Colnago V4Rs bike review - ultimate racing weapon that's not for the faint-legged

Pogačar's bike is designed specifically to win races - and you can tell

Colnago V4Rs on a blue background
(Image credit: Future)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The V4Rs was designed to help Tadej Pogačar to win the Tour de France. It’s a weapon, it looks like one and behaves like one. It’s not for showing off at the cafe on a Sunday morning when the weather’s nice. Sure the Colnago C68 has more kerb appeal - and I’ve witnessed this myself - and for non-racers it might have the smoother ride quality too, but if you want a Colnago to win on, the V4Rs is at least the equal of any pro bike out there.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Responsive ride

  • +

    Classic geometry

  • +

    Lighter frameset

  • +

    Pogačar pedigree

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Angular looks won't please Colnago purists

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

As Oscar Wilde said, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Which means that even though Tom Boonen and Dirk de Wolf suggested the Colnago V4Rs is 2kph slower than its peers, angering Ernesto Colnago himself, the public row it caused has leapfrogged it miles ahead of its more mainstream rivals in terms of exposure.

Additionally, Tadej Pogačar has been winning everything in sight on it, starting with victory on all three mountain stages at Paris-Nice and the overall victory; then the Tour of Flanders and most recently Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne. There will be many, many more (once his wrist fracture heals).

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