Cyclist
Bikes of the World Championships road races 2024
While the headlines are dominated by the winners, the UCI World Championships bring together hundreds of elite cyclists and with that a lot of interesting tech that you don’t see in all the WorldTour races.
This year’s wasn’t packed with high-profile new releases like in previous years – Specialized launched the Tarmac SL8 in Glasgow last year for example – but eagle-eyed viewers can pick out new products or, more likely, sponsor-incorrect tech that riders are using while they’re not racing with their teams (a great place to find that is @cyclingspy on Instagram).
We sent photographer Xavier Pereyron out before the racing got going – he also shot both the men’s and women’s road races – to see what was lurking behind the scenes. There wasn’t lots of new tech this year but there were loads of cool paintjobs and quite a few brands you don’t often see in top tier races.
While Simon Yates’s bike looks pretty standard, his Jayco-AlUla team have been using Vittoria tyres this season and he’s gone for Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT tyres for this one.
He also looked to be using an unreleased saddle from Giant or Cadex, neither has a 3D printed saddle for sale currently and it looks like the same shape as Giant’s Fleet SLR saddle.
Hiding in the women’s peloton was this understated Lapierre. It looks like the Xelius with the extended seatstays (which the Aircode doesn’t have) but the tube shapes and cleaner lines look more aero-optimised than the exiting Xelius.
Wonder whose bike this is…
This one gives it away.
Mathieu van der Poel is normally a rider testing new stuff for his sponsors, but with the new Aeroad being launched just this year it’s safe to say this is that bike.
There were plenty of different variations of the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, including Remco Evenepoel’s gold bike and a couple in the Belgium women’s team.
Lotte Kopecky’s bike had a little Zefal mudguard a la Ass Savers.
As well as this motto on the top tube, ‘Pedal the planet forward’. That comes from Specialized’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
This was also the first Worlds for the Red Bull Specialized bikes, this one belonging to Bob Jungels.
Mauritius’s only rider in the women’s race was Lucie Lagesse with this understated but very nice Specialized Tarmac SL7 with a red wine colour scheme.
There were plenty of cool paintjobs about too. Rui Costa’s Cannondale SuperSix is decked out to celebrate his Portuguese national title.
Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello Dogma F is new for this year and he was riding a non-Ineos paintjob (red flag). It’s very cool, has a fun ‘GBR’ decal and features these loud Princeton CarbonWorks rims too. Those cost a few quid.
Amir Arsalan Ansari was riding for the Refugee Olympic Team on this rather lovely aero-edition (old school these days) Trek Madone.
Ella Wyllie’s New Zealand national championship-inspired bike is another one for the cool paintjob list.
A strong lineup of bikes across the New Zealand team.
Colours are cool but sometimes you can’t beat a black bike. Slovakia’s only rider in the men’s race was Lukáš Kubiš and his all black Wilier looks very cool, especially with the raw carbon wheels.
This all-black Liv is also a stunner, it belongs to Thailand’s Phetdarin Somrat. Also notice she used a deeper rim on the rear than the front.
You don’t see many 3Ts in top level racing anymore. This Strada belongs to Lithuania’s Rasa Leleivytė.
You definitely don’t see many of these. Romania’s Iustin-Ioan Vaidian was riding this bright bike by Chinese brand Yoeleo (which also makes the wheels), which is the sponsor of his MENtoRISE MLMsuperstars team.
Qatari rider Fadhel Al Khater was also riding a Chinese bike. This one is the Pardus Spark Evo with wheels from fellow Chinese brand Scom and a very big OSPW.
Malta’s Andrea Mifsud was on this stealthy bike from French brand Girs with a custom chainring swapped in for the standard Shimano Dura-Ace one.
Portugal’s Daniela Campos was riding this from Spanish brand Mendiz, set up by former KAS pro Eusebio Vélez de Mendizábal, who had two Vuelta podiums in the 1960s.
With all the focus on Tadej Pogačar’s special bike, trade teammate Pavel Sivakov played a big role in keeping him away on this standard UAE team edition Colnago V4Rs, seen alongside his French teammates’ Wiliers.
This was probably the first and only time we’ll see Pauline Ferrand-Prévot racing on a Pinarello road bike as she moves to Visma-Lease a Bike for her road comeback in the new year.
Continental’s GP5000 TT tyres were a very popular choice. Tadej Pogačar was on them too.
Although most riders seemed to be on 28mm tyres, Norway’s Ingvild Gåskjenn was rocking 30s in the rain. She finished a strong 28th leading a big group in.
It was one of her last outings on this Liv-AlUla-Jayco get-up before she heads to Uno-X.
Race plan: steady ride, keep fuelling. Oh no, Pogačar’s attacked with 100km to go throw it all out the window.
Working for a team at Worlds is hard work with so many different setups and riders you don’t always work with. Judging from the notes this is from the Canadian team. Their highest placed finisher was Magdeleine Vallieres who had a great race, ending up 14th. You might be able to make out on the bottom right she was running 4/4.2 bar tyre pressure in the rain.
Sara Nicole Torrico from Bolivia was ready for the rain. Although probably not that much rain.
Rwanda’s Diane Ingabire rides for Canyon-SRAM Generation so she was riding this very bright Aeroad. It’ll be a big one for her in 2025 when the show goes to Kigali.
This picture’s nice.
And finally, rim brakes are not dead. Shoutout Namibia’s Monique du Plessis.
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