We’ve reached the end of another WorldTour season, so it’s time to look back and see what were the best and worst road bikes of the year.
For this video, we’ve created a virtual ranking for every road bike in the WorldTour, and awarded the same points to the bikes as a rider would get from the UCI for winning a one-day race, a stage or a general classification.
For simplicity's sake, we’ve excluded time trials and other competitions, such as the points, mountains and young riders classifications, and we also haven't counted races outside the WorldTour, such as national and world championships.
Podium spots and minor places also count for nothing in this ranking, even if they are important to riders and teams in the real world.
But with all that said, let’s dive into the best and worst road bikes in 2025, as determined by WorldTour race wins, and the thorny question of whether or not it means anything.
20. Cube Litening Aero C:68X and Bianchi Oltre RC
Alright, let’s start at the bottom of the rankings.
This season, the wooden spoon is unfortunately shared by Cube and Bianchi, neither of which secured a single win at WorldTour level.
Making matters worse for Cube, the German brand looks set to be out of the WorldTour in 2026. Its sponsored WorldTour team, Intermarché–Wanty, is merging with UCI ProTour team Lotto – which has an existing sponsorship arrangement with Orbea that looks set to continue post-merger.
There’s better news for Bianchi, however, with the Italian brand set to link up with Bahrain Victorious next season, according to Daniel Benson.
19. Factor Ostro VAM / Prototype aero bike and Look 795 Blade RS
Tied for 19th place with only 110 points apiece are Factor, with the Ostro VAM and that whacky prototype aero bike, and Look with its 795 Blade RS.
The brands took only two wins each this season, and only in lower-scoring stage races such as the Tour Down Under and the Critérium du Dauphiné – there were no one-day classic or Grand Tour stage victories for either brand in 2025.
18. Merida Scultura Team
Next up, with 180 points stemming from victories at Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Critérium du Dauphiné, is Merida with its all-rounder race bike, the Scultura Team.
Notably, despite the dizzying average speed WorldTour races are now typically run at, there were no wins for the Taiwanese brand’s aero road bike, the Reacto.
The brand’s new Reacto, which debuted at this year’s Tour de France, might have fared better next season if only Bahrain Victorious wasn’t adopting Bianchi bikes for 2026.
17. X-Lab AD9, Lapierre Xelius DRS and Wilier Filante SLR
Tied with 240 points are X-Lab’s AD9, Lapierre’s Xelius DRS and the Wilier Filante SLR.
Despite getting loads of good placings throughout the season and XDS Astana finishing fourth in the UCI’s world rankings for teams, X-Lab’s AD9 took only two WorldTour wins this season.
Luckily, though, one of those was Christian Scaroni’s stage at the Giro d’Italia – which netted his Chinese aero bike 180 points – while the remaining 60 points came from Lorenzo Fortunato’s stage win at the Tour de Romandie.
It was a similar story for Lapierre and Wilier, with each team netting 180 points from stage wins at the Giro and Vuelta, plus 60 points each from stage wins at the Tour de Suisse.
16. Van Rysel RCR-R
In 16th place, with three wins, is Van Rysel’s all-rounder road bike, the RCR-R – which took one grand tour stage victory under Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale Team) at the Giro, plus stage wins at Tirreno–Adriatico and the Tour of Poland.
As with Merida, Van Rysel makes a proper aero bike – the RCR-F, which we had a close look at in Lille, at the Tour’s Grand Départ – but that bike didn’t score any wins this season.
15. Giant TCR Advanced SL
Sneaking in thanks to the final WorldTour race of the season is one of my favourite road bikes, the Giant TCR Advanced SL.
That’s right, winning a stage and the general classification at the Tour of Guangxi, thanks to Team Jayco AlUla’s Paul Double, netted the TCR 340 points – almost as many as two stage wins at the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a España.
Is that fair? We’ll let you decide…
14. Scott Foil RC
Up next we have the Scott Foil RC, which took only one WorldTour race win this season, and scored a handy 400 points for it, thanks to Rory Townsend’s fantastically dramatic win at the Hamburg Cyclassics.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, podium spots and wins outside the WorldTour don’t count, so Tom Pidcock’s valiant third place at the Vuelta and overall victory at the AlUla Tour mean nothing in the context of this ranking. Sorry, Tom.
13. BMC Teammachine R
In 13th place, we have the BMC Teammachine R, which scored a grand total of 560 points from only two WorldTour wins by riders from the second-tier, UCI ProTeam, Tudor Pro Cycling Team.
60 of those points came from Michael Storer’s stage win at Paris-Nice in March, and a whopping 500 from Julian Alaphilippe’s win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in September.
12. Ridley Noah Fast
With three wins and 570 points, Ridley’s Noah Fast sits in 12th place – which is pretty good considering Uno-X Mobility also wasn’t a WorldTour team this year.
With the Norwegian team securing promotion into the big leagues for 2026, we might see Ridley bikes even higher up this list next year.
11. Orbea Orca Aero
In 11th place, with 850 points, we have the Orbea Orca Aero of the second-tier Lotto team.
This is thanks entirely to the exploits of Belgium’s Arnaud De Lie, who took a win at the Bretagne Classic in August, plus a stage and GC win at the Renewi Tour the week before.
As we discovered at this year’s Tour de France, the Orbea Orca Aero certainly isn’t the lightest aero road bike in the WorldTour, but it presumably is pretty aero, which makes it ideal for a sprinter such as De Lie.
10. Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71
Cannondale’s SuperSix Evo Lab71 sits just inside the top 10, with EF Education – Easypost securing six WorldTour victories and 980 points this year.
Most notable of those was undoubtedly Ben Healy’s brilliant solo win at the Tour de France, and his stint in the yellow jersey that followed.
9. Pinarello Dogma F
Ineos Grenadiers didn’t have their best ever season, but they still helped Pinarello’s Dogma F sneak into the top 10 thanks to eight victories and 990 points – four of which were Grand Tour stages.
For 2026, the Italian brand is sponsoring two WorldTour teams – Ineos Grenadiers and Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, so we could see it rise up the list next season if all goes to plan.
8. Giant Propel Advanced SL
In eighth place, we have a second entry for Giant on this list, in the form of its Propel Advanced SL.
Although it took only five WorldTour wins this year, it netted a healthy 1,170 points from a mix of Grand Tour stage victories, Michael Matthews' win at Eschborn–Frankfurt and Mauro Schmid’s overall win at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
7. Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8
Next up, we have the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, and a huge jump to 2,580 points from 23 victories.
That's the most wins of any bike on this list.
Of course, Specialized is helped by the fact it sponsors two high-profile WorldTour teams – Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Soudal Quick-Step – but it’s nevertheless fair to say the American brand had a strong season on all fronts.
- Remco Evenepoel’s gold Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 for the Tour de France had $600 chainrings and $20 bottle cages
- Primož Roglič’s Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 weighs 180g less than Remco Evenepoel’s
6. Colnago V5Rs
In sixth place, we have the first of three Colnago road bikes inside the top 10 – the all-rounder V5Rs, with 2,860 points.
That’s an impressive tally considering this bike launched in April and took only 11 victories, but of course those were all high-scoring ones thanks to the likes of Tadej Pogačar, João Almeida and Isaac del Toro.
5. Colnago V4Rs
Just pipping the V5Rs is Colnago’s old V4Rs, which also took 11 wins in the first few months of the season – amassing 2,930 points before UAE Team Emirates – XRG switched over to the new version and a certain aero bike that we’ll talk about more shortly.
4. Trek Madone SLR
In fourth place, it’s Trek’s Madone SLR, which had a fantastic season, scoring 3,330 points from 19 victories.
Lidl-Trek sprinters Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan unsurprisingly dominate the list of victories, scoring big points at Grand Tours and single-day races alike, but I guess that shows the value of having riders who can win consistently from a big bunch sprint.
3. Canyon Aeroad CFR
Third place was a story of quality over quantity for the Canyon Aeroad CFR.
Although it scored only 13 victories in this year’s WorldTour, practically all of those netted big points.
That was mostly thanks to the Alpecin–Deceuninck’s superstar duo, Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, although Kaden Groves also deserves a mention for his two Grand Tour stage wins.
Movistar also chipped in with a couple of results, taking the Aeroad’s tally to a very respectable 3,520 points.
2. Cervélo S5
In second place, we have the Cervélo S5, with 4,570 points.
Cervélo’s aero bike unsurprisingly scored big points throughout the season thanks to the exploits of Team Visma | Lease a Bike, and, in particular, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Olav Kooij and Matthew Brennan.
One thing worth noting, though, is that – since the name was unchanged – we’re counting both the old and new versions of the S5 here (the latter of which officially launched just after the start of this year’s Tour).
If we did the same for Colnago and its V4 and V5Rs, that ‘platform’ would have been the top-scoring bike for the season with an outrageous 5,790 points from 22 wins.
1. Colnago Y1Rs
Given that’s not how we’ve done things, though, Colnago’s Y1Rs tops the chart with 5,530 points from 20 wins.
Of course, that probably comes as no surprise considering the Y1Rs was Tadej Poagčar’s bike of choice for much of the season, but it’s worth reflecting on how many points he and his teammates also accrued on the V4 and V5Rs platforms.
If we add up all the points for Colnago road bikes, the total is a frankly astonishing 11,320 – making it the highest-scoring brand by a mile.
Does this mean anything?
So, what – if anything – does any of this mean?
Given UAE Team Emirates – XRG also topped the UCI world rankings by a country mile, it comes as no surprise that the bikes the team rides scored the most points.
On the one hand, those who make and market bikes would no doubt love us to believe that the two go hand in hand, and that top results are connected directly to having the best bikes and equipment.
And, in a way, that’s true – cycling is a technical sport and, in many circumstances, having better kit than your opponents can make the difference between winning and losing.
On the other hand, given the performance gap between Poagčar and the rest of the men’s peloton, we’re fairly certain he’d have had an almost identical season riding any bike in this list.
After all, we’ve tested and reviewed almost every bike on this list, and we can honestly say they’re all fantastic bikes – generally speaking, it’s the rider that makes the difference.
