Photography by Wade Wallace

Bikes of the 2015 WorldTour

by Wade Wallace - January 22, 2015

The 2015 WorldTour season is now upon us and it’s the first time we’ seen all of the new ProTeam bikes lining up against one another.

The most notable absence this season is Cervelo, which no longer sponsors a WorldTour team as a result of the Cannondale-Garmin merger. Colnago is also out after Europcar downgraded to ProConti status.

SRAM has decreased its presence in the WorldTour considerably. That’s not to say that the company isn’t still heavily involved in cycling. SRAM has taken on the title sponsorship of SRAM-Velocio as well as many grassroots projects. However, SRAM has focused its efforts on AG2R-La Mondiale this season and we assume this has to do with the pending release of their electronic groupset.

The only teams on mechanical groupsets at the time of writing are Movistar (on Campagnolo SuperRecord) and a handful of AG2R riders (four riders are on the prototype electronic groupsets).

Campagnolo is represented by three teams this season (Astana, Lotto-Soudal and Movistar) while Shimano dominates with 13 teams being outfitted with their groupsets and components (some teams with a mixture of FSA and Rotor).

Most notably, Tinkoff-Saxo and Etixx-Quick-Step are not officially sponsored by Shimano and are running a combination of Shimano and FSA. It’s known that FSA are developing a wireless electronic groupset and the rumour is that these two teams will be transitioning to FSA’s groupset sometime this season.

: Lotto Soudal riders are on the Ridely Helium SL. Adam Hansen always has a quirky setup. 38cm bars, saddle pushed far forward, negative stem.

: Lotto Soudal’s Noah SL which Greg Henderson is riding.

: Astana’s “New 2015 Tarmac” by Specialized is one of three in the pro peloton this season. Dressed up in Campagnolo, FSA, Corima wheelsets, Specialized saddle/cranksets, and SRM powermeters. The detail in the painjob is exquisite and can only be appreciated when seen up close. Read our 2015 Tarmac review here.

: Virtually unchanged from 2014 is the Giant Propel except for the Pioneer powermeters being used. Read our Giant Propel review here.

: Katusha is still on Canyon bikes and using the new Aeroad CF SLX. Katusha also rides a selection of the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX bikes. You can read our review here.

: Movistar is also on Canyon bikes and using the company’s new Aeroad CF SLX model. They are the only mechanical groupset being used that we saw (Campagnolo SuperRecord). Movistar is also using the Power2Max powermeters. Movistar also rides a selection of the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX bikes. You can read our review here.

: Orica-GreenEdge’s Scott Foil has had a colour refresh but little else has changed. Daryl Impey has one of the only new team bikes at the time of publishing. Read our Scott Foil review here.

: Trek Factory Racing is mostly using the Madone in a striking red. Complimented with Shimano Dura-Ace and Bontrager parts along with SRM powermeters, these make a fine race bike. This bike featured is Calvin Watson’s. Read our Trek Madone review here.

: Lampre-Merida’s Reacto Evo is basically unchanged this season except for the paintjob which is a matte black instead of gloss. Read our Merida Reacto review here.

: AG2R-Mondiale’s Focus Izalco Max is almost identical to last year except for the fact that four bikes here at the Tour Down Under have the SRAM wireless electronic groupset.

: Cannondale-Garmin’s SuperSix EVO features Mavic wheels, a mix of Cannondale, FSA and Shimano components. The interesting thing is the powermeters on these team bikes. Most of the bikes feature Garmin Vector pedals, but without the tabs that enable the powermeter functionality. Rotor and SRM were mostly used. This bike featured is Ryder Hesjedal’s.

: The Etixx-Quick-Step bikes are the 2015 Tarmac by Specialized with a mix of Shimano Dura-Ace, Roval Wheels (by Specialized) and FSA. Etixx-Quick-Step is one of the teams rumoured to be on FSA’s electronic groupset sometime during the 2015 season.

: Team Sky is using the Pinarello Dogma F8 developed in collaboration with Jaguar. Still on Shimano/Pro components and Stages powermeters, this bike is largely unchanged. See a more detailed set of photos of the Pinarello/Jaguar Dogma F8 here.

: IAM’s Scott Foil is the same as Orica-GreenEdge’s but features different components such as DT Swiss Spline wheelsets and Richie bar/stem/seatposts along with SRM powermeters. This bike is Heinrich Haussler’s. Read our Scott Foil review here.

: LottoNL-Jumbo (formerly Belkin, formerly Rabobank) is still on the Bianche Oltre XR2 with Shimano groupset and wheels, FSA stems and Pioneer powermeters.

: The Tinkoff-Saxo bikes are the 2015 Tarmac by Specialized with a mix of Shimano Dura-Ace, Roval Wheels (by Specialized) and FSA. This is one of the teams rumoured to be on FSA’s electronic groupset sometime during the 2015 season.

: FDJ.fr is riding Lapierre bikes again but this year the riders are on the “AirCode” model released in the latter half of 2014. Outfitted with Shimano/PRO components and SRM powermeters, it’s a simple but stunning looking bike.

: Cervelo is no longer sponsoring a WorldTour team but Jack Bobridge is here at the Tour Down Under racing with UniSA-Australia and this is the bike he’ll be riding on January 31 to attempt the world hour record.

: BMC’s Team Machine SLR01 is virtually unchanged since last year. However, we haven’t seen the same number of Impecs in the squad during the 2015 TDU as we have in previous years.

: Drapac isn’t in the World Tour (but attempting to be on its way) and use Swift Carbon Ultravox Team Issue on SRAM Red and Zipp wheels/components. You can read our Swift Carbon Ultravox TI review here

Tags: 2015 Tour Down Under

Simon

The Trek is my fav, a lovely glossy red. But what is it with the negative stems? A shorter head tube might get them lower in the correct position perhaps.
- Chris Gillespie
  
  A shorter head tube requires a shorter top tube in standard sizing unless the frame is custom. A negative stem allows the rider to get lower without losing frame length. Riders like Boonen, Sagean and Cancellara I believe have custom frames which have longer top tubes and reduced head tubes.
  - Sean Doyle
    
    Bullshit. You lower a head tube by 20mm and the horiz TT measurement stays the same within a mm or two. Most frames run a 73-74 head and seat angle so moving the top tube up and down does not affect it’s length. Most of the frame companies are only giving production frames to the riders.
    - winkybiker
      
      Chris did say “in standard sizes” you may need a negative stem. He didn’t say that you can’t have a short HT and and relatively long TT for the custom frames. I think you are agreeing with him. Or are you saying that even on the custom bikes, riders are still using negative stems? Maybe they find that going too short on the head-tube the bike isn’t stiff enough up front.
      - Sean Doyle
        
        Sorry. It was a bit harsh. Doesn’t matter what size it is. If you had a 200mm head tube and you changed it to a 150mm head tube you would have no change in effective horiz top tube length for parallel head and seat tube angles.
        What you do get is a very slight lengthening of the BB to HT/TT intersection horizontal length. This is more likely what he is refering to and for a 20mm drop in head tube length its about 5mm. So you put a 105mm stem on instead of a 110mm. A shorter head tube should actually produce a siffer frame but you are talking decimal points and 99 out of a 100 people wouldn’t know the diffetence.
        
        winkybiker
        
        Yeah, within a certain range, if you choose a bike with shorter head-tube, it will generally be a smaller size overall and have a shorter top tube. And vice-versa. But of course you can have bikes with any geometry you like.
        
        With respect to stiffness, for a given handlebar height, longer headtubes may be stiffer than shorter ones as the head-tube bearings are supported by the Top tube and Down tube more effectively. Think of the bottom HT bearing as fixed. The further away you can get the top bearing the easier job it has. It just has more leverage. It’s not unlike wider BBs that give the cranks less lever-arm on the bearings and spindles. With negative rise stems, very long HT/big-drop-stem systems may be flexier in other ways, of course. None us would notice, of course.
        
        Sean Doyle
        
        The only point I’d make there is that there is more steerer tube in a longer head tube set up and that is where most of your front end flex occurs. The reason they have all gone to a bigger lower bearing. When load is put in teh system the whole steerer tube is trying to bend in a big arc. The shorter the steerer tube the less the whole system will flex. Of course this all depends on material choice, wall thickness, and in the case of carbon, it’s layup.
        
        winkybiker
        
        All true. The loading on the headtube ans steerer is complex.
      - Chris Gillespie
        
        Cool no worries.
    - Francisco
      
      “Most frames run a 73-74 head and seat angle so moving the top tube up and down does not affect it’s length”.
      This was common in the past due to the fixed angles of precast lugs (custom lugs were much more expensive). With the popularisation of welding instead of brazing and later composite moulding this restriction more or less fell to the side. Furthermore, several manufacturers today follow or are in the process of converting to progressive stack and reach sizing: if you plot the data you will find that, even within a single brand, one model line may be sized traditionally and another by stack and reach. Nominal top tube length always increases with frame size but traditional sizing tends to generate irregular reach progression, which in itself may not be a problem, but it certainly does not help. There are some frame models for which the reach stagnates or even increases as you go down to the smaller sizes. You have to check case-by-case, good and bad examples coexist in the marketplace.
      - Sean Doyle
        
        Head angles are still in the 72.5 to 74 range. Outside of that and you get into weird territory. Even with precast lugs you can achieve those angles with the one lug. The method of construction has no bearing on the geometry and should never have.
        Traditional sizing is/was for square frames ie. 55 seat tube with 55 top tube for example. You go up a cm and the head tube grows with it. Doesn’t get more progressive than that. Problem is everyone is different and with sloping top tubes the whole size thing is all over the place and Giant creating the notion that you can fit everyone on four frame sizes.
        You can’t take one number out of the frame in isolation. They all affect each other and it’s a bit of a balance to get the right fit. Of course if you go down in head tube size your going to get a shorter top tube in all the production frames. That makes sense but in reality you could have five different people all need the same head tube length and have widely different reach dimension.
- Larry Theobald
  
  Oddball parts like the negative stems are what you get when the bikes come in t-shirt sizes = too big, too small and close enough. Unless of course you’re a big enough star for them to make you a custom one that fits properly, or let you get one elsewhere and have it painted to match the team-issue stuff.
Scott

The Ridely Helium SL gets my vote for “best on Show”, although the set up does make me wince a little.
- winkybiker
  
  No kidding. That seat post is something else.
Peter

Why on earth did LottoNL-Jumbo choose Yellow/Black as their team colours? It looks awful against the Bianchi Oltre’s celeste colour scheme. I guess teams must choose their outfits before they choose their bike supplier? But surely they bike supplier could work with the team graphic designers to co-ordinate their colours better?
- markpa
  
  because Jumbo are a dutch supermarket chain whose colours are yellow and black.
  One of this weeks specials - crate Amstel Pilsenser 24 x 30cl €8.99, that would be OK after ride tonight
  - Peter
    
    And Bianchi are celebrating their 130th year hence the return to classic Celeste colours.
norm

I’m loving the zero degree top tubes. Unsure if how extra “aero” that makes the bike but it definitely makes it “look” faster. And hopefully someday soon we can actually purchase Canyon’s in Australia… seems a shame that we can’t
- Sean Doyle
  
  Horizontal is very aero.
  - winkybiker
    
    As aero as it gets.
Nathan

I can’t believe a Trek is the best looking bike in the peloton.
- winkybiker
  
  Oh god, no. Not by a long shot. I can’t stand those slopey top tubes.
Sam

Weird mix on the Saxo bike. Sram rings on an FSA Srm and Dura ace
- T-man
  
  Well spotted
  - Sean Doyle
    
    Because they are going FSA wireless at some point during the season so are running what they need to get going.
Sambo

Having bagged OGE for thier kit yesterday I am really liking the colourway of the Team Foil. If they could match that blue in the kit it would be a great package. The best incarnation of the OGE team bike thus far.
- nicklothian
  
  The IAM Scotts look good too (although I’m not convinced by the wheels).
  - Sambo
    
    Yeah the IAM is OK but they need to replace the white with black.
    If you look at the team Foils being advertised for sale they also have the white instead of the black that’s on the one above and it does not look as smart.
    I hope they offer this frame colourway to the general public and it’s not just an OGE team only frame, as its much better than the Blue/White version.
- Dave
  
  Their blue Addict looks good as well.
  
  OGE shifting to blue/black bikes should make it easy for Mr Haussler to get a custom (but not custom) design as the national champion - just give him the old black/green/gold OGE team livery without all the sponsors’ labels on the stays!
Jason de Puit

The Trek may be a lovely glossy red but what is up with that head tube? The interface between the head tube and the fork is far from pretty!
- winkybiker
  
  Agree. Much better looking transition on every other bike there. Why couldn’t they do it like the Scott? I guess they’ll say it is engineering thing and a smooth transition from the fork blades to the steerer is critical from a stress management perspective. Adding flares so it aesthetically blends with the bottom of the head-tube and with the down tube is perhaps superfluous.
Andy B

Does having the seat like Hansen’s put additional pressure on the saddle/seat post etc?
looks like it would create a problem (are those lines on saddles for a reason?)
Caleb Ewan looked to be riding the new Foil colours during the nationals too, looks good in the new colours
Hard pressed to pick a favourite among them all.. Would be happy with any of them
Beside maybe the propel (Doesn’t do it for me in those colours, looks a bit busy.. also interesting choice of bottle cages)
Hamish Moffatt

The Ridley would be nice if the wheels didn’t scream “BORA ULTRA” at 1000dB. The S-Works are nice and simple too. Otherwise they’re all a bit meh aren’t they?
- T-man
  
  Please explain how the Boras are any difference from Zipp, Hed, Bontrager, Corima or any other wheel manufacturer?
  - Hamish Moffatt
    
    They’re not, they all look like rolling advertisements.
- Ralph
  
  They look a lot better in the flesh. For example, the Saxo-Tinkoff is super bright, it just doesn’t show up on the screen. And the Lapierre has great curves. But I agree with other comments, they’re definitely weapons for racing rather than cool, understated road bikes, which has become the trend on the road (a good one imho).
Steve

The two Scotts and the Movistar Canyon for mine. No pics of the AG2R SRAM wireless setup??
T-man

I do believe that that’s the Ridley Noah SL, not the Fast.
tertius_decimus

CAN WE, PLEASE, MOVE ON FROM THESE BOLD FONTS AT 300PT? HEY, ANYONE HEAR ME?

Really, guys, this is ridiculous.
- Sean Doyle
  
  Rolling billboards. They are paid to represent. Just like V8’s Nascar et.al
  - Dave
    
    Unless the team doesn’t have a sponsorship obligation with regards to wheels, allowing them to have the wheels free of commercial decals.
  - tertius_decimus
    
    Some say if cyclist falls down, CAMPAGNOLO BORA ULTRA wheels are visible from space. It’s for aliens to promote the stuff.
    - Larry Theobald
      
      If you go way back to the original (Shamal wasn’t it?) deep-dish wheels, you’ll realize it was as much for those CAMPAGNOLO decals to show up in photos as anything related to aerodynamics. And unless the wind is coming straight on, it might not be all that different today, despite what the various marketing-mavens will claim?
      - tertius_decimus
        
        Shamal:
        
        http://velobase.com/CompImages/Wheelsets/532C03DF-13D3-44D5-90DB-F19E27FB0565.jpeg
        
        Bora Ultra:
        
        http://www.cvillebikes.com/images/library/Zoom/campy_boraultra2_09_z.jpg
        
        Do you really don’t see the difference? Are you blind? Old school aluminum Shamals don’t ruin styling of the bike, they actually add “something” unlike these modern ad-screamers which ruin everything.
        
        Shamal:
        
        http://velospace.org/node/48359
        
        http://velospace.org/node/42413
        
        CAMPAGNOLO BORA ULTRA (pity, Disqus doesn’t allow bigger font size):
        
        http://velospace.org/node/43464
        
        http://velospace.org/node/36680
        
        Larry Theobald
        
        Ugly. I remember looking at pages in Bicisport back-in-the-day at the bike shop where the photos from the races showed these wheels with massive logos like the current ones. Ugly then, ugly now.
eatmorelard

No BMC?
- Dave
  
  The Timemachine01 that I saw up close on Thursday looked no different to last year’s.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Sorry - completely missed them! Now updated.
  - TT
    
    Also all the links to the bike reviews are incorrectly entered.
Hambot

Interesting to see the TFR riders back on the Madone, and not the Emonda. My pick is the Astana Tarmac’s. I may be bias as I ride and love my Corima wheels. But what a paint job!
- Dave
  
  Some of them are on the Emonda. The more little icons on your site pass, the more you get to see :D
  
  As well as Cervelo, disappointing to see no Colnago team in the WorldTour - but the Wiggle-Honda bikes are pretty cool. I got a close look at Emilia Fahlin’s bike as I held it while she went to the toilets before the women’s race on Sunday evening, a privilege which was of course a distant second to getting a hug from Emilia when she came to pick it up. Domenico Pozzovivo only shook my hand when I repeated the favour for him later in the evening.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    I got a photo of Bronzini’s Colnago too, but didn’t include it in here:
    - Dave
      
      The Trek stand in the Bike Expo has the Jens hour record bike on display, in addition to Cervélo having the Bobridge bike.
      
      And of course there’s the 20 seat tandem built by the mechanical engineers at UniSA :D
      
      However, no number of special bikes on display can make up for the heartbreak of getting just a handshake from Pozzovivo instead of a hug.
    - winkybiker
      
      What a cute widdle bikey wikey!
    - tertius_decimus
      
      I see CAMPGANOLO BORA ULTRA but don’t see a Colnago.
Andrew

Apart from the focus, the rest should be put on a bonfire, if looks are the deciding factor. This will upset the Cafe Latte crtew
JR

Anyone know what the saddles are on Hesjedal and Thomas’ bikes are? Looks like they’re Fiz:ik but taller and not as long as an Arionne?
- SuperDom
  
  Could be saddles made by another company and covered with Fizik upholstery to make the sponsor happy. Or they could be the chubby, extra padded Arione that Wiggo rode in Paris-Roubaix.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    It looks to be a Fizik, but I can’t figure out what model it is either:
    - Johnny Hall
      
      Arione Tri, looks like.
      
      This is the current model.
      
      http://www.fizik.it/saddles/triathlon-saddles/arione-k1/
Mark

Love the paint job on the IAM Scott
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  They have one of the best kits in the peloton too
  - RooBay
    
    +1
  - Frank
    
    Definitely, I think they got the better deal over Orica-Greenedge in terms of parts sponsors.
Shane

Would like to see a bit more variety throughout the Peleton bikes/groupsets/wheelsets. Would be a shame/bore to see one or two major brands monopolise the elite level. With that said I like the look of the Ridleys. Nice red!
My variety comment reaches to their 2015 team kits. Very boring! :(
Melanie

Can we have pic of Jack Bobridge’s Cervelo road bike set-up please?
RooBay

As we have seen from Bikes of the Bunch, the cool stuff isn’t in the pro peloton anymore - the real action is in the boutique custom market. Think Speedvagen, Baum, Firefly, Donohu, Argonaut, Stinner, etc. All of these WT bikes are a complete yawn (in my humble opinion).
- Allez Rouleur
  
  Yup, couldn’t agree more. I know the PRO peloton gear isn’t necessarily about driving sales to the average road rider, but only a handful of guys on mechanical?! I know they’re racing for a living so the need to feel like you’re up to your peers’ gear, but I have no interest in an electronic gruppo. These days I simply wish I had more time to ride my bikes and I sure as heck don’t want to have to wait for a battery to charge to go riding.
  
  I wouldn’t mind an e-equipped cross bike, but that’s it. It would be fun but like I said, I just wish I had more time to ride these days, have no interest in building up some new bike. I’d like small stuff - bars, stems, wheelsets.
  
  I just wonder how all the electronic gruppos will trickle down and if they’ll make money for the companies. I’ve seen a small handful of locals on e drivetrains.
  
  I know road racing enthusiasts are already a niche market, but is everyone at a local weekend speed ride going to be on e-gruppos next year? I highly doubt it.
  - Ron
    
    “I sure as heck don’t want to have to wait for a battery to charge to go riding” Just want to tell you that it’s nothing like that. I ride on the first version of the ultegra Di2 (it was as stock on the bike) and last year I only had to charge it 1 or 2 times (rode 7000km+). The battery isn’t a real problem. Another advantage is you don’t really have to tweak your gears anymore, 1 press at a button and it recalibrate the gears for smooth shifting. I can understand that it’s not a must, I wasn’t sure when I bought the bike as well but it was in the budget so i though, why not. Now I got spoiled/lazy and don’t want to go back to mechanical.
- Superpilot
  
  As far as beautiful looking road bikes go, I’m inclined to agree. But I’d suggest on WT it is function over form, as well as the manufacturers being able to supply bikes for free. With the exception of Argonaut, you will likely never see the rest of those on tour. It’s all about F1 style pushing boundries of lightness and speed, rather than aesthetics. Same deal with the electronic groupsets, the mechanics find them far easier to work with, they are pushing the boundries of development, and are what the manufacturers want to promote, so that is what they will ride on tour. As with everything you will see trickle down to a certain extent, but I’d suggest electronic will always be more expensive. As such you will always see fewer electronic groupsets than mechanical, firstly there are so many more variations of mechanical, but secondly it’s cost. I mean, I can count on my hands how many Super record mechanical groupsets I have seen in local bunches, but they have been used on tour forever, so cost is a major influence of what us plebs ride.
  - Dave
    
    I can definitely see electronic skipping the mid-end road bike scene and trickling down into belt-driven commuter bikes with hub gears.
Nation Harris

“Trek Factory Racing is mostly using the Madone…” That’s not correct. I don’t know specifically at the TDU, but in general the team is on Emondas or Domanes. There’s something on their site which says who uses what. (Alledgedly the Von Poppel Bros. use the domane which I find odd, I would’ve thought they’d go aero?)
- Ralph
  
  What’s the point of using the Emonda if it’s under the UCI weight limit? Isn’t the Madone stronger?
  - Dave
    
    Will it still be under the weight limit once all the other accoutrements are added to make it race ready, such as heavy aero wheels, power meters, bottle cages and so on?
    - Ralph
      
      Ah ok, so using a lighter frame lets you carry heavier stuff, gotcha. So the UCI weight limit is the bike with all your goodies? I assume the bidons have to be empty?
      - Dave
        
        It basically includes everything fixed to the bike which the rider cannot remove during the race without using tools. Therefore the bidons themselves (whether full or empty) are not included, but the cages certainly are.
        
        When teams have underweight bikes, one of the preferred methods of ballasting it up to the minimum is to add metal plates between the frame and the bottle cage, essentially in place of a washer. Substitution of other trivial parts (e.g. a steel clamp to attach the race number instead of a plastic one) is also common, as is stuffing weights into a hollow bottom bracket
        
        The manufacturer’s stated weight of a bike is pretty irrelevant for real world usage, because it’s not actually ready to ride in that state without even pedals. The UCI rule is the opposite, it refers to the bike as it will be ridden. The commissaires keep an eye on this whenever a rider swaps bikes during a race, for example after the double climb of Alpe d’Huez in the 2013 Tour de France, they weighed both the bikes used by Contador in the stage and found both were compliant.
- Dave
  
  At the TDU they are on a mix of bikes according to the preferences of the riders, as at every other race of the year.
  - Nation Harris
    
    http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/stories/2015/01/team_issue_p1/
Joe Blow

Ridley Helium. Easily.
cincyswede

Ritchey not Richie
Andy

The second Ridley is the new Noah SL, which apparently isn’t very SL, not the Noah FAST as stated.
Malcolm

No BMC? Big mistake cyclingtips, cadel evans is Australian and he is riding a special bike this year, and you couldn`t take a picture of this masterpiece? Shame.
- mattb
  
  Did you consider that maybe the bike wasn’t available at the time? you don’t think CT would’ve used it if they could? or did I just take your bait……
  - Dave
    
    The Cadel special bike was only revealed in public for the first time AFTER this article was posted, there are photos in the Stage 1 report.
Cycle Swiss Alps

This may have already been mentioned however, the Movistar Canyon has a Campagnolo SuperRecord electronic groupo on it, the article said they were on mechanical only!?!
- david__g
  
  And the Cannondale has mechanical and they said everyone was on electronic except Movistar!
  - david__g
    
    And the Astana bike is mechanical too!
awesometown

Can we all agree to round up the remaining Merida REACTIO FACTIO whatevers, dump them in a pit and forget they ever existed?
??????? ??????????

Well, it’s not correct to say that Cervelo is out of Tour: MTN-Qhubeka team will participate in TDF/Giro’s and they ride on Cervelo R5/S5 bikes as I know.