Hands-On with Jonas Vingegaard’s 2025 Tour de France Cervélo Race Bikes

A look at the newly updated but not yet launched Cervelo S5 and R5 ahead of the Tour de France plus a bonus behind the scenes look around a hotel car park

Content
00:00 Two Bikes are Better Than One?
1:48 New Cervelo S5
3:41 New Cervelo R5
5:42 Behind the scenes hotel car parl

Recommended products:

Get the new Insta360 X4 here https://store.insta360.com/product/x4?utm_term=INRS1KM
Buy Bikestow Stance stand here https://bit.ly/3LSZQXZ
Castelli clothing https://bit.ly/justridebikes
Sidi shoes https://bit.ly/3tjQ8UP
HJC helmet https://bit.ly/3sRiB2Z

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCybgi4WCjGaoEEVjB7tBfCg/join

JOIN MY WEEKLY NEWSLETTER http://eepurl.com/inIvGk

Follow me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidjarthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davearthur
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justridebikesvideo

I filmed Talib’s Cargo race bikes. Now, let’s look at the bikes of his main rival for victory in Paris in a few weeks time, Yinard and a Sevelos. He’ll be racing. He has what looks like a new R5 and possibly a new S5 as well. Let’s go have a look and see what we can find. [Music] [Music] [Music] The Visma lease a bike team had two bikes available from their sponsor Sevel for the Tour to France. There’s the S5, the air weapon, and the R5, a pure lightweight climbing bike that apparently hits an astonishing 6 kilos out of the box in a size 56 cm. That puts it squarely in competition with the likes of the Specialized Athos and easily makes it one of the lightest bikes in the Pelaton this year. Now, while neither of these new bikes have been officially announced yet, So isn’t exactly hiding them either. They shared a few early details and are definitely not stopping journalists or photographers from capturing them in the wild ahead of the tour of France. What’s clear to me is this. See is really doubling down on the belief that a pure error bike and a pure climbing bike is a better approach than a one bike to do it all. The approach taken by Specialized Trek and Pillar, for example. They argue the performance gains from going allin on both arrow and then weight savings are significant enough to justify keeping two distinct bikes in their lineup. Let’s start with what appear to be a brand new S5. At first glance, it looks almost the same as a current model, but look closer and there are a few key updates. The handlebar and fork have been redesigned, likely to improve both aerodynamics and save weight. The new handlebar is definitely slimmer around the top profile and the forks appear to have a deeper more aero shape. At the rear, the seat post and rear states have been tweaked and refined as well. Again, it’s all about marginal gains, showing grams, improving air flow where they can, but we’ll need to wait for the official release to see any hard data on the arrow and weight improvements. That focus on weight makes a lot of sense. Aerobikes are by now super fast. So the next frontier and making them lighter without compromising or sacrificing that arrow. It’s a clear goal for Sevel and it means the S5 could now be a viable option even for the hillier mountain stages where the R5 would typically be used over the Aero S5. We’ve already seen Yonas racing the S5 in the mountains in previous editions of the taller front with a shallow wheel set to save weight. But thanks to the likely weight savings on the new S5, it’s likely he’ll run a deeper, more arrow wheelstead, get more arrow, and keep the weight down close to that UCI limit. Talking of weight, I’m told his size 52 cm S5 claimed to weigh around 7.1 kg, which is just a touch lighter than Tal’s Cargo Y1 RS. as well as a new bike are new reserve wheels too with deeper section rims front and rear apparently developed alongside a frame for optimal aerero performance. And for flat opening stages around Leil for the next few days, Yonas is running a Stram red axis one by setup. And yes, he’s on 160 mil crank arms in case you’re wondering. And let’s be honest, you probably were. Switching from the Aero S5 to the R5, the lightweight bike in the Sevel range, and the changes are subtle again, but the devil’s in the detail. Cello has chased weight savings everywhere on the frame. A gram here, 2 g there, 20 g there. It all adds up. Even the dropouts are lighter. Their own UDH design, reportedly saving 1 g over the regular version. It’s this marginal gains mindset that allowed them to create a race ready bike that can easily hit a sub 6.8 kg with pedals and computers and everything the bike needs to race and potentially a claimed 6 kg flat for a size 56 out of the box. Truly impressive for a world tour machine. The R5 has never been about arrow. It’s always been about weight and that doesn’t change with this new model. Although there is a brand new cockpit. There’s a one piece carbon fiber handlebar with a very slim profile on the tops that feel great in the hands with some air benefit, but nothing close to the S5. Comfort and weight savings were clearly the priority with the R5. There’s also a brand new fork as well with a disc brake bolts now mounted through the front of the fork, which we’ve seen on the Sparrow and other bikes from other companies over the years as well, which eliminates the need for a separate brake adapter and therefore saving a few more precious grams. And one clear obvious sign of the weight saving approach of the new bike is a new seat post. The same profile as before, but the seat clamp is very minimal, very carbon fiber, and clearly very lightweight. The R5 being filmed today belongs to American rider Matteo Jorgensson, which why it’s so big. He’s 1.9 m tall and the bike is a 58 cm and has a very, very long stem indeed. The bike is rocking a Stram red axle group set with a massive 5441 to chain set and a 10 36 to cassette. His wheels are a reserve 4249 with DT Swiss 180 hubs and a running Foreer Pro 29 mm wide tires. And despite being a tall chap, his crank arms are short 165 mm showing the influence of short cranks in this team. So, it’s the day before the Grand Depart and I’m in a hotel car park. Let me show you what happens behind the scenes. The riders are in the hotel having breakfast, probably getting ready for their ride in about 30 minutes. But all the team staff are busy getting the bikes ready, the bottles filled with water and everything else that needs to happen for the rider to go out for a gentle 2-hour spin before the race starts tomorrow. So, in the car park, as you can see, we have all the team cars all lined up there with the bike racks ready. Very nice liveried team cars. And over here we have the team bus, the iconic team bus. The riders will jump onto that, hide it on that after each stage of a tour of Florence. And then over here, this is where the action is. This is the mechanics team truck. All the bikes are being prepped for the rider to go for a spin in about 30 minutes. So the bikes will be riding this morning all lined up and lot of spare bikes. They have multiple bikes with stickers to denote number one, number two or number three reserve spare bikes. And this is the giant sponsored team and interestingly they have a choice of bikes. So we have a Propel the Aerrow bike here. The first few stages around Leo are flat, so air makes sense. But then they also had the lightweight option, the TTR SL there. Still a air handlebar though and deep wheels, but a choice of a frame or a lightweight frame. So really interesting. And over there, all the staff getting the bottles and nutrition ready for the ride in a short while. So, a hive of activity behind the scenes to make it go as smoothly as possible. So, yeah, hopefully rides will come out in a short while and I can show you them riding out from the hotel car park and a lovely sunny day here in Leil. Nice temperatures. So, it should be a good weekend. So, here is a UCI inspecting the team bikes of baring victorious. They appear to be scanning the bikes and then putting a barcode sticker on each bike.
It’s a famous UCI clipboard. So that’s UCI inspecting the bikes.