The Tour de France is always a hotbed for new bikes and tech. We were at the 2025 Grand Depart in Lille just over 10 days ago, where we reported on the new tech and bikes spotted at the race. Here are the top stories and releases, in brief:
- A new Cervélo R5 was hiding in plain sight at the Grand Depart. Team Visma–Lease a Bike’s new climbing bike is right on the UCI weight limit with all the accessories it needs to be race-ready. It retains its classic silhouette, but “every single piece has been changed”.
- We also spied Jonas Vingegaard’s unreleased Cervélo S5. First spotted in May, and like the R5, the new aero bike is similar to its predecessor. But it now has a fully integrated one-piece cockpit. Cervélo officially launched the bike on 8 July, stating it's now 6.3 watts faster and 124g lighter.
- The new and unreleased Merida Reacto is one of the best-value bikes in the pro peloton. Ridden by Team Bahrain Victorious, the aero bike has a new fork and seat tube, and a beefy bottom bracket.
- Julian Alaphilippe has been riding the new BMC Teammachine SLR 01, launched just before the Tour de France. BMC says the climbing bike is 222g lighter than before thanks to new tube shapes, the carbon layup and a raw carbon finish. LouLou’s bike weighed 7.125kg with pedals, bottles cages and a bike computer.
- Team Cofidis’ Look 795 Blade RS isn’t strictly new, but the race bike was given a fresh lick of paint for this year’s Tour de France. It has Look’s classic yellow, red and blue colours, but swirls them over black for a more modern feel. The team had 11 bikes stolen after stage 1 of the Tour, but the police recovered them two days later.
Want to know more? Read our guide to all the 2025 Tour de France bikes.
