Olympic tech: what the Paris 2024 athletes are riding this year

Olympic fever has well and truly gripped the world, and an abundance of sporting stories for the ages have already been written - in and out of cycling. 

It's been a rollercoaster for those on two wheels too, with nail biting finishes off road, impressive displays of strength on the tarmac, and World Records a plenty in the velodrome. None of this, of course, would be possible without the bikes themselves - and teams have gone all in for the games, with brands and nations hoping to give their riders the best possible chance at striking gold.

With plethora of special bikes in the world's biggest sporting spotlight, we have pulled out our top picks of the games so far, from avant-garde track bikes, to exclusive paint jobs - and even medal-winning plastic spokes...

Remco's TT bike

It was none other than Remco Evenepoel who first struck gold on two wheels at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The Belgian rider triumphed in biblical conditions, and did so on rather a special bike.

Instead of riding his usual Specialized S-Works Shiv, the Belgian used a special-edition paint scheme which is said to ‘celebrate 50 years of innovative design,’ and ‘look towards the next 50’. The design is the most complicated paint work the brand has ever embarked on, with hours of human time going into each bike. 

Remco’s time trial bike featured a silver metallic base coat, complete with textured inlay, all suplemented by flashes of pink which Specialized says harks back to the brand’s “irreverent, rebellious spirit”.

As you might expect, the bike itself was also full to the brim with optimisations. Remco reportedly used a mammoth 64t chainring up front, in order to maximize chain line efficiency for speeds in excess of 50kph. Of course, this was kept in check with a K-edge chain catcher, in a bid to save a precious handful of watts. Interesting too was Remco’s custom cockpit. On top of his molded aero extensions, the Belgian also seemed to use a 3D-printed computer mount that sat flush, in order to give him the data he needed without any drag.

Van Aert's TT bike

Wout van Aert, who pipped young Brit Josh Tarling to the bronze medal, did so with a never-before-seen TT set-up - in the modern era at least.

The Belgian rider used a double disc wheel set-up, which was met with questions over UCI legality and also safety.

Interestingly, the Reserve Infinity Disc Turbulent Aero wheelset in use is UCI approved, however would it not be legal in Cycling Time Trial or Triathlon events. On the Reserve website, the wheels are cited as being developed specifically for Team Visma-Lease a Bike.

Wout van Aert told Cycling Weekly that the wheels were “17 watts faster” in the wind tunnel, though could only be used in mild wind conditions.

Anna Henderson's road bike

Riders such as Anna Henderson, who ride Cervélo bikes with their trade teams, were also using specially painted bikes.

Cervélo has incorporated the floral pattern of Claude Monet’s famous Water Lillies painting – displayed in a panoramic room at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris – into its creation for the Olympics. If you like it, hurry; Cervélo has made just 100 framesets available.

Tom Pidcock's Pinarello Dogma XC

Hold on a moment – knobbly tyes and a flat handlebar? I know, it pushes the boundaries of what we cover here at CW, but there is rather a lot going on with Tom Pidock’s cross-country mountain bike, and after such a tantalising fight for the gold medal, I deemed it necessary to cover the details.

Pidcock is the only rider under the Ineos umbrella to use the full complement of race bikes on offer to the Grenadiers, however until March this year, he didn’t officially have a bike to compete in XC. The multi-disciplinarian’s success led to Pinarello developing a mountain bike for him, in which he played a large part in the development.

The Brit opted for the full-suspension version of the Dogma XC, after criticising the course for being “bland”, and “not really mountain bike”.

It was the choice of wheels that was most interesting, though. Pidcock used the world’s lightest spokes, which come from US company Berd, and are manufactured from Dyneema, a type of polyethylene. Costing £392 per wheelset for a 28-spoke wheel set-up, they are certainly expensive, but they might have helped him take gold too. The flexible nature of the spokes can increase wheel forgiveness - not what you want in the final of a road race, but where bike handling and controlling traction are paramount, these spokes can lend a helping hand.

Japanese track bike

The Japanese track bike shares a number of features with the Team GB machine but goes even further in the pursuit of aerodynamics in a couple of areas. Most notably, the bike, which was developed in collaboration with Toray, features a left-hand drive system.

Due to the nature of track racing, and always turning left, the drivetrain is sheltered more of the time when ‘hidden’ on the left-hand side of the bike.

Kristen Faulkner's Supersix Evo

“I almost didn’t race,” said Kristen Faulkner in the post-race press conference. Well, thank goodness she did. The American rider not only ignited the Women’s Olympic road race, but became the first male or female rider from the US to win an Olympic road race for over 40 years.

She arrived at the finish line underneath the Eiffel Tower some 58 seconds clear of the rest of the field aboard a special edition version of her trade team bike, a Cannondale Supersix Evo. The Olympic frameset featured a white base coat with geometric red green and yellow accents dotted around the bike. Aside from the paint, the bike was fairly similar to her usual EF Education-EasyPost team bike, with Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Vision wheels, and Vittoria Corsa tubeless tyres present to help tackle the cobblestones of the Parisian course.

Team France's Look P24

Where the road might see a fairly constant stream of new technology through the years, track-focused tech is without fail centered around the Olympic cycle. That, of course, means there are more strange-looking bikes than ever in the Paris Velodrome, and the Look P24 is a prime example.

Developed for Team France, the Look P24 follows the growing trend of ultra-wide fork legs and rather alien-looking seatpost designs. The philosophy behind this is to create more space between the wheels which cause a turbulent airflow, and the fork blades, with the aim of reducing high pressure build-up in these areas. The fork blades are so spaced out that they sit closer in line with the legs of the rider, which is said to improve efficiency.

Compared to Look’s outgoing track bike, the French brand claims the new machine is a whopping 91 watts faster at 70kph, which equates to a seven- metre advantage per lap at these speeds. It will be in action with drop handlebars in sprint and bunch races, with aero extensions in pursuit events.

Team GB bike

Team GB have been a leading force in the world of track cycling tech developments for decades now, and the Paris 2024 Games is yet another example of collaborative engineering expertise. They have been riding a cutting-edge track bike, developed in partnership with Lotus Engineering, Renishaw, and Hope Technology.

The new bike is an iteration of what Team GB used in the Tokyo 2020 Games, where the ultra-wide fork legs and seatstays were first debuted. The ethos hasn’t changed, and the goal, like with the Look P24, is still to reduce high pressure build-up around the front wheel, and align the frame sections with the legs of the riders.

Unlike the Look P24, however, the fork resembles a double-crowned fork commonly seen in downhill mountain biking. This is something that Team GB has patented, and we think this is most likely for improved stiffness at the front end - paramount when your riders are putting out over 2,500 watts.

Interestingly too, the whole team pursuit squad is now riding the same Olympic set-up. Previously, aero wizard Dan Bigham was still using his own Pinarello set-up which he used to break the British Hour record back in 2022. Having spent so much time optimising his position on this bike, we speculate that perhaps not enough time had yet been put into the new bike to make it faster than his pre-existing set-up when he last raced pursuit races last year. For the Olympics, however, this seems to have been changed.

Gold brompton

Alongside the space-age track bike, Team GB athletes have also been riding around the Olympic village on this Brompton P Line – though perhaps not during competition...

Brompton has partnered with Team GB to create a fleet of special edition bikes for athletes and coaches to use to move around Paris. The bikes are also being showcased by British high jumper Morgan Lake, and BMX rider Kieran Reilly – watch out for any audacious manoeuvres around the Paris city centre!

Alongside the GB paint job, Brompton has also produced the ‘first ever gold plated folding bike’. Brompton has collaborated with Mappin & Webb Gold to produce two gold-plated machines, each made with the equivalent of one ounce of 24-carat yellow gold. The bikes will be auctioned off in due course with all proceeds going to the Olympic Foundation.