A new Campagnolo wireless electronic groupset has broken cover at the 2025 Giro d’Italia.
Adorning the bikes of Stefano Oldani of Cofidis, and Alessandro Pinarello of VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè, the new groupset appears to make some significant changes compared to Campagnolo’s existing Super Record Wireless groupset.
As confirmed by Bikerumor, and a recent firmware update for the Garmin Edge 1050 bike computer, the new groupset will feature 2x 13-speeds – a first amongst the big three road bike groupset manufacturers.
It seems the legendary Italian brand also looks set to update the shifter button layout, moving away from its current configuration and potentially bringing back its beloved thumb shifter (though not in its classic form).
While Campagnolo is understandably tight-lipped on this development, let’s take a look at what we can glean from the race photos – and what this might mean for the historic brand.
Campagnolo goes 13-speed for road
In our electronic age, the rear derailleur is the beating heart of any modern groupset, and it’s here we see some of the most significant changes.
As usual with Campagnolo Super Record, there’s still plenty of carbon fibre, and a Super Record Wireless battery is still located at the rear of the main body, just above the lower pivots.
However, Campagnolo looks to have aggressively cut material (and therefore likely weight, too) from the new rear mech, with a hollow outer parallelogram plate and a new hollow section near the hanger bolt.
From the looks of things, Campagnolo looks keen to challenge SRAM Red AXS’s claim to be the lightest electronic groupset (with disc brakes) available.
The pulley cage has also seen significant reshaping, moving away from the smooth, curved design seen on the current Super Record Wireless rear derailleur, to a more angular design.
The two pulley wheels also appear to use taller teeth. Could this be designed to offer improved chain management when run in a 1x configuration? Oldani’s bike was set up with two chainrings up front, but with 1x on the rise in the WorldTour peloton, we wouldn’t be surprised if Campagnolo was considering this use case.
The derailleur also uses a Shimano-style ‘direct mount’ design, which eliminates the additional plate between the upper knuckle of the derailleur and the hanger, for increased stiffness and improved shifting performance.
To be clear, this isn’t the same as SRAM’s Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH) standard, as seen on the American brand’s Red XPLR AXS gravel groupset. SRAM's design eliminates the need for a derailleur hanger entirely.
At a glance, the carbon fibre crankset looks identical to the existing one, though it's notable Oldani appears to be using Look Keo Blade power meter pedals, rather than Campagnolo’s recently announced spider-based option (the Campagnolo HPPM power meter).
Return of the thumb shifter
Up on Oldani’s handlebars, we can see another significant change to the new groupset.
On the right-hand shifter, Campagnolo has moved to a single shifter button behind the brake lever, retiring the vertical two-button configuration used on the current Super Record Wireless and Super Record Wireless S groupsets.
Zooming in and enhancing the image – CSI-style – appears to show something suspiciously button-esque on the inside of the left shifter, while images captured by Cyclingnews confirm the Italian manufacturer is indeed bringing back its iconic thumb shifter.
This is something we've been hoping for since uncovering a patent hinting at the return of the thumb shifter last year.
While it might seem a trivial detail, we suspect many Campagnolo fans will be delighted by this U-turn, as the thumb shifter played a key role in helping Campagnolo's road groupsets stand apart from the crowd.
When asked whether he was excited about the potential return of this iconic control scheme, BikeRadar’s resident Campagnolo expert, Oscar Huckle, gave a firm “Yes.”
What does this mean for Campagnolo?
Aside from the specific details of an extra cog, a little less weight and updated shifting layout, it’s also interesting to ponder what this could mean for the renowned Italian brand.
After it lost its place in the UCI WorldTour (road cycling’s elite racing series) for the 2024 season, many felt Campagnolo was diminishing in relevance in an area it once dominated.
However, with Campagnolo back in the elite ranks for this year (with Cofidis), and seemingly with something new and exciting to launch, that narrative is changing.
Excitingly, it looks as if Campagnolo could finally be getting back ahead of the development curve.
While our first ride impressions of Super Record Wireless were broadly positive, it arguably represented Campagnolo catching up with what was already available (from SRAM, at least), and didn’t offer anything substantively new.
If Campagnolo can beat both SRAM and Shimano to the punch with a 13-speed, fully wireless 2x electronic road groupset, that could really be something to shout about – especially as Shimano appears to be working on just that, if patents are anything to go by.
Of course, as with all things carrying the hallowed ‘Super Record’ label, we’re sure this new groupset won’t come cheap.
However, with release notes for a recent Garmin Edge 1050 firmware update noting “Added presets for Campagnolo 13-speed groupsets”, could the plural suggest more – potentially cheaper – options are also on the way? We live in hope.
