Welcome to the 2024 Bikes of the men’s WorldTour, as captured through the lenses of Escape Collective. It’s an interesting start to the new season with a mixture of undeniably fresh bikes along with a few less-than-fresh ones.
In the usual battle for brands to be in the WorldTour, BMC and Lapierre are out for 2024. Decathlon, via its premium road brand Van Rysel, is in. And unexpectedly, Wilier has doubled its presence, putting it alongside Specialized and Canyon in sponsoring two teams in the men’s top tier.
Peruse through this gallery, and you’ll find common themes of aggressive and forward fits that place the rider over the bottom bracket. You’ll see crank-based power meters on every single bike (mostly Shimano). Printed-width 28 mm tyres, set up tubeless, are now the status quo. And you’ll find a dizzying amount of Dura-Ace Di2 components, and not a single piece of Campagnolo to be seen.
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Part two to our 2024 bikes of the men’s WorldTour is now live.
Arkéa-B&B Hotels
Bianchi, the world’s oldest bicycle company still in business (founded 1885), continues in the WorldTour with Arkéa-B&B (formerly Arkéa-Samsic). Painted with Bianchi’s unmistakable Celeste colour, the team will race the 2024 season on the wild-aero-styled Oltre RC (lower left) and the new low-weight Specialissima RC (main photo).
The French-registered team rolls on Vittoria Corsa Pro tubeless tyres (28 mm) with a mix of the Metron 60 SL (1,490 g claimed) and Metron 45 SL (1,390 g claimed) wheels from Vision (the aero division of FSA). Selle Italia supplies the saddles and bartape, while fellow Italian company Elite provides the bottle cages. The handlebar, stem, and seatposts are all Bianchi’s own. And while not officially sponsored by Shimano, the team is one of many that chooses to use Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed groupsets, including the power meter.
Pictured is the new Specialissima RC of French rider Anthony Delaplace. Like many riders on Shimano, Delaplace is using 54/40T chainrings matched with a 11-34T cassette.
Cofidis
Established in 1997, the French squad of Cofidis has long been a staple in the pro peloton. For 2023 and continuing for the 2024 season, the team partnered with fellow French brands Look (framesets and pedals), Corima (wheels), and Michelin (tires).
Based on what we’ve seen to date, the squad is riding Look’s all-rounder-meets-aero-bike, the 795 Blade RS. This includes many of Look’s own components, such as the interestingly integrated yet two-piece handlebar and stem (the bar bolts into the stem). Another in-house item is Look’s crankset collaboration with power meter specialists SRM; a custom-decaled version of the impressively low-weight SRM Origin road carbon crank, with Look’s own Trilobe feature, a chip-style pedal insert that offers three different crank lengths (170, 172.5, 175 mm), which SRM offers as a consumer option. That crank is set up with chainrings from Kronos, a company better known for its track components.
As called out in Escape Collective’s special pit walk podcast episode, Cofidis is quite possibly the last men’s WorldTour team still obviously racing on tubular tyres (Michelin Power Cup Racing Line). Other details, as seen on Belgian rider Milan Fretin’s race bike, include yet-to-be-released Look pedals that offer a wider platform, saddles from Selle Italia, and carbon bottle cages from Elite. And as you’ll see, one of the most common themes in the WorldTour, shifting and braking is handled by Shimano Dura-Ace (Cofidis is not sponsored by Shimano).
Alpecin-Deceninck
A number of teams have started the 2024 season on bikes from last year, a topic discussed in the latest episode of the Geek Warning podcast. Canyon-sponsored Alpecin-Deceninck is one example, with last year’s Aeroad CFR bikes still being used by the Classics and sprint-focussed team. Rumour has it that we’ll eventually see new team paint revealed in line with a new model.
As one of the few teams officially sponsored by Shimano, Alpecin-Deceninck uses full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets along with the matching Dura-Ace wheels. Those wheels are used with Vittoria Corsa Pro tubeless tyres (28 mm printed width). Canyon’s own CP0018 cockpit is an integral part of this aero bike, but it’s interesting to see the team use a long titanium bolt for headset preload in place of the usual concealing plug and special tool.
Other details include more bottle cages from Elite, and yet more saddles/bartape from Selle Italia. It’s also interesting to see that some teams choose handled thru-axles versus those that use bolt-up (tooled) axles, with this team being in the former camp. The bike pictured belongs to German rider Maurice Ballerstedt.
Jayco AlUla
While some teams remain on old bikes, there’s no question that Jayco AlUla is on the new stuff. The Australian team kicked off the season with a new look, including Giant Propel Advanced SL bikes painted to match.
Beyond the colour-bomb of paint, there isn’t much different with the bikes for 2024. The aero-meets-light Propel Advanced SL was overhauled for 2023 but kept a few familiar features, such as the separate stem that can be swapped without disconnecting brake hoses and the integrated seatmast. As with most modern race bikes, the cockpit components used are now a component of the frameset.
The team continues to ride on Cadex carbon-spoked wheels (a sibling brand to Giant) and Vittoria Corsa Pro tubeless tyres (28 mm). Cadex also supplies the saddles, although occasionally, you’ll see some riders using the more generously padded Giant models. Shimano officially sponsors Jayco AlUla for groupsets, although, unlike most Shimano-sponsored teams, the agreement excludes wheels.
Pictured is the race bike of British rider Simon Yates, one you can expect a closer look at soon.
Ineos Grenadiers
The Ineos Grenadiers are another team with new colours for 2024, and with that, come newly painted bikes. The team remains on Pinarello’s do-it-all Dogma F, now in a new orange fade to black (the previous colours were red to navy).
The British-registered team remains officially sponsored by Shimano, which includes the supply of wheels, power meters, and pedals. However, historically we’ve seen this team switch to other brands of wheels (such as Princeton CarbonWorks) when it’s deemed to offer a performance advantage (a contract clause Ineos supposedly has).
Even since the start of the Sky days, the Ineos squad has had no major technical partner changes. However, for 2024 the team swaps from Fizik saddles (and bartape) to Prologo. It may seem like a small detail, but a change in saddle will typically mean (or should mean) a team-wide reset in known bike fit numbers. Meanwhile, the Continental tubeless tyres and Elite bottle cages remain unchanged. Shown is the bike of British rider Ben Swift.
Soudal-Quick Step
The Soudal-Quick Step team continue with the same S-Works Tarmac SL8s in a sparkly paint fade that was rolled out after the Tour de France in 2023. Much like Ineos and its Dogma F bikes, this team uses the one bike model for all races (with most hovering around the UCI’s 6.8 kg limit).
Like Jayco AlUla, this team is officially sponsored by Shimano but uses wheels supplied by Roval (Specialized). Those wheels are typically the Rapide CLX, but you will occasionally see the lower-weight Alpinist CLX used in mountainous (or steep hill) races. Despite Specialized being one of the first movers to have its tubeless system raced in the WorldTour, the team continues to race with Specialized Turbo Cotton tyres and latex inner tubes.
Pictured here is the race bike of French cycling star Julian Alaphilppe. Like many on the team, Alaphilppe is now on the lighter and more aero Roval Rapide cockpit (as opposed to the two-piece SL7 cockpit), and has adopted the 3D-printed S-Works Romin EVO with Mirror saddle. Other details include Tacx bottle cages (surprisingly not Specialized’s own) and a few hidden bearings from CeramicSpeed.
Visma-Lease a Bike
Beyond the new paint design, there isn’t much new in the bikes of Visma-Lease a Bike. The Dutch super-team continues with the Cervelo S5 (aero) and R5 (lightweight), rolling on a mix of tubeless wheels from Reserve with DT Swiss 240 hubs (Reserve is the house wheel brand from PON, Cervelo’s parent).
This is the only SRAM-equipped bike amongst a sea of Shimano in this article, but don’t worry, the other three teams on SRAM are covered in part two. Some details include team-issue shifters and cranks with prominent SRAM logos, and waxed chains. The tubeless tyres are the Vittoria Corsa Pro in a 28 mm width, bottle cages are from Tacx, pedals are Wahoo Speedplay, and Fizik continues to supply the team with either 3D-printed or regular saddles. Pictured in the S5 ridden by Koen Bouwman.
EF Education-Easypost
The always colourful EF Education-Easypost squad has a new candy-store explosion paint scheme for 2024. Much of the team sticks with the all-rounder Cannondale SuperSix Evo 4, although the aero-focussed SystemSix is an option. While the paint on the seat tube suggests the entire team races with the top-tier and somewhat scarce LAB71 version, the UCI-approved sticker proves that most of the team races with the approximately 40-gram heavier High-Mod carbon lay-up frame.
The USA-registered team is sponsored by FSA and its aero-brand Vision, which supplies cranksets (using a Power2Max power meter spider), wheels, and cockpit components. However, Cannondale’s own collaboration handlebar with automotive specialists Momo is used by a few team riders when the available size combinations suit.
As seen on the bike of Welsh rider Owain Doull, the team is yet another to use Vittoria Corsa Pro tubeless tyres (28 mm), Wahoo Speedplay Aero pedals, Prologo saddles, and Elite bottle cages. The rest of the bike is finished with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 components (not a team sponsor).
Groupama-FDJ
After an incredibly long 22 years together, Groupama-FDJ and Lapierre bikes parted ways for 2024. It was seemingly left right to the buzzer before Italian brand Wilier stepped in to fill the bike-sized hole. Like Astana (covered in part two), Groupama-FDJ is racing the 2024 season on the company’s all-rounder Filanete SLR. As has become an expected theme for the company, Wilier has created an attractive paint scheme.
While Lapierre is no longer with Groupama, Shimano has stayed on as a team sponsor and provides groupsets, power meters, pedals, and wheelsets. Meanwhile, the French team uses saddles from Prologo, Elite bottle cages, and Continental GP5000 S TR tubeless tyres. Pictured is the bike of Swiss rider Fabian Lienhard.
You’ll find the remaining bikes of the men’s WorldTour in the second part of this feature. You can also see the 2024 bikes of the women’s WorldTour here.
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