Visma-Lease a Bike riders have been spotted using what appears to be an updated Cervélo S5.
In images posted to Instagram by noted social media sleuth, @cyclingspy, various Visma-Lease A Bike riders are seen testing the new aero road bike ahead of next month’s Critérium du Dauphiné – the traditional build-up race to the Tour de France.
As far as we can see from the grainy images, the new Cervélo S5 looks set to continue with a broadly similar design.
However, the aero handlebar and eye-catching V-stem have been revised, with the new bike moving away from a two-piece system.
Let’s have a look at what else we can glean from the images and when we can expect to find out more.
S5 evolved
Cervélo has trod lightly with its flagship aero bike platform since it last overhauled it in 2019, and this latest S5 looks to offer more of the same.
From the low-resolution image, the frame in question looks practically identical to the current S5, with a slightly sloping top tube and rear-wheel-hugging seat tube, alongside a deep aero seatpost.
Up front, though, Cervélo has again decided to refine the cockpit setup.
Where the current version of the S5 uses a two-piece cockpit, with a separate V-stem and aero handlebar (which bolts on to the stem, rather than being clamped by it), the new bike appears to use a one-piece integrated handlebar and stem.
The central portion of the handlebar, between the two arms of the V-stem, also looks to have been slimmed down – perhaps in a bid to save weight or to improve its aerodynamic efficiency (or both).
Is this really a new bike?
Given there’s little concrete indication anything significant has changed about the S5’s frameset, it’s reasonable to question whether this is a whole new bike and not just a handlebar upgrade.
Even if the side profile of the bike has only seen minor changes, though, it’s possible Cervélo has made other adjustments to the frame shapes – such as making the head tube or fork legs narrower, for example – which weren’t obvious when viewed from the side.
Changes such as those could, in theory, help make the bike more aerodynamic without adding weight – something that would be critical for Visma-Lease a Bike’s two-time Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard.
Given the UCI updated its technical regulations ahead of the 2023 WorldTour season, around six months after the current S5 was announced, it’s possible there’s more room to eke out performance gains from the current design.
Given the Critérium du Dauphiné serves as the traditional warm-up event for the Tour de France, we’re likely to get a better look at this new bike shortly, as the Visma-Lease a Bike riders polish their form and put any new kit through its paces before the biggest event on the cycling calendar in July.
