What bike did he ride? Primois Roglic at the Flèche Wallonne? Her Cervélo R5, Despite its charcoal black color with yellow filaments, it immediately struck us.
So we focused better, to the extent we could, given the movement restrictions imposed by Covid, including for journalists.
Revised wagon?
It was certainly a Cervélo R5, the “light” bike, the one for climbers, which is equipped with the Jumbo-Visma, that aero in fact is the S5.
When Roglic showed up in the mixed zone and we could see the bike stationary for those few seconds, the first thing that struck us was the wagon, Especially the upper part of the dropouts, where they meet the seat post. The rubber cover for the seat post's Allen key was no longer present. These dropouts "surrounded" the seat tube and then merged with the top tube. Furthermore, at the rear of the seat tube, the carbon "plate" that formed between the two dropouts was smaller. Perhaps this is because this frame was designed for disc brakes, while the "old" larger plate was also designed to house the rear brake.
Another thing we noticed, still in the rear triangle area, is that the seat stays seem to be slightly more oversized than the previous ones. Among other things, the writing FM 140 was prominently displayed on them. (Flat Mount), perhaps to indicate when changing wheels that Primoz uses 140mm discs. A detail that could make the difference in the event of a puncture, if the repair isn't done by his flagship but by the assistance provided by the race.
Front cables gone
And then the front. The R5's cables, which were previously partially integrated, have disappeared entirely. The input no longer occurs at the front of the down tube, in the left fork leg for the front brake, and in the forward part of the horizontal tube, but passes directly inside the handlebar stem itself and therefore the frame. Attack that has indeed changed. It wasn't the Vision used until recently but a FSA. And with it, the fold was also different.
Now we need to know (and we will investigate) whether anything has changed in terms of materials and geometry. The frame feels a little more compact, but that was really just a brief observation. It is not possible to detect variations that are, if anything, in the order of a few millimetres or very few degrees of angle.
However, the front angle seems "straighter" to us, which should benefit the bike in sprints. If the head angle on Roglic's R5 (size 54) was previously 73°, it could now be 73,3°. But again: this is just a hypothesis. Maybe the fork rake was just adjusted. Or it's just the color scheme that's deceiving the eye.
Technical rumors
Given the recent controversies, it was even more difficult to get close to the Slovenian champion's bikeAfter the race, thinking we wanted to talk about the "scooter case", they literally covered it for us, first with a jacket, then with the flowers from the podium and finally with the masseur's backpack.
For now, these are the differences we've noticed. However, we've gathered some information, or rather some rumors, and it seems that this new version of the R5 has also been tested by Tom Dumoulin and which could debut already on the roads of Tour of Italy.
