Tadej Pogačar rode one of Shimano’s blue neutral service bikes at Paris–Roubaix at the weekend, after he punctured with 120km to go.
Shimano’s neutral service provides support to all riders at some of the biggest races in the calendar, with the brand saying it is active on 450 race days a year.
It isn’t often we see the neutral service bikes used in anger, with riders’ teammates or cars usually within a fair distance to fix a mechanical or hand over a sponsored bike.
Yet Pogačar had to use one of Shimano’s bikes for roughly 5km before he was reunited with his Colnago Y1Rs, eventually finishing second behind Wout van Aert.
This isn’t the first time the Slovenian has received a hand from Shimano’s neutral service, with the blue stig, Raf Pauwels, helping the Slovenian resit a chain before pushing him back into the action at last year's Tour de France.
But his time spent on Shimano’s blue bike had us wondering, which bike does the component brand use for its neutral service?
While Shimano wouldn’t comment on the brand of bikes it uses, it told us it has “multiple bikes and brands in [its] neutral service fleet, not only the ones featured in Paris–Roubaix”.
However, there are some tell-tale signs from the blue bike Pogačar rode at Paris–Roubaix 2026, and we believe we’ve identified the brand.
Shimano neutral service bike brand
For many years, the Shimano neutral service bikes were produced by the French manufacturer, Origine, with the brand’s Axxome chosen to be decked out in the blue Shimano livery.
That looks to have changed, with the latest bike appearing to be a 2020/2021 Canyon Ultimate from what we can see.
We’ve come to that conclusion based on the visual similarities in the tube shapes, especially around the seatstay design.
It’s a bike that has since been updated by Canyon, suggesting Shimano has bought these frames rather than borrowed them from the German brand, remaining neutral.
While the bike is up to date by many metrics, featuring disc brakes and some aero profiling, it’s still five or more years old, so we can see why riders are eager to switch to their team bikes as soon as the chance arises.
There are some unique component choices made for the blue bikes' specific role, with a dropper post used so riders can set their saddle height quickly on the move.
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