Ultegra Di2 (£6,499), the Upon 15 with Shimano 105 (£5,995), and the Upon 20, which utilizes a lower-power M2 motor and mechanical gearing (£3,999).

The cycling world is abuzz following the latest sighting of the unreleased Specialized Tarmac SL9 at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, previously known as the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The bike was first spotted on the roof of a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team car during an altitude-training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain. But this time, we got a much closer look.

We spotted the bike outside a team truck where mechanics were setting up the bike on precise measuring equipment, presumably preparing it for its first public race outing on Sunday.

Should this indeed be the new Tarmac SL9, here's what we can glean about the bike's changes and developments.

What's new

Both sightings thus far were of the bike Specialized’s stealthy pre-production "Project Black" livery, a designation the brand uses for developing and testing future products through professional athlete feedback.

The frameset showcases a clear shift toward greater aerodynamic performance compared to its predecessor, the SL8. Notable changes include a reshaped fork with a chunkier crown and deeper blades, alongside a seat tube designed to hug the rear wheel closely.

The seatpost has also evolved into a deep-section aerodynamic blade, signalling Specialized's intent to further optimise its flagship race rig for top-end speed.

As the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes serves as a crucial warm-up for the Tour de France, the presence of the SL9 here suggests that we may see the bike in action at summer's main event.

While Specialized maintains its standard "Project Black" protocol regarding unreleased tech, these considered design choices indicate a machine that aims to balance its legendary comfort with a new benchmark in aerodynamic efficiency.

We reached out to Specialized, but the brand remains mum on the subject, stating: "Specialized relies on feedback from professional athletes in both developing and testing advanced pre-production products in real-world applications. With this top-level feedback, some of these design elements and products eventually show up in future retail product offerings. We call this Project Black."

While 'value for money' and 'affordable' are subjective terms they continue to be keen points of conversation within the cycling community. If you want to ride and wear the same gear as the pros then your bank balance is likely taking a hit like never before; road bikes that cost five digits are commonplace, while shoes north of £/$500 now exist.

But of course there are alternatives that provide a counterbalance to the eye-wateringly expensive and this roundup features a few in the shape of Ribble's new carbon endurance bikes, Canyon's road and gravel shoes and Lazer's do-it-all helmet.

Ribble Ultra-Road and Allroad Carbon road bikes

Ribble’s already extensive range of road bikes has grown a little larger with the addition of the Ultra-Road and the Allroad Carbon. Both bikes seek to blend performance with practicality via carbon construction, plenty of tyre clearance, sensible geometry and few added features.

The Ultra-Road features what Ribble calls “performance-leaning endurance geometry”. Rather than forcing you into a low and long position that you can’t hold, it is instead designed to allow for a comfortable, sustainable position that will enable a more consistent application of power, and a faster ride as a result.

In the medium the stack height is 560mm, combined with a reach of 379mm, while in the XL size, designed for riders at least 6’0” tall, this increases to 599mm and 408mm respectively. For comparison, the stack height and reach of Ribble’s dedicated race machine, the Ultra Race, in a size medium are almost a centimetre lower and longer.

The carbon monocoque frameset which makes a 7.5kg complete build possible, has clearance for up to 38mm wide tyres and features the brand’s signature dropped stays. There’s also internal frame storage on the downtube and an option to run mudguards, should you wish.

Like the Ultra-Road, the Allroad Carbon sits comfortably in the endurance category. Ribble says it's an evolution of its popular Allroad SL bike, using a premium carbon layup, alongside a re-designed front end that is now more aerodynamic thanks to the tube shapes, new fork design and the introduction of fully integrated cable routing.

As the name states, this is a bike that when it comes to road surfaces is created to handle the rough and the smooth. With this in mind the it too uses the same dropped stays alongside a round seatpost and clearance for 35mm wide tyres.

Both models are offered in a wide range of builds, with the Ultra-Road starting at £2,599 and the Allroad Carbon at £1,799.

Canyon Tempr Road and Off-Road shoes

Like the Ribble bikes above Canyon is aiming to balance performance and comfort in the shape of its new Tempr shoes. Offered in both road and off-road models, they include many of the features of the existing Tempr CFR shoes but in a more affordable package.

The Tempr Road features an 8K woven carbon composite outsole alongside a seamless synthetic upper, complete with perforations to help your food breath, and knitted tongue. The shoes boast generously proportioned TPU heel and toe pads with the aim of avoiding any café stop mishaps. Combined it makes for a shoe that weighs a claimed 285g in a size 42.

The Off-Road model eschews the carbon sole in favour of a glass-fibre nylon construction with a flexible forefoot section that is designed to make it efficient and comfortable both on and off the bike. It’s paired with a rubber outsole and TPU toe cap and mudguard to add some grip and durability. The claimed weight is 335g.

Both models use BOA® Li2 dial with PerformFit wrap construction, are offered in black and white, and retail at €159.95.

Apidura Aero Bolt-On Tube Modules

For a product that’s designed to help a cyclist go faster, there’s no better conformation than winning a prominent race. For Apidura and its new Aero Bolt-On Tube modules they did just that at the recent Unbound gravel race. Twice.

The modules, part of the brand’s Aero system design for gravel racing, were used by Sofia Gomez Villafane in winning Unbound 200 and by Robin Gemperle, who crossed the line first at Unbound XL using the long version.

The Aero Bolt-On top tube modules offer strap-free storage and can be used in conjunction with the Aero Frame Module. The smaller module offers 0.4L of space, while the longer model doubles this.

To help with structural integrity they feature a carbon plate and internal rods, while 5cm of fore-aft adjustment allows for a precise alignment with the bike’s stem to ensure an optimum aerodynamic performance; Apidura says that its sponsored rider Dylan Johnson “found the Aero Bolt-On Top Tube Module saved 4.2 watts when used in isolation and 5.2 watts when used in combination with the Aero Frame Module”.

The Aero Bolt-On Tube Modules retail at £68 / $98 for the 4L model and £92 / $141 for the 8L version.

Lazer Blade Kineticore helmet

If you ride your gravel bike seamlessly from trail to road and back again then it makes sense to be wearing a helmet that can comfortably make the journey with you. The Lazer Blade KinetiCore looks to be such a lid.

Aesthetically it appears to be a pretty streamlined affair, with a generous amount of vents and an overall appearance that is neither overtly road nor off-road. Lazer says the interior features “soft, dense padding”, with the aim of being comfortable throughout a long day in the saddle, while the integrated eyewear dock is there to keep your sunnies safe. There’s also a built-in mount at the rear for Lazer’s universal LED light. The seven colour choices range from Flash Orange to Matte Sage Green.

There are two pieces of notable proprietary technology in play: the Advanced TurnSys system and Kineticore. The first of these is designed to offer a precise fit by delivering both horizontal and vertical adjustability. It’s paired with a new strap divider that Lazer says keeps them in position for the entirety of your ride.

Meanwhile KinetiCore is the Belgian brand's own rotational impact tech that, unlike Mips used by many of the best road bike helmets, is built directly into the helmet’s internal structure and uses ‘crumple zones’ that are designed to direct energy away from the head during an impact.

The Blade Kineticore is available in three sizes, S, M and L, with claimed weight for M listed at 250g, and retails at 99,99 EUR / $99.99 US.

WattBike Air-Pro

Ever fancied owning the same Wattbike that you use in the gym?

The brand, which features in out guide to the best indoor smart bikes, has now released its Air-Pro model to direct to consumers, allowing you to enjoy “commercial-grade training” in the comfort of your own home.

Used by every Premier League football team, the Air-Pro bike is designed for high-intensity and high-volume training. It features dual air and magnetic resistance designed to create both a realistic ride feel as well as “scalable intensity” whether you're doing sprint intervals, endurance training or a recovery ride, where reduced stress on the joints is required. Another key feature is the performance touchscreen that provides clear access to your performance.

The Wattbike Air-Pro retails at £2,999, which includes a subscription-free hub offering structured plans, sport-specific workouts and accessible VO₂ Max testing.

At the beginning of a recent solo ride, I tried to add up the costs of going faster on the bike. With no paper or calculator within easy reach, I quickly exceeded my math abilities. But not before I reminded myself of the adage: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. This suggests there are always hidden costs and trade-offs to what seems free. But there’s got to be ways to hack the system, I thought.

I then started pondering if it’s OK to shell out $100/watt saved, or should the threshold be lower, say $25/watt saved. What are the real costs of seemingly free speed? And, importantly, can I go faster without spending anything at all?

I considered the scenario of riding a five-hour 100-mile gran fondo. This means being able to maintain an average speed greater than 20mph, when accounting for refuelling stops and nature breaks. While upgrades like a power meter and heart rate monitor can help with pacing, they won’t help maintain the necessary effort, especially when detracting factors like hills and wind are at play. So how could I get faster without paying for it?

Drag is a drag

In a previous article, Cycling Weekly generalised that if you're riding on the road at about 25mph (40kph), about 20 percent of power generated by the rider goes to overcoming rolling resistance, a whopping 70 percent goes to overcoming aerodynamic drag, and the remaining 10 percent is lost to drivetrain friction.

Specialized ran an ad campaign about a decade ago that leaned heavily into upgrading your bike, kit, helmet, shoes, etc., to the most aerodynamically available at the time, even if there was a small weight penalty. Of course, new bikes and parts aren’t free; quite the contrary. Each aero upgrade was more marginal and significantly more expensive than the previous.

But the California-based manufacturer made a point: putting a bike on a diet would not be as beneficial as tricking it out with the slippery bits that tested fastest in the company’s WinTunnel. Aero always bests weight, unless doing Alpine Grand Tour riding. My mind then wandered to non-obvious aerodynamic enhancements and their relative cost.

What can I get for the cost of a pre-ride cappuccino?

All the stiffest, most aero carbon gear won’t do a bit of good if I’m not comfortable on the bike. A bike fit performed by a professional bike fitter should allow for the most aero-optimised position sustainable for an extended period. OK—check—I’ve done this.

But fits often lead to buying new components like a stem, crank arms or handlebars. This means you're looking at several hundred dollars after the cost of the bike fitting. Certainly, this speed isn't free.

What if I could simply stay in the aero-optimised positions longer? Say with some dedicated stretching and some anti-chafe balm? That certainly isn’t as slick as a one-piece cockpit, but the upgrade can be had for the price of a few pre-ride Starbucks fill-ups.

Merch purch: get a performance perch

If being comfortable allows me to sit in the aero position for longer, then the right saddle that’s been installed properly (height, tilt, and fore/aft) is at the top of my list.

But here, too, is a slippery slope. Should I get the saddle with carbon rails or not? While carbon weighs less, the real benefit is its vibration-dampening properties. And when combined with a carbon seatpost, the system can help negate the discomfort of road noise communicated through an ultra-stiff bike frame. But this upgrade can be even more expensive than a new cockpit. There’s got to be a compromise.

When it comes to cycling apparel, I always opt for a form-fitting cut, which incurs a slight cost over a club cut, but eschews extra, wind-catching material.

Usually, an aero kit is performance-oriented and comes with a higher-quality chamois. So while this speed upgrade is by no means free, I figured since I’m buying a new jersey and bibs anyway, why not go with a drag-reducing option?

The best things in life are free but bike upgrades are not

Inflating tyres to the optimal pressure is about as close to free speed as I can get. The sum of a tubeless tyre, valve and sealant weighs about the same as the equivalent tyre with a latex tube (rotating weight of wheels can negatively impact handling and ride feel). Since tubeless systems are run at lower tyre pressures, the added benefit is comfort and lower rolling resistance, even when compared to the best tyres with latex or synthetic inner tubes.

If you’re still stuck on tubes, the $1/watt savings TPU tubes offer over a similar butyl tube is about as close to free as the air you put into them. If you’re not already riding tubeless tyres, this might be a relatively affordable upgrade the next time you’ve got to swap rubber.

An almost free speed upgrade is chain wax. Although not as sexy as deep-section carbon wheels wrapped in rubber from Continental, it’s a much better value in terms of financial outlay vs speed return—and it could actually extend drivetrain life. I use drip wax on all my bikes’ chains, even my dedicated indoor-only Zwift bike.

Before I drip wax onto my chain, I clean it in a tabletop ultrasonic tank. While I’m at it, I also clean my cassette, de-gunk my chainrings, and rear derailleur pulleys to reduce friction. Dirt and buildup cause drivetrain wear, which, according to CeramicSpeed, may cost one up to four watts when pushing out 250 watts. And dirt and grime greatly shorten component life, too.

The only real free speed is someone else’s work

About 100 minutes into this ride, where I pondered how to go faster with no effort, I joined a dozen friends. My 200 watts at 20mph became 160 at 23. Sitting in with them is the closest thing to free speed I could get.

The tradeoffs are relatively minimal, and the risks few: I had only to suffer a few shoulder bumps and some really poor dad-jokes, while I let the front of the group keep their noses in the wind for a few more pedal strokes.

It’s prototype-bike galore at Unbound Gravel this year. Some are hiding beneath subtle paint, while others are impossible to miss. There are the oversized 32" wheels on Cam Jones’ and Robin Gemperle’s Scott bikes, the hard-to-ignore fuchsia pink paintjobs on the prototype Liv bikes, and catchy graphics on the prototype from sibling brand Giant.

And then there’s Factor, with a prototype featuring that fork we all have opinions about.

Ridden by celebrated retired WorldTour rider Romain Bardet and several of his Factor teammates, Factor’s latest prototype gravel bike was first spotted at the Traka just weeks ago.

At Unbound, Factor allowed Cycling Weekly to take a closer look and shared some early details through Mike McGinn from its engineering team.

However, the brand would not share any hard numbers; no weights, no aero data, no launch timeline, no price and not even the bike’s eventual name.

Still, there was plenty to learn — and to deduce.

Meet Factor’s next top-tier aero gravel race bike

The design of the prototype bike is unmistakably inspired by Factor’s wildly polarising ONE road bike, complete with the dramatically wide fork intended not merely to cheat the wind, but to actively manage airflow before it reaches the rider’s legs.

And according to Factor, that controversial concept works.

“People are warming up to this wild-looking fork, and we know it’s faster," said Mike McGinn.

McGinn explained that the wide fork is designed to manipulate airflow before it reaches the rider’s legs and frame.

"Aerodynamics works a lot like refraction with light," he said, describing how the fork changes airflow downstream across the bike and rider rather than simply reducing drag at the fork itself.

The new gravel prototype takes that same aero philosophy and adapts it for the realities of modern gravel racing: massive clearances, a balance of compliance and stiffness, and, of course, aerodynamics.

But McGinn admitted that it wasn’t the brand's originally intention to use that ONE-inspired fork design on gravel.

"We already had riders planned to ride the original fork, but this was faster," he said.

And, we’ll admit that when it comes to pure aesthetics, that wide fork filled in with 50mm+ tyres looks more proportional and less radical.

"With this one, we tried to tailor it more to an acceptable visual language," McGinn said. "The result is, like you said, less offensive on the eyes."

Unlike, what McGinn called, a "bayoneted front end" used on the ONE, this gravel bike uses a standard steerer tube and bearing setup, requiring Factor’s engineers to adapt the aero concept into a more conventional package.

Factor says that once the bike is officially launched, most complete builds will ship with 50mm tyres, but the frame itself clears up to 2.2-inch rubber. Yet despite that huge clearance, chainstays remain remarkably short at 420mm, keeping the bike responsive and agile.

"There is nothing that’s even close to that," McGinn claimed, pointing out that many competing 2.2" gravel bikes now stretch to 435mm rear ends and mountain-bike-like wheelbases.

"This bike was meant for core connection to terrain," McGinn said. "You’re meant to feel like it’s a rocket ship."

When we reviewed the ONE, that's exactly what our tester called it: a "spaceship," so that could bode well for this new bike.

That focus on speed has been the topic of conversation at races like Unbound these past few years, and the industry is converging on the same solution: pairing aggressive aerodynamics with ever-wider tyres in the pursuit of outright speed over rough terrain.

Factor’s answer is this: an unapologetically aero gravel race bike designed around sustained high speeds while keeping riders relatively comfortable.

Interestingly, unlike other bikes in this category, Factor is keeping 2x drivetrain compatibility alive as well as downtube storage.

That decision, however, came with major engineering challenges. McGinn explained that packaging short chainstays, 2.2in tyre clearance and a front derailleur into the same frame pushed the limits of what was physically possible.

"You can’t run a 2x with anything over a 47 anyway, so there was a lot of hemming and hawing," he said.

Ultimately, Factor decided to preserve the option and found a way.

“We had to look at creative ways to manage stiffness and structural requirements in that area,” he explained.

The geometry itself was also redesigned around modern oversized gravel tyres. Factor lowered the bottom bracket to compensate for the taller tyre profile and adjusted trail figures to preserve handling characteristics despite the jump in tyre volume.

McGinn also revealed the bike uses size-specific fork offsets — typically 50-51mm on larger sizes and 56mm on smaller frames — helping maintain more consistent handling across the size range while reducing toe overlap on smaller bikes.

“Above 33kph, you get it”

French rider Gustave Orain, who is also racing the prototype at Unbound, described the bike as surprisingly comfortable despite its aggressive intent.

"What I like the most with this bike, it's the exact same geometry as the Aluto fully slammed. So you switch from an all-road gravel bike to an absolute aero bike without losing any comfort or compromise," Orain shared.

"The first thing I've been super surprised about is that it’s actually the exact same [ride quality] as the Aluto, but faster."

That theme kept resurfacing throughout the conversation. The expectation is that a bike this extreme-looking would ride harshly. But McGinn insists modern carbon engineering has moved well beyond that compromise.

"The biggest compliment we got from the ONE was: ‘It rides like a bike'," McGinn said with a laugh. "Because it looks like it doesn’t."

But make no mistake: this bike is designed to come alive at speed.

"Above 33 kilometres an hour, you’re like, ‘Okay. I got it,’" Orain said.

McGinn compared it directly to the ONE’s road-racing personality.

"If you ride the ONE below 40kph, people say it’s hard to manipulate,” he said. “You have to get it to speed for it to really work."

Going above 30kph, or 18mph, should not be a problem at Unbound, where 2025 elite men’s winner Cam Jones averaged 37.8kph (23.49mph) over the 202-mile course, completing it in a record-shattering 8:37:09. On the women’s side, Karolina Migon won with an average speed of 32.4kph (20.1mph).

Unlike Scott’s “never going to market” approach, Factor’s prototype does not appear to be a one-off experimental machine. Quite the contrary

"There is a very, very, very high chance that this is the bike that we come to market with," McGinn said with more than a subtle hint.

And despite the mixed reactions to the aesthetics of its fork, Factor seems increasingly emboldened by the response to the ONE.

"It’s the bike you didn’t know you needed until you tried it," McGinn said.

Time will tell if the gravel market follows suit.

Cam Jones (Scott) lines up on Saturday as the defending Unbound 200 champion, riding a Scott RC Gravel prototype rolling on 32” wheels.

His Scott team mate, Robin Gemperle, is on a second 32” prototype. Both riders are talking about levitation, revolutionary cornering; "I'm genuinely scared how fast I'll be able to corner once on a course with proper descents," Jones said. The theory is that a larger wheel just rolls faster.

The brand behind the bikes was keen to communicate that this machine "will never be released on the market." And yet, it was clear at the recent Sea Otter trade show that a plethora of wheel and tyre brands are keen to see 32” wheels become mainstream.

Whilst these larger diameter wheels have always had a legitimate place in custom bikes designed for riders exceeding the ‘average’ height, I would consider 32” wheels arriving on the mainstream market to be a major backwards step for cycling, and its accessibility.

Jones is 6’ and Gemperle is 5’10”; the latter falls right into the ‘average white male’ bracket with the former exceeding average. Baum Cycles’ new DBM 32” bike looks great in its marketing images - but that bike would suit a rider around 5’7”. The geometry of a 32” wheel just doesn’t work at smaller frame sizes. This means a massive chunk of the market – plenty of women and almost all of Asia – is locked out of 32” completely.

Having designed and built bikes for decades, I hope I can demonstrate why, with a quick CAD (computer aided design) sketch.

Building a 54cm 32” wheel bike in CAD presented major issues

I modelled my CAD image on a 54cm frame, which would typically suit a male of around 5’8”, much taller than the average Western female of around 5’4”. CW’s US editor Anne Marije-Rook rides a 49cm Specialized, and digital editor Michelle Arthurs-Brennan a 52cm.

The main values I sought to preserve were the stack and reach, relatively to the bottom bracket, as these coordinates dictate a rider’s position. The result was a struggle to fit everything else in.

To create my designs, I chose an arbitrary 440mm axle-to-crown length for the fork, which I judged as giving me enough crown clearance for a 50mm tyre on a 32” rim. To get the rear wheel in, I’ve had to extend the chainstays out to 485mm, some 35mm longer than a downhill mountain bike. The impact on front and rear centre and overall wheelbase could – potentially – give rise to incredible stability in terms of forward progress, but it will pay big time in agility. Even before you consider the extra mass.

To retain the reach, I pushed the effective top tube as far as I could - the horizontal distance from the center of the head tube to the center of the seat post. To get the reach working at all the head angle now sits at 68 degrees, that’s very shallow for a gravel bike - the same as a Specialized Chisel XC MTB. This would create overly slow handling and hinder precision, turn-in in fast corners, and the kind of positional changes we see in bunch riding.

The headtube is left with only a couple of thumb widths of space, and the whole front triangle is compromised to the extent that I simply don’t think it’s possible to physically make it work. I even struggled to illustrate it correctly in my drawing.

And then there’s the toe overlap. Despite slackening the head angle as far as I dare. At slower speeds and in very technical terrain, the rider’s foot is going to come into unavoidable contact with the front tyre.

I could go on.

You could go some way to solve some of the geometry problems resulting from the 32” wheel with offset forks, or a longer top tube paired with steeper head angles. A shorter fork crown might help, and could likely be designed, but the downtube quickly comes into direct conflict with the front tyre as the fork gets shorter. It's a fools errand, as any result is an unavoidable compromise.

Remember, a 54cm frame isn’t an unusual or even very small size in our home markets. In Asia, it's a large.

My brief and ragged design study – please excuse the presence of the double chainset – is a crude visual device to support my point. But what is clear is that each compromise trades away handling, adds complexity, or makes the bike slower handling or heavier in any sensible analysis. And on a 52cm or equivalent, there is simply nowhere for the front wheel to go at all.

The business problem

My point is simple: 32” wheels are not going to work on smaller bikes. Therefore, if 32” wheels were to become mainstream, the industry would be left with two choices: produce 32” bikes for larger riders and maintain existing 700c sizes. Or, majorly disadvantage some already marginalised customer groups, such as women who are already a minority group the industry claims to want to reach.

Given the bike trade has spent the last year or two complaining its ranges are too sprawling - Cannondale’s “one bike to rule them all” pitch in the WorldTour, followed by Giant with its Propel now shading out the TCR - the appetite for increasing SKUs with twice as many wheel sizes seems limited.

The most frustrating component in all of this is that on the question of whether 32” is actually faster, we have nothing empirical at all.

So far, we have a few field tests, a handful of runs in each, with a ton of variables in play, and one independent comparison that Vittoria offered at Sea Otter, quickly clarifying that the few seconds saved came with some major caveats.

Even if a 32” bike does cross the line first at Unbound, it proves nothing about the speed of these larger wheels. The fastest rider in any gravel race is, by definition, the fastest rider in the race.

Scott has been clear that there are no plans to create a consumer model of this bike, and I’m pleased. Gifting the vast majority of the female and Asian riding population with serious toe overlap and compromised handling, based on a data point of one, would be a travesty.

Editor's note: We updated the original headline of this article - which referred to the 'average height, white male' - to better represent the ideas presented within the piece.

While mainstream Western brands are charging five figures for their top-flight bikes, Pardus has launched a 6.7kg race bike featuring a Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset for roughly €5,000. For comparison, an equivalent Colnago Y1RS like the one Tadej Pogačar rides, fitted with the same groupset, retails at around €11,000.

Owned by Chinese manufacturer Taishan Sports Industry Group, the premium brand announced its European launch in Milan on May 25th. Pardus claims to be the only Chinese brand registered as a European company, rather than merely shipping products in from abroad.

Two models hit that headline price: the SPK Gen 4 Aero and the 6.7kg Robin EVO. Both feature carbon frames, integrated cockpits, carbon-spoked wheels, carbon saddles, and Shimano Ultegra Di2.

Pardus keeps all processes - carbon fibre and resins production, and manufacturing processes for the components - in-house, allowing for greater efficiency. This move mirrors the likes of Chinese manufacturer XDS, whose recent U.S. launch of X-Lab brings more accessible pricing to a Western market also.

Eschewing the direct-sales model used by competitors like Canyon, Pardus will sell exclusively through independent bike shops. With centralised assembly in Poland, eight regional service points, and over 25 agents across 21 countries, the brand is supporting the traditional retail channel.

Developed with the Chinese National Team, the SPK Gen 4 features deep tube profiles and wide-set stays, positioning it as an aero competitor to the Colnago Y1RS, Cervelo S5, or Factor ONE. The brand notes the bikes were developed in a wind tunnel and are already proven in high-level racing.

Pardus is adapting its strategy to meet specific European demands, recognising that its domestic model requires localisation. Consequently, the brand established a dedicated European team of industry experts and adopted a "social media first" marketing strategy to achieve a cleaner, Western aesthetic.

In addition to supplying the Chinese National Team and providing bikes for the Olympics, Pardus has sponsored the Italian team Vini Fantini since 2025.

By offering high-specification bikes at significant value while providing local support, Pardus is directly challenging industry incumbents. While long-term resale value remains to be seen, the brand has arrived as a serious contender.

Over the last few years, Unbound Gravel has become the launchpad for the gravel industry’s next big thing. Every year, the Emporia, Kansas, start line and expo area become a rolling tech gallery packed with unreleased wheelsets, tyres, cockpits and bikes ridden by pro athletes under varying degrees of secrecy.

This year appears to be no different.

We already know defending champion Cam Jones will be riding a Scott prototype bike with 32" wheels, and most of the Specialized Off Road athletes will be aboard the brand new Crux 5.

Today, we got a peek at what appears to be brand-new prototype gravel race bikes from Giant and sister brand Liv, machines that we are fairly certain preview a new tier of the Revolt and Devote platforms.

They were hard to miss, in fact, with the Liv prototype in a bold fuchsia pink with gold detailing, and the Giant version featuring a monochrome black-and-white graphic treatment.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we first spotted prototype versions of the current-generation Giant Revolt Advanced Pro right here at Unbound Gravel, months before launch. Now, almost exactly two years later, Giant and Liv appear to be back in Emporia with another pair of unreleased gravel race machines, and this time, there appears to have been a significant transformation: a move away from the “do-it-all” gravel side.

Both prototype bikes show a clear shift toward race specialisation. Where the outgoing Revolt and Devote platforms were proudly versatile, with multiple mounts, fork bosses, flip-chips and seatpost options, these new bikes look far more singular in purpose.

The fork blades have been stripped of the fork mounts and accessory bosses. Cable routing is now fully integrated through the cockpit, rather than neatly tucked beneath the handlebars as on previous models. The overall silhouette is cleaner, sharper and more aero in appearance.

Both bikes also appear to be designed around 1x drivetrains only, and, of course, tyre clearance appears to have been beefed up.

Australian Liv athlete Peta Mullens outfitted her new steed with yet-to-be-released Maxxis Aspen tyres with a HYPR-X|EXO casing in a 55mm, although actual frame clearance will likely be slightly tighter if following strict ETRTO recommendations. And with the projected mud for Saturday, those 55mm will likely be swapped to something narrower as well.

The finishing kit hints at a closer collaboration with CADEX for complete-package aero savings.

Some of the prototype bikes were fitted with what appeared to be unreleased top-tier CADEX components, including deep-section carbon wheels and integrated one-piece cockpits. The wheelsets in particular looked similar to CADEX’s MAX-level race products, hinting these bikes are aimed squarely at the sharp end of elite gravel competition.

Despite the brands’ strong racing heritage and support of elite gravel athletes, neither currently offers a true "Advanced SL" gravel race bike equivalent to their top-tier road machines such as the Propel Advanced SL or Langma Advanced SL.

That could be about to change.

And according to the athletes riding them, the changes go beyond aesthetics.

Liv athlete Melisa Rollins described the bike as noticeably stiffer and more responsive than the outgoing top-level Devote.

Meanwhile, Mullens highlighted the bike’s more aggressive fit and lower front end.

Mullens is also running an unusually long 140mm stem on her one-piece cockpit, paired with narrow 36cm handlebars.

"I’ve had a bad back for probably 10 years and I’ve always gone shorter [on the stem], but this year I saw a new bike fitter and he actually pushed me longer and I haven’t had back problems for several months," she explained.

Across the industry, brands increasingly appear to be splitting gravel bikes into two camps: the Swiss Army knives and the scalpels.

When we reviewed the top-end Revolt Advanced Pro 0, we praised it for being a highly versatile bike that could comfortably handle racing duties while remaining capable for bikepacking and mixed-terrain adventure riding.

These prototypes, however, suggest Giant and Liv are leaning harder into pure speed.

That mirrors what we’ve seen elsewhere in the market recently, with several brands moving toward lighter, stiffer and aero-optimised gravel race platforms focused purely on getting their rider to the finish line fastest.

For now, the Giant and Liv bikes remain firmly under wraps, but history suggests prototypes spotted at Unbound rarely stay hidden for long.

Come Saturday, the fuchsia pink Liv bikes will be raced by Tessa Neefjes and Peta Mullens. The Giant prototype will see action in the 200-mile pro men's race under Brendan Johnston and Cole Paton.

Today, Specialized officially drew back the curtain on one of the most anticipated bike launches of the year: the terribly kept secret that is the all new Crux.

By now, leaked photos had already circulated widely online, especially after Specialized Off-Road athlete Geerike Schreurs raced the new bike to victory at the Gralloch UCI Gravel World Series event.

The main storyline is that the generation 5 Crux has undergone a dramatic transformation. It’s one that, some proponents say, was long overdue, but the more practical riders may bemoan.

Gone is the classic silhouette of round tubing and a standard round 27.2mm seatpost. Gone also are the exposed wires and the build versatility that made the previous generation so easy to live with.

In their place sits a bike that looks very much like a fat-tyred Tarmac SL8, complete with sharp aerodynamic tube profiles, a proprietary aero seatpost and a fully integrated cockpit. The tyre clearance has been beefed up to 55mm (or 2.2inches if you’re running MTB rubber) but drivetrains are now limited to 1x only with a 52t cap on the chainring. Goodbye road gearing, goodbye suspension forks and dropper posts. Hello modern gravel race bike.

This is no longer the "one bike to rule them all." It’s a bike that giveth and taketh. It’s both divisive and inevitable. It meets the demands of modern racing built around long-distance speed, aerodynamics, comfort and high-volume tyres. And in that role, I expect this bike to do very, very well.

But for riders who fell in love with the previous Crux precisely because it resisted over-specialisation, the new direction may feel bittersweet.

The Crux redefined, yet again

The Crux was born in 2010 as a dedicated cyclocross race bike, replacing the TriCross model. It was well-liked and successful too, with riders like Zdenek Stybar and Tom Pidcock racing aboard the bike to rainbow glory in the Elite and U23 UCI Cyclocross World Championships, respectively, over the years.

The Crux 4, launched in 2021, was a truly revolutionary product. Just as cyclocross participation was shrinking and gravel racing exploding globally, Specialized repositioned the Crux platform as the featherweight, stripped-down crossover product, and alternative to the Diverge. In doing so, the American brand created one of the most versatile drop-bar bikes of the modern era. Few bikes in recent years have been so universally loved by riders, racers and reviewers alike.

The Crux 4 struck a rare balance. It blended the playfulness and agility of a cyclocross bike with the stability needed in gravel, and a ride feel, efficiency and raciness appreciated across the board.

It is also a bike that’s easy to live with. The external cable routing on the front end, threaded BSA bottom bracket, compatibility with aftermarket seatposts, suspension forks, dropper posts and both 1x and 2x drivetrains all make it easy to service and travel with.

The same bike could, and did, be ridden to victory in both a 200-mile Unbound Gravel race and a UCI Cyclocross World Cup.

I have no doubt that the new Crux will be any less successful. In fact, I suspect it will become even more successful at the highest levels of racing but in gravel specifically.

Interestingly, throughout all of Specialized’s launch material, cyclocross isn’t even mentioned. Instead, Specialized is very upfront about what this bike was built around: Unbound Gravel.

And that tells you almost everything you need to know.

What’s new

The Crux 5 pivots hard toward the demands of modern racing, borrowing heavily from the Tarmac SL8 playbook while simultaneously increasing tyre clearance and stability for long-distance events on rough terrain.

Headline changes include:

• A claimed 15.2 watt aerodynamic improvement at 45kph
• New aerodynamic tube shaping inspired by the Tarmac SL8
• Fully integrated cable routing and cockpit options
• Clearance for tyres up to 55mm or 2.2in
• 1x-only drivetrain compatibility
• Maximum 52t chainring capacity
• Dropped seatstays and a slightly altered geometry
• Claimed 789g S-Works frame weight (for reference the Crux 4 was 735g)

Despite the aerodynamic redesign, Specialized says the Crux 5 retains the same stiffness and compliance targets as the outgoing model.

The bike is also no longer positioned as an all-road-adjacent gravel bike. This is now a purpose-built race machine first and foremost.

A Fat-Tyred Tarmac

As stated, much of the Crux 5’s design comes from its road siblings. That influence is immediately obvious in the bike’s tube shaping and overall silhouette.

“Drawing directly from Tarmac SL8 learnings and decades of aero research, every tube on Crux 5 was sculpted for speed at elite gravel races," Specialized says. “Crux 5 is the most aerodynamic gravel race bike we’ve ever tested."

The aerodynamic improvements are spread across the entire bike rather than isolated to the frame alone.

Specialized says roughly 50% of the aero gains come from the frame, fork and seatpost, with another 30% coming from the new Roval Terra Aero wheels and the remaining 20% from the integrated Terra cockpit.

Still, aero is only part of the equation.

Rather than chasing isolated benchmark numbers, Specialized says it focused on one overarching metric: total elapsed race time over real-world gravel courses.

The company calls this its “Equation of Speed”, a simulation model combining aerodynamic drag, rider power, rolling resistance, surface roughness, environmental conditions and total system weight into a single prediction: Time to Finish.

“Smoother is Faster” has long been an engineering philosophy at Specialized and that certainly did not go unaddressed in the designing of the Crux 5.

During the 2025 edition of Unbound Gravel, a small telemetry box mounted underneath Matt Beers’ saddle collected accelerometer data throughout the race. Specialized says it has now gathered telemetry across thousands of kilometres and multiple elite gravel events, measuring the roughness and vibration characteristics of different gravel surfaces in real time.

Why? Because gravel racing presents a very different engineering challenge from road racing. At road-race speeds, aerodynamic drag dominates the equation. On gravel, speeds are generally lower and rolling resistance becomes significantly more important, particularly over rough surfaces where tyre deformation and vibration losses increase dramatically.

Specialized says the telemetry data feeds directly into its simulation models, allowing engineers to better understand how tyre volume, wheel design, rider fatigue and frame characteristics interact over events lasting upwards of 10 hours.

Rather than pursuing suspension solutions as it did with the short-lived Diverge STR, Specialized says the Crux 5 achieves comfort primarily through frame shaping, tyre volume and carefully tuned compliance targets.

Dropped seatstays, size-specific layups and the ability to run significantly larger tyres all contribute to reducing rider fatigue over long gravel races without adding the weight or complexity of suspension systems.

Specialized also credits what it calls “Flow State Design”, first introduced with the Aethos road bike. Engineers focused on optimising tube shapes so they carry loads more efficiently, reducing the need for additional carbon material.

The bike’s geometry has evolved alongside those aerodynamic changes. Though in the smaller sizes especially, these differences aren’t large.

Compared to the outgoing Crux, the new bike gets:

• A half-degree slacker head angle
• A lower bottom bracket
• A half-degree steeper seat angle
• Longer reach figures in larger sizes
• Increased tyre clearance to 55mm

Taken together, those updates point toward a bike designed to feel more stable at speed, more planted with larger tyres and more confidence-inspiring over rough terrain.

The wheel and tyre story forms a major part of the package too.

Specialized claims the new Terra Aero CLX wheels allow riders to run larger-volume tyres with effectively no aerodynamic penalty. According to the company, a 50mm Pathfinder or Tracer tyre mounted to the Terra Aero CLX wheel produces similar aerodynamic drag to a 45mm tyre mounted to the previous Terra CLX II wheel.

The result comes with some bold claims.

Using the company’s simulation model, Specialized says former Unbound winner Sofia Gomez Villafañe would have completed the 2025 edition of Unbound Gravel an impressive 9 minutes and 58 seconds faster aboard the new Crux 5 compared to the outgoing Crux 4, assuming identical conditions.

These numbers are impossible to verify, of course, but they do reveal how modern gravel racing is increasingly being approached: not as adventure riding, but as a very long time trial on unforgiving surfaces.

Introducing S-Level

Alongside the new Crux platform, Specialized is also introducing a new “S-Level” designation.

Positioned just below S-Works, S-Level is intended to bring flagship-level race performance to a slightly broader audience.

The Crux 5 S-Level uses a FACT 10r frame paired with a FACT 12r fork, the new Terra cockpit, SRAM RED XPLR and Roval Terra Aero CL wheels. The frame itself is claimed to weigh just 897g, with complete builds coming in at a claimed 7.7kg.

In practical terms, S-Level appears to function as a high-end performance tier sitting between the halo S-Works product and the more attainable Expert and Comp builds.

Builds & Pricing

First Ride Impressions

I’ve ridden the outgoing 2021 Specialized S-Works Crux since December 2021 and, in the years since, I’ve ridden the absolute crap out of it. It remains my favourite bike I’ve ever owned. I won’t go too deep into that here, but you can read my full 1,000-word love letter to the outgoing Crux here.

So I’ll admit that I approached the Crux 5 with a healthy amount of scepticism.

I’ve not yet fully bought into the whole “aero-is-everything” approach to modern bikes. I tinker with bikes far too much to fully embrace integrated everything and proprietary parts. Show of hands for everyone who has ever lost a seatpost wedge.

And so, when I first laid eyes on the Crux 5, it wasn’t love at first sight. It looks beautifully sleek and undeniably fast, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve always loved the timeless look of rounded tubes, a two-piece cockpit and the sheer practicality baked into the whole thing.

And then I swung a leg over the new bike. In my size 49, the geometry changes are so subtle that I immediately felt at home. It fit me like a glove. And within minutes of pedalling, I had my ah-ha moment.

This bike is fast. Not just marketing copy fast. Tangibly fast.

It accelerates like a rocket and carries speed exceptionally well on both dirt and tarmac. And, fortunately, the familiar liveliness of the Crux does indeed remain intact. While the new bike feels more composed than its predecessor, it is by no means over-dampened. On my lunch loop, sprinkled with singletrack, the bike felt unmistakably like a Crux. A smidge taller perhaps, and the ever beefier types certainly don’t help with the toe-overlap, but Crux all the same.

In many ways, it feels like a more mature version of the Crux concept. The old Crux had a carefree do-it-all attitude to it. The new bike feels more focused, more deliberate and more purpose-built.

It is stiff in the places that matter, accelerates eagerly and, importantly, remains remarkably comfortable over long hours.

This is not a harsh aero road bike masquerading as a gravel bike. The Crux 5 still feels refined over rough surfaces, particularly when paired with high-volume tyres, and there’s still enough playfulness in the handling to make it genuinely enjoyable to ride.

Importantly, it also retains some crossover appeal. I would have absolutely no hesitation using this bike as a road bike alongside its gravel duties.

Gravel racing at the sharp end has become increasingly fast, tactical and aero-conscious. Today’s elite gravel racers spend vast stretches riding in tightly packed groups, or even solo, at road race speeds. The spirit of exploration has, at the highest level at least, given way to the pursuit of outright speed.

In that environment, aerodynamic efficiency is everything (aside from preventing race-ending flat tyres, perhaps). The Crux 5 reflects that evolution perfectly.

The outgoing Crux became beloved because it blurred categories. The new Crux 5 will succeed because it embraces specialisation instead.

Of course, that comes with trade-offs.

The integrated cockpit and proprietary seatpost undoubtedly improve aerodynamics and visual cleanliness, but they also reduce the ease of adjustment, customisation, travel and maintenance that made the previous bike so easy to live with.

The bike is now 1x-only and designed specifically around gravel-wide chainlines. Mechanical drivetrains remain possible, though riders using the one-piece Roval cockpit will need to stick with electronic shifting.

Whether riders embrace those compromises will depend entirely on what they want from gravel riding.

For elite racers chasing every marginal gain at gravel events like Unbound, SBT GRVL or the Gravel Earth Series, the Crux 5 makes complete sense.

After riding the new bike, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: I don’t want one or the other. I want both.

This is the bike Tom Simpson rode to a silver medal in the individual pursuit during the 1958 Commonwealth Games. However, the 1965 road world champion lost ownership following a card game.

“Tom had a good friend called Graham Plumber,” explains Dave Marsh, of the Universal Cycle Centre, Rotherham. “The two played cards together in local cafes, which is how Graham won this bike from Tom. I doubt Tom was too bothered – if he ever needed a bike, Gerald O’Donovan, manager and designer at Carlton, was very happy to oblige.”

Simpson - whose palmares included wins at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders - and O’Donovan were also good friends; in fact, O’Donovan was Simpson’s best man. Marsh recalls the now legendary tale that, after picking this bike up from O’Donovan’s home in Carlton Road Worksop, Simpson rode a local time trial road course in 19 minutes. That’s a phenomenal time on a 1950s teel fixie with no brakes!

“Tom was loyal to Carlton almost until the end,” remembers Marsh. “Most of his Peugeot bikes were rebranded Carltons. However, late in his career, he did switch to Italian builder Alberto Masi, whose frames were also disguised as Peugeots.”

Carlton Cycles was founded in 1898, by Fred Hanstock. Its growth surged with the arrival of Dan O’Donovan, who joined the company from the motorcycle industry before taking over in 1939, later joined by his son Gerald. The company was bought by Raleigh in 1960 and ceased trading in 1981.

The Carlton Flyer was the jewel in the brand's crown, and as well as being the bike that powered Simpson to his 1949 silver medal in the World Championships individual pursuit, is was also the machine he used to claim a bronze in the 1956 Olympic team pursuit.

The Carlton Flyer was the brand’s top-tier bike. Beyond the norm – Reynolds 531 Double Butted tubing, Fiamme rims laced onto 28/28 small flange Airlite hubs, Stronglight chainset and cranks – Simpson’s bike has a few quirks.

“Tom specified notoriously steep tube angles,” confirms Marsh, who now owns the Carlton. “I think this one probably has a 74° head tube angle and a 73° seat tube angle. He modified the Brooks Champion Narrow saddle too, cutting away leather at the rear. The huge drop on the bars, plus the under slung stem, enabled him to tuck into an imposing stance.”