The UCI Gravel World Championships is fast becoming a new hotbed for technical innovation for high-end bikes, encouraging new technology across tyre and suspension systems.
Lapierre was one brand testing the water with new tech at the women's race as a new gravel bike was spotted in the pits.
Its origin, use or owner remains a mystery to us, as it was only briefly whisked beside the FDJ-Suez team car. However, even a cursory glance revealed this an altogether new and unseen bike for the brand.
The existing gravel option in the brand's stable, the Pulsium ALLROAD is a considerably less adventure-orientated offering, with this model being equipped with front suspension, floating seatstays and a dramatic splayed handlebar setup.
The unnamed gravel bike has some notable similarities to Lapierre's hardtail Prorace CF, which has a similar straight toptube-cum-seatstay design, as well as a similarly shaped headtube.
The subtle differences in tube shapes and junctions mark it as a separate bike, though.
The integration of the headset and stem, along with the aero profile of the handlebar confirm racey aerodynamic pretensions, while the dramatic splay of the handlebar drops shows this is very much a bike destined for dramatic off-road challenges.
The bike appears to be built around the SRAM XPLR range, with a Rudy Ultimate XPLR suspension fork system, with a likely 40mm of travel.
The dropper post appears to be a RockShox Reverb AXS XPLR dropper - part of the XPLR suite of components.
The presence of a timing chip on the fork suggests that the bike was indeed used in either the elite women's or age-group World Championships, with the bottles suggesting an FDJ-Suez rider at the helm. A trawl through the race images didn't shed any light on the bike's owner or performance in the race, though.
For now, the bike stood out alongside Marianne Vos' self-inflating tyres as one of the more striking technical revelations from the Gravel World Championships, and we'll eagerly look out for more information on the bike's release.
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