In time-honoured tradition, Tadej Pogačar rolled into Paris yesterday aboard a custom yellow-themed bike to celebrate his latest overall victory at the Tour de France.
As he has done for every road stage at this year’s race, Pogačar rode Colnago’s Y1Rs aero road bike, adorned with ENVE wheels, a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset and a full complement of high-end components.
As the first reigning UCI world road champion to win the Tour since Greg LeMond in 1990, Pogačar’s bike also gets the rainbow treatment.
Given the additional paint (and a couple of other spec changes), we suspect this yellow bike is a decent bit heavier than the all-black Colnago Y1Rs Pogačar rode during the second half of the race.
Could this additional weight have been the reason Pogačar wasn’t able to follow Wout van Aert’s vicious attack on the cobbled climb to Montmartre?
Probably not, but either way, we’re sure Pogačar will sleep soundly with his haul of the yellow and polka dot jerseys, plus four stage wins, from this year’s race.
A fresh spec for Paris
Pogačar opting for his Y1Rs aero bike for the final stage means his superlight Colnago V5Rs – which weighed less than 6.8kg at this year’s Grand Départ, according to our scales – didn’t get a single run-out at this year’s race.
There’s been much talk about this over the last three weeks, as Pogačar and his closest rival, Jonas Vingegaard have posted record times up some of France’s most famous mountains using aero rather than climbing bikes.
With some modern aero bikes pushing under 7kg and race speeds so high, though, it seems there’s little to gain from riding a lightweight bike – at least if you’re fast enough to challenge for overall victory at the Tour.
Yet while the V5Rs remained in the team truck, the final stage saw Pogačar finally roll out on his new Continental Archetype tyres.
Although these launched to much fanfare before the Tour, Pogačar spent the vast majority of the race using Continental’s lighter and faster GP5000 TT TR tyres, paired with ENVE’s new SES 4.5 Pro wheels.
Whether the switch for the final stage was a performance-based decision or one made simply to please team sponsors is unclear.
We suspect, however, that his hand may have been forced by ENVE supplying the special yellow and rainbow decals on a set of wider SES 4.5 wheels – as the 25mm-internal width rims aren’t compatible with the GP5000 TT TR tyres, which only come in 25 and 28c sizes.
As with the added weight from the paint, it’s a change that likely didn’t make much (if any) difference in the end – given Pogačar won the Tour by more than four minutes.
Finishing off the build is a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset complete with CarbonTi chainrings, a Fizik 3D-printed saddle and Shimano Dura-Ace pedals.
In a nod to weight savings, though, the bike is specced with Carbon Ti thru-axles and Elite’s Leggero Carbon bottle cages instead of the standard integrated aero ones.
These changes probably only save a handful of grams, but they do get spotted and called out by the media, and that helps keep everyone happy.
