Ah, it’s our favorite time of the year: blurry screenshots and photos of pros bikes that look slightly different than the bikes they’re riding currently. This time, it appears that there is a new Cervelo S5 aero bike on the way.
The bike, spotted first by Cycling Spy, was seen ridden under a sleeve-free Jonas Vingegaard and Victor Campenaerts. The screenshot-quality images of the bike in a Visma-Lease a Bike livery are fairly low on detail at the moment, but the changes seem to amount to either as little as a new cockpit or as much as an entirely new bike, one that looks almost identical to the current one.
The current Cervelo S5 was last released in 2022, itself far from a revolution. The basic tenets of the current design, including the bayonet fork and y-shaped one-piece aero bar and stem, go as far back as late 2018.
Nonetheless, there appear to be enough changes that we anticipate a new Cervelo S5 on the way. Here’s what we know.
What changes can we see with the new Cervelo S5?
The most obvious change to the S5 appears to be a new cockpit setup. Cervélo’s distinctive Y-shaped bar remains, but the crosspiece has been slimmed down and pushed forward, giving the bar a new silhouette and a presumed more aero profile when paired with a bike computer.
Further, it appears the bar angle adjustment available on the current Cervélo S5 is either dramatically cleaned up or entirely removed. There are no more visible covers or rectangle cutouts where the bolts would hide. Here, it’s just smooth, uninterrupted carbon.
What makes us think this is an entirely new Cervélo S5, however, are the fork blades. Gone are the gently tapering fork legs, with a more uniform, wide-leg fork blade from axle to crown. Again, this is likely due to the pursuit of improved aerodynamics where air first hits the bike.
Beyond that? The rest of the bike appears nearly identical to the current S5, which isn’t a bad thing. The S5 is a go-to aero bike for a reason: it just goes like an absolute freight train. Hopefully, this new bike is easier to work on than the previous generations of S5. And considering just how heavy the current S5 is (8.03 kg/17.6 pounds in an Ultegra build), we wouldn’t be surprised to see this new bike cut a whole lot of weight.
While we’re unsure when the new Cervélo will be launched, these bikes in a Visma-Lease a Bike livery likely indicate the new bikes are right around the corner.
We’ve reached out to Cervélo for comment and will update the story accordingly. Let the leaks continue!
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