In the wake of revealing that both Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert have made the team's Tour de France roster, the Visma-Lease a Bike news continues apace, as the team has today revealed the custom-painted bikes on which they'll be racing.
The news of the team was teased on Monday, with a 'postcard from Tignes' posted on social media. Days later, amid confirming the selection, the team also revealed a special blue 'Renaissance' design kit, created to avoid a clash with the Tour de France's maillot jaune, the yellow jersey worn by the race's general classification leader.
Today, detailed images of the team's Cervélo bikes, in matching blue designs, have been shared.
Complete with a complex patterned dark blue base coat, remnants of yellow still shine through via the sizeable Cervélo logo on the down tube and the 'C' emblem on the head tube, but in a more luminous hue, rather than the team's usual darker palette.
A Renaissance design sits atop the top tube just behind the stem, which is overlaid with the phrase "In the spirit of limitless thinking." The team says the design was "inspired by the spirit of this remarkable period of development."
The 2024 Tour de France is unique in finishing outside Paris for the first time since 1975. Due to the clash with the Paris Olympics, the Tour de France route instead finishes with a time trial in Nice on the south coast.
To honour the change, the team highlights the race's journey from the Grand Départ in Florence, which it describes as "a city of creative thinkers, revolutionary innovators, and versatile artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Donatello," to the finish in "the land where it bloomed like never before."
The team's CEO, Richard Plugge, says that with the design, "we not only honour this historic period and beautiful city and region, but it also symbolises our dedication to innovation and renewal."
The bikes beneath the paint will be the lightweight Cervélo R5; the aero-first Cervélo S5, complete with its unusual Y-shaped stem; and the P5 time trial bike. As shown in the images shared, the team will be using SRAM's Red AXS groupset, a 12-speed wireless groupset launched earlier this year. It's shown here with a 2x chainset, but both Vingegaard and Van Aert switched to 1x chainsets on regular occasions, and we expect to see the same again this year.
Primož Roglič, the Slovenian GC contender formerly of the Visma team, but now with Bora-Hansgrohe, has even used SRAM's Red XPLR gravel groupset on the steepest slopes in the past, taking advantage of the larger cassette for easier gearing. An as-yet-unreleased 13-speed SRAM Red XPLR gravel groupset was leaked at Unbound Gravel earlier this month, but it's unclear whether any of the SRAM-sponsored teams will have access - or a desire - to use it at the Tour.
Elsewhere on the Visma team's Renaissance bikes, the spec remains largely unchanged from the rest of the season so far. Cervélo's sister-company Reserve will supply the wheels. Italian brand Vittoria will supply the Corsa Pro tyres, which are highly regarded by our test team and feature prominently in our guide to the best road bike tyres.
Fizik's saddles will be used, though the exact model will differ from rider to rider.
It's unclear whether the decision to switch kit away from yellow was purely a team choice or one originally mandated by the Tour's organisers, the ASO.
Each year, the organisers of the Giro d'Italia – RCS Sport – forbid the EF Education EasyPost team from wearing their usual pink kit to avoid a clash with the maglia rosa, the pink jersey worn by its leader. The EF team have taken this in their stride, announcing repeated collaborations with streetwear brand Palace to great results.
However, in recent years, Visma Lease-A-Bike have been free to wear their usual black and yellow livery for the French race.
In 2023, despite getting a custom-painted Cervélo at the start of the race, the team's GC leader and eventual race winner, Jonas Vingegaard, finished on a similar bike with a more Tour-specific palette, matching the race leader's jersey with a celebratory yellow Cervélo.
However, in the world of extreme optimisation and marginal gains, paint is often seen as unnecessary weight, and riders would prefer to go without the 100 grams of powder coat. It's for this reason that many teams will use predominantly black bikes, where the black of the carbon fibre can simply be covered with a lightweight clear coat. It'll be interesting to see whether Vingegaard makes like Amy Winehouse and goes back to black on days with steeper slopes.
Interestingly, despite being just eight days away from the race at the time of publication, this is the first custom design we've seen so far. We know that Bora-Hansgrohe is set to announce a partnership with Red Bull, though, so we expect to see new custom-painted Specialized Tarmac frames next week.
We're also in the midst of 'national championships' season, so we expect to see the respective newly crowned champions given a special paint job in due course. We also expect the various brands' paint shops will be busy for the next week.
