Colnago’s radical aero bike, launched in December 2024, isn’t the one Tadej Pogačar always rides. He used it in the UAE Tour in February, which he won overall, riding it to two mountaintop stage victories. But then for the Classics season he reverted to the aero all-rounder V4Rs, winning Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders on it. He then rode its successor, the V5Rs, to victories at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He used both bikes for the Critérium du Dauphiné and for the Tour de France so far has favoured the Y1Rs, riding it to his 100th pro win on stage four and to a second win at Mûr-de-Bretagne on stage seven.
So far there's no pattern emerging. How does he choose what to ride? The Colnago Y1Rs in this build weighs around 7.2kg whereas the V5Rs is on the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg. But, as we know, in the majority of scenarios the aero bike is faster until the road goes up very steeply and speed drops below where low weight becomes more important than aerodynamic efficiency.
Aerodynamic efficiency is what the Y1Rs is all about, and Colnago says that compared to the all-rounder the Y1Rs is 20 watts faster at 50kph. At the time of the launch, Colnago’s head of R&D, Davide Fumagalli, gave an example of Mikkel Bjerg pulling on the front of the bunch at 395 watts instead of 415. This seems to be a common reason for the return of the aero bike – so that domestiques can hold a higher pace while the GC leaders draft on the lightweight bike until the final climb when they jump away. But so far in this Tour de France Pogačar has been taking matters into his own hands, riding the aero bike designed for domestiques and sprinters for GC purposes – and it's true he looks capable of jumping away on any bike. It could be that he knows he has enough of a power-to-weight advantage over his rivals that he’s confident riding a bike that’s 400 grams heavier up climbs such as the iconic Mûr de Bretagne on stage seven. It could be a different story when the race hits the real mountains, however: Mûr-de-Bretagne is a mere pimple compared to Mont Ventoux, which comes on stage 16.
As you’d expect, it’s at the front where all the advanced aerodynamics happens, and the Y1Rs has a new gullwing CC.Y1 handlebar and narrow, lowered, hinged head tube, giving it a frontal area that’s 19% smaller than that of the V4RS (against which it was compared at the time) according to Colnago. The Wahoo Elemnt Bolt head unit fits very neatly into an out-front mount that leaves virtually no gap between its rear and the front of the bar.
Pogačar’s Baby Hulk sticker adorns the centre of the bar – now wearing rainbow trunks – and there a more straight-laced Richard Mille sticker either side, UAE Team Emirates’ official watch partner. The Slovenian rides a CC.Y1 bar that’s 377mm at the hoods, 400mm at the drops with a stem length of 125mm.
The fork crown hugs the front tyre incredibly closely – and this particular front tyre is the 30mm Continental Archetype, which was developed with Team UAE Emirates-XRG and is a claimed 35 grams lighter than the Grand Prix 5000 S TR at 275 grams. Pogačar himself is now partnering with Continental as a global brand ambassador.
It has become something of a tradition for Enve to make custom decals for Pogačar's SES 4.5 wheels. Last year we saw maglia rosa-themed stickers, and subsequently yellow ones with graffiti, names and scribbles echoing the road of an alpine climb. Now of course it’s the rainbow bands, matching the frame's custom world champion paintjob. As luck would have it, Colnago’s own logo already features rainbow bands behind the Ace of Clubs.
Pogačar made fans of storied Italian cycling brands very happy when he won the 2020 Tour de France on a Campagnolo-equipped Colnago, which was also the first time a Colnago-branded bike had won the race. He did it again in 2021, but the UAE team have used Shimano ever since. However, Pogačar regularly uses aftermarket chainrings from Italian brand Carbon-Ti, which could soften the blow a little, but here he has the standard Dura-Ace rings fitted on bike number 3, as designated by a small sticker on the rear of the seat tube. He’s using 165mm cranks – short, but we’ve seen rival Jonas Vingegaard use shorter, though not in this Tour.
There’s a custom ceramic T47 bottom bracket from Spanish brand Bikone that has the Baby Hulk logo discreetly etched into the flange.
The saddle is a Fizik Vento Argo Adaptive, which has personalised 3D-printed padding via Fizik’s One-to-One programme, rolled out last year. Previously the UAE team used Prologo saddles.
Will this be the bike that the ‘modern-day Merckx’ rides up and down the Champs-Elysées celebrating his fourth Tour France win – yellow-painted of course – on July 27?
