Tadej Pogačar big-ringed his way up a Cat. 1 climb into the yellow jersey on stage 8 of the Tour de France on his Colnago V3Rs.
The V3Rs is the bike Colnago engineer Davide Fumagalli calls “my little Swiss Army knife, a bike you can use for almost anything.”
Fumagalli has designed all Colnago’s bike for the last 11 years. The V3Rs is an all-around race bike. “We have tire clearance for 32mm tires, and in the disc version it is more aero than our [older] Concept aero bike,” Fumagalli told VeloNews.
Pogačar has already enjoyed three different colorways on his V3Rs in this year’s Tour: the original black and red, a white model while he was in the best young rider’s jersey, and now a yellow-highlighted machine to celebrate his race lead on stage 9.
While yellow bikes aren’t new for race leaders at the Tour de France, Colnago has also launched a limited edition run of yellow bikes for sale. Colnago claims this is the first such bike to be done in collaboration with ASO, owner of the Tour de France.
Colnago made 108 of these bikes — 108 being the number of editions of the Tour de France from 1903 until today.
Pogačar is racing Campagnolo’s new Bora Ultra WTO 45 wheels with Vittoria Corsa Graphene 2.0 tubeless tires in 25mm.
Check out the gallery below from James Startt.
Pogačar’s V3Rs with a 12-speed Campy electronic drivetrain, tubeless wheels and tires, an SRM power meter, and a customized saddle.
UAE switched from Stages to SRM for 2021. While the PC8 head unit doesn’t offer the mapping capabilities of Garmin or Wahoo, many teams trust the power measurement from the SRM spider itself.
Prologo launched a special edition of its Scratch M5 saddle. Only 10 were sold, complete with a postcard signed by Pogačar. The rider may well have another title to add to his signature saddle by race’s end.
Pogačar climbed at least part of the final Cat. 1 climb on stage 8 in his big ring. Campagnolo has three 12-speed cassettes: 11-29, 11-32, and 11-34. This looks to be an 11-29 paired to the standard 53/39 crank.
After Cervélo arguably launched the trend, thin seatstays are now relatively common on road bikes. The rider whose name is on the seatstay? Not so common.
No, this isn’t Richard’s bike. Luxury watch company Richard Mille is a sponsor of UAE.
Colnago has an integrated front end like so many other bike companies now. Brake hoses and EPS wires run through the Deda Elementi Alanera DCR integrated bar/stem.
The frame weighs 790g in size 50cm, and the Elite Leggero Carbon cages don’t add many grams to that.