After months of speculation, XDS Astana has revealed its new look and new X-Lab race bike for the 2025 season, marking the arrival of a Chinese brand in the men's WorldTour.
The Astana team has secured major investment from the Chinese brand XDS Carbon Tech, who have traditionally produced carbon frames and components for other brands and focused on the Chinese market. in the 2025 XDS will go global and the XDS Astana team will race on the brand's X-Lab bikes.
We got a first idea about what the new bikes would look like back in early November after seeing some promotional material online, but the exact frame, component and even colour of the team bikes have been unknown until now.
A video was posted of the new team bike on the team's Instagram page as well as a news item on the Astana website after an official presentation of the deal and the team's new identity and jersey in Shenzhen, China.
Alongside the new X-Lab bike, the team is retaining the majority of its existing equipment partners and light blue colours.
The X-Lab frame in the team video is fitted with Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets, Vision Metron wheels, Continental tyres and Vision-integrated handlebars. This should mean the team's riders won't have to get used to too many equipment changes all at once.
The X-Lab AD9
We don't know too much about the X-Lab AD9 bike for now. There are no aero testing claims, no carbon fibre grade and on information on how to buy one.
The XDS website displays the AD road range, but only up to the AD7 series model, no AD9 is currently listed. (that we can find) Perhaps the AD9 is a brand-new model for the team.
We also wonder if the AD9 frame is set to become the most affordable bike in the WorldTour, the AD7 bike listed on the XDS website has a list price of ¥22980 or £2,498.87 / $3,156.81. That is for what appears to be a carbon fibre frame, wheels and Sram Rival AXS. We will include AD9 frame pricing as soon as we receive it.
Another model also features in the team's press release image which looks like more of a standard non-aero road frame. This may be an option for team riders, but we assume they will race for the most part on the aero AD9.
The frame silhouette looks unsurprising and has several familiar design features. Dropped seat stays, aero fork legs, a deep and aero head and down tube, an aero seatpost, a seat tube cutout and a skinnier top tube all feature. This means the AD9 should look right at home next to its other WorldTour counterparts.
It has been reported that the team's new performance engineer Alex Dowsett has tested the new bike at the Silverstone Sports Engineering Wind Tunnel. The same place we conducted our World Superbike aero test.
Cyclingews has contacted XDS for more information on the X-Lab range.
