Seven-time cyclocross world champion Marianne Vos won the opening World Cup round Sunday aboard a prototype Cervélo cyclocross bike.
Vos’ Jumbo-Visma coach Jan Boven told VeloNews that this R5CX bike has been a year in the making.
The bike only has a single water-bottle-cage mount, too, on the seat tube, leaving the wide down tube clean and smooth for grabbing the bike to shoulder it.
When Jumbo-Visma signed Cervélo as a bike sponsor last year, the men’s and women’s road teams were immediately taken care of, given the brand’s long history with making road bikes, but the brand did not yet have a cyclocross bike in its line, leaving ’cross stars Vos and Wout van Aert to scramble with other machines.
Boven said the Jumbo-Visma riders provided feedback to Cervélo for this ’cross bike, including van Aert’s requests.
Boven said this R5CX is slated to be available for sale next season. In the meantime, Vos has put the bike forward in the best way possible in the first World Cup of this season.
Marianne Vos shows off her new prototype Cervélo R5CX bike.
How new is this bike? So new it’s not available yet.
The seven-time world champion doesn’t have any flashy labels on her new bike.
While the road R5 features seatstays that go nearly all the way up to a tiny yoke behind the seat tube, the R5CX has this heftier yoke.
Belt and suspenders.
FSA integrated stem is used to keep internal routing tidy on the front end.
Dugast tubulars mounted on Dura-Ace wheels. Vos raced Vittoria-branded Dugast tubulars at Paris-Roubaix Femmes. (Vittoria recently purchased Dugast.)
Jumbo-Visma now has a sponsor-correct cyclocross bike for Vos and van Aert.
Van Aert provided feedback during the development of this Cervélo ’cross bike.
While Cannondale and Specialized have recently launched gravel/cyclocross bikes, Cervélo’s not-yet-launched machine is 100 percent cyclocross-only.
Note the absence of cage-mount bolts on the down tube. When this bike goes into production, it should have more options for cage mounts, according to Boven.
Plenty of mud clearance here for the UCI-compliant 33mm tubulars.
FSA’s carbon K-Force bar.
Conditions were dry for the women’s World Cup race.
Vos runs a double-ring Dura-Ace Di2 drivetrain with a dual-sided power meter.
No second bottle cage here.
Vos warms up on the rollers before taking to her second-row start, and riding to her first World Cup win of the 2021-22 season.