You may have already seen our coverage of multiple unreleased bikes showing up at the 2024 Criterium du Dauphine but in case you missed it, here's a round-up of all the new bikes we can expect to drop before this year's Tour de France...
The Criterium du Dauphine has long been a favourite for testing the latest and greatest equipment and 2024 was a bumper year for new bikes. There were new aero bikes and new climbing bikes, and we can expect all of them to be officially released in the next few months.
A new Trek that symbolises a change in direction
> New Trek Madone breaks cover at Dauphiné… or is it an Emonda?
What we thought would be a new Emonda turned out to also have Madone written on the top tube. It now looks as though Trek will pack in its long-standing two-pronged road race bike approach, with this new bike being the one bike for both aero and lightweight occasions.
The new bike is clearly no slouch (at least not with Mads Pedersen on it) as it picked up a stage victory at the first opportunity. It features slimmed-down tube profiles compared with the seventh-generation Madone, but retains the IsoFlow seat tube tech. The aero bottles and cages also sparked our interest.
We're still unsure what name the new bike will have on its birth certificate (the UCI List of Approved Models of Framesets) but we've had a good stab at guessing in this article.
Pinarello updates the Dogma
Despite turning up to a televised cycling race on the new bike, INEOS Grenadiers were less than happy about having their new race bike photographed, but photograph it we did.
The new bike looks to have prioritised aero with a much deeper head tube than the current generation and a bulbous bottom bracket area that merges the non-drive side chainstay and BB shell.
> Ineos Grenadiers race new Pinarello Dogma at Dauphiné
It's also likely that Pinarello has upped the tyre clearance on the new bike as the current Dogma F has one of the smallest clearances in the peloton at 28mm. You can check out our full analysis here and watch us get shouted at by INEOS here.
The next generation Canyon Aeroad breaks cover
> Canyon’s unreleased Aeroad raced by Movistar at Critérium du Dauphiné
Canyon has also been busy cooking up a new bike and although finding a new Aeroad didn’t come as a complete surprise thanks to Valtteri Bottas riding one around the F1 paddock last week, this is our best look yet at the brand's new aero bike.
We should point out that this isn’t the same bike that Van der Poel has been riding around on for the past year or so. That must have just been some interim project with a modified seatpost clamp. The one we spotted has seen far more changes.
Firstly, just like Pinarello's new Dogma, Canyon has made the head tube much deeper. The existing Aeroad was released back in 2020 but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were issues with both the seatpost and the handlebar.
Both of these areas have also seen some modifications. The seatpost wedge is now located inside the main triangle of the frame, and the bars appear to be very similar to those that come on the top-of-the-range Canyon Grail.
> Aero vs lightweight road bikes with Ribble: How much faster could an aero bike make you?
Then there’s the seatstay bridge. The seat tube still follows the rear wheel quite closely, like on the previous generation, but where it meets the seatstays is much more infilled.
One thing that does look certain is that Canyon hasn’t moved towards a one bike-for-everything approach like Trek, which means that we will likely see Movistar and Alpecin-Deceunink switching between this bike and the Ultimate CFR during this year's Tour de France.
Wilier flaunts the Vert
> Wilier set to launch mystery new bike
We spotted a new Wilier being raced earlier last week by the Groupama FDJ team and a select few riders had the new bike in their stable at the Dauphine too.
The new bike is undoubtedly built for climbing, with slim tube profiles and "Chase the light" written on the top tube.
The paint job gives us a few additional clues about the new bike as well, such as the fact that the front thru axle is 10x100mm rather than the more conventional 12x100mm.
We have pictured David Gaudu's bike here. He was one of the few riders in the peloton to run tubular tyres that measured just 25mm wide - relatively narrow by today's standards.
> How to ride faster up hills — top tips for cyclists who want to conquer any gradient
All of this weight saving led us to believe that this would be an updated Wilier Zero but closer inspection of the UCI sticker suggests that the bike will in fact be called something different.
"Wilier Vert" might not be the bike's full name; could it be short for Vertical? Something along those lines would make sense to us given the bike's target use.
Dare-ing to be different
And finally, we have perhaps the most radical of all the new bikes we spotted, this new Dare being ridden by Team Uno-X. Just look at how deep this head tube is. That’s surely some kind of record!
It also has this super deep fork that reminds me of the one fitted to the Ribble Ultra SLR and the top tube also rises up to meet the top of the stem. The trailing edge of a component is, of course, as important for aerodynamics as the leading edge that hits the wind.
> Has aero gone too far? The most excessive cycling tech made to shave milliseconds
Then there’s the V:C1 integrated cockpit. Again, this is one of the deepest that we’ve seen. It is huge and I can’t imagine many riders will be able to fit their hands around that when climbing... Not that this is a bike that Uno-X will need to use for climbing. They have the VS-RU for that, and with the super-deep tube profiles of this unreleased option doesn’t look like it will be troubling the UCI weight limit.
> Best road bikes 2024
We also noted that UNO-X was the only team at the Dauphine to have fitted an oversized pulley wheel system to their bikes. This is the latest CermamicSpeed RS Alpha with solid jockey wheels that Ceramicspeed says is five times more durable and reduce chain noise compared to the previous version.
If aero is indeed king, then this bike certainly looks the part. Let us know whether you like the look of super aero bikes.
Let us know in the comments which one you would most like in your garage...
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