Flashes of gold, silver and metallic pink were spotted in central Paris on Thursday, turning café-goers' heads as the Olympic peloton performed a group recon of the road race course.
Organised by the Games, the riders travelled in a speed-controlled convoy through the streets of the French capital, taking in the cobbled climb of Rue Lepic and the tourist district of Montmartre. It was, in essence, a coffee ride without the coffee.
For many riders, it was also one of the first times that they had used their special-edition road bikes, with new colourways released for the Paris Olympics. Here are some of our favourites, and what their designs mean.
With pink motifs, the colours are said to hark back to Specialized's "irreverent, rebellious spirit".
The art was done by Italian-based bike painting company Lumar Colors, who said it was "our most complex paint job ever". The bikes have a dipped marble effect, and come with both silver and gold leaf applied into the design.
There's also an environmental tag line on the top tube that reads: "Pedal the Planet Forwards". Although UCI rules around advertising stipulate that this will have to be covered for the events.
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Monet-inspired Cervélo
(Image credit: Getty Images)
"Anyone who's visited the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris will sense the inspiration behind the limited-edition S5," writes Cervélo on Instagram.
If you haven't visited the Orangerie, let me fill you in. Ever the art aficionado, Cervélo has incorporated the floral pattern of Claude Monet's famous Water Lillies painting – displayed in a panoramic room at the museum – into its creation for the Paris Olympics.
The bike was ridden on Thursday's recon by many of the Visma-Lease a Bike riders, including Wout van Aert, Matteo Jorgenson, and time trial silver medallist Anna Henderson.
if you like it, hurry; Cervélo has made just 100 framesets available.
Perhaps the most eye-catching bike in the blur of the international peloton was Trek's latest ICON paint scheme.
Fortunately, we got a closer look at the design thanks to Jasper Stuyven, who rode in a small bunch ahead of the group with his Belgian teammates. The metallic pink, or luminous lilac, comes as part of Trek's Project One custom bike branch, which also produced unique colourways for Lidl-Trek riders at the Tour de France.
The team's riders are now all using this Paris edition paint job, which they also had on their time trial bikes last weekend.
Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma, who rides for WorldTour team Canyon-SRAM, was among those using the MACH874 design, named after the measure for the speed of light. Cycling Weekly also spotted a number of other riders using it, including Niewiadoma's trade teammates Elise Chabbey and Chloé Dygert.
The bikes are designed to look fast, with blurred lines across the frame. There's also a rainbow effect on the fork, a nod to the dispersion of light through a prism. It's also, coincidentally, the colours of the Olympics rings.
Golden Pinarello
(Image credit: Tom Davidson)
You'll have to excuse the shoddy photography on this one, but this is the best we've got of the new Pinarello paintwork in town.
Cycling Weekly first spotted the gold-tinted bike on top of the Team GB car ahead of the time trials, and wondered if it was a celebratory design for a potential podium moment. In reality, it wasn't. It's just another flashy colourway produced for the riders at the Paris Olympics.
During the recon, the bike was used by Tom Pidcock and Josh Tarling, with the letters GBR (Great Britain) visible down the seat tube. A contact at British Cycling said they saw the colour as "more of an ombré" than gold; however, it's the latter coloured medal the team will be riding for on Saturday.
For more details about this weekend's Olympic road races, we've put together a course guide and a how to watch page, with all the information you need.
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