Is this the £17,000 bike that will carry Tadej Pogačar to the rainbow jersey?

Tadej Pogačar will ride a special limited edition Colnago V4RS during the elite men’s road race at the World Championships in Switzerland on Sunday.

Colnago launched the bike on Thursday evening in Switzerland at the Slovenian federation’s press conference ahead of the weekend’s action. The colourful livery is said to be inspired by Pogačar’s extensive list of successes during the 2024 season.

According to Colnago, the bike’s specification is largely the same as the usual V4RS that Pogačar rides while competing for UAE Team Emirates. The colourway, however, is far different to the black, red and white that feature on his standard team issue machine.

The setup includes the usual Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset that Pogačar races on all year round, Enve wheels and 28mm Pirelli race tires. But it is the colourway which is likely to draw the most attention when Pogačar appears on the startline on Sunday.

Gold, pink, blue and red and white polka-dots all feature on the frame. Colnago say that the paint-job recalls the work produced by the pop art movement born in the mid 1950s in the USA and UK, of which Pogačar is said to be a big fan.

The chosen colours all represent the Slovenian’s multitude of victories since his WorldTour debut. A gold tinted yellow for the yellow jersey of the Tour de France, pink for the leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia, blue to represent his successes at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, and white to represent the best young riders classification at the Tour, which Pogačar won across four successive years between 2020 and 2023.

Red polka dots are also included to represent the king of the mountains jerseys at the French Grand Tour. Bronze also features to represent his Olympic medal in Tokyo in 2021 and his World Championships bronze medal achieved in Glasgow last August.

According to the brand, Pogačar was consulted during the design process and also asked for purple to be included in the design because “you always need something purple in your life.”

Pogačar’s personal TP logo is visible on the frame on the horizontal tube and on the intersection with the seat tube. The logo is also printed on the chainstays.

Crankset, wheels and saddle 

Colnago collaborated with fellow Italian brand Carbon-Ti to produce the design of the crankset which is made of aluminium alloy and carbon fibre with X-rotor steel carbon 3 Centre Lock discs.

The superlight weight threaded thru-axles are an anodized gold colourway and the graphic which reads “Colnago-TP-Carbon-Ti” was etched on by laser.

A similar graphic can also be seen on the screws of the bottle cages which are the same gold colour. Overall, the lightweight thru-axle and bottle cage screws contribute to the bike’s overall weight saving, according to Colnago.

The Enve SES 4.5 wheels carry the same colourway and design that feature across the frame.

Finally, the bike is completed by a limited edition Prologo saddle, the Prologo Nago R4 Nack 147 Tadej Pogačar. Some of the Giro-Tour double winner’s most famous victories are emblazoned across the design.

You can check out the bike in full on the Colnago website where it is also available to purchase exclusively between 26 September-14 October. It will then be available in selected stores across Europe for a price of €17,200 (£14,326/$19,223).