It wasn’t much of a surprise to see Tadej Pogačar win the 2024 Tour de France on this all-rounder Colnago V4Rs road bike over the weekend. His second Grand Tour win of the year after winning the Giro d’Italia just a couple months ago by 10 minutes, and now his third Tour de France win.
Check out his black & yellow races bikes, plus its all-yellow makeover for the finish in Nice…
After a strategic move in the peloton on the climbs of the 2nd stage, the 25-year-old Slovenian was already in the yellow jersey at the end of day 2 – already with these yellow touches on his bike. He gave it up for just one day, going back to white logos & black bar tape, before decisively earning the leader’s jersey back with a solo win on the first mountain stage in the Alps on day 4. Then, he never really looked back, steadily clawed away more time, and racking up 6 stage wins over the course of the past 3 weeks.
Five of those wins being mountain stages on his V4Rs… but not this one.
Custom Tour de France yellow Colnago V4Rs of Tadej Pogačar
Interestingly, this customized frame with the most yellow details was the bike that Pogačar put the most kilometers on, but he didn’t actually take any of his stage wins on it. This bike was reserved for the 12 flat and hilly stages of the Tour, and is fitted out with the deeper aero Enve SES 6.7 wheels.
The mountain stages all switched to lighter Enve SES 4.5 wheels – all with Continental GP5000 TT tubeless tires.
Other than the white Colnago downtube and Enve cockpit logos though, all of Pogačar’s 48.5cm Colnago V4Rs road bikes started out with the same simple UAE Team Emirates paint job. And were all built up with the same components and finishing kit.
What’s new on Pogi’s bike… an ENVE prototype?
When we had last checked in on Tadej Pogačar’s Tour-winning Colnagos – even the V4R in ‘Prototipo‘ guise – he was using a 1-piece Deda Alanera cockpit. But since last summer, with Enve as a sponsor though, Pogačar is riding a new narrow and long carbon cockpit labeled as Enve. Definitely not the current Enve SES AR In-Route One-Piece handlebar.
Instead, Pogačar’s UAE team now says it is a 37mm wide x 120mm bar and stem combo with a flat aero top, but not the molded-in bar tape step found on the current Enve cockpit.
Top cap, steerer interface, 2-bolt shaping, and out-front GPS mount all fit with Enve looks. But the tops appear flatter, the bend looks like a smoother curve, and the classic Enve integrated end caps are gone.
We can’t really see what’s going on with the computer mount interface here, because the UAE riders have a custom 3D-printed aero mount for their Wahoo Elemnt computers. But it interestingly appears to have a rotating insert. So the riders slot their Elemnt Bolt down into the aerodynamic mount, and then twist a lever from below to lock it into place.
It’s certainly more bulky than the standard Bolt mount, but seems more aero, and maybe even more secure. It would be nice to see if this will turn into a new mount option – either from Wahoo or some third-party like K-Edge?
165mm cranks and 56/40T carbon rings
The other big shift is the UAE team’s move to Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 since we last caught up with Pogačar’s Campagnolo-equipped V3R & prototype V4R. Now semi-wireless and 12-speed, Pogačar’s mechanics further customize his drivetrain with some trick chainrings.
Starting off, Pogačar has moved to shorter 165mm crank arms this year – a move said to boost his ability to spin high cadence up the climbs, even with hard gears. (Those spin on Bikone PowerSet ceramic bearing bottom brackets.)
And speaking of hard gears, UAE Team Emirates got custom-made Carbon-Ti X-CarboRing Evo chainrings made for their Dura-Ace dual-power meter cranksets. Pogačar’s bikes were set up with a 56/40T pairing of the carbon rings with aluminum teeth & titanium shift pins.
Officially, Carbon-Ti says their 56T big ring must be paired with a 44T small ring. But Pogačar prefers a wider spread paired to his 11-34T cassette, so perhaps they get custom ramps & pins to optimize shifting.
The back of most of Pogačar’s Colnago V4Rs bikes are fitted with FramesAndGear Direct Mount Shimano derailleur hangers for more shifting precision. The CNC machined 7075-T6 hanger weighs just 12g and comes in several colors – Pogi’s were red or gold – and it eliminates the separate upper link + hanger combo, while also adding another place to securely loop your Di2 wire.
Last little item not to miss are the AbsoluteBlack GraphenPad brake pads that use graphene-coated steel radiators on their backing plates to keep brakes cool, and braking consistent.
A helpful addition when running Carbon-Ti’s steel braking surface + carbon carrier + titanium riveted floating X-Rotor disc brake rotors – 160mm front & 140mm rear.
Spare mountain climbing bike?
While Tadej Pogačar rode the flatter and rolling stages mostly on the yellow-logo bike with yellow-label Enve SES 4.5 wheels, it looks like his white-logo climbing bike got repurposed as a flat stage spare, just with some standard white-label 6.7s slapped on just in case.
Mountain climbing bike
In the mountains, it was that white-logo bike again with yellow-label SES 4.5s. This is the setup that won 5 stages.
Gravel stage tweaks?
The only real tweak for the gravel stage of this year’s Tour for the yellow jersey? A switch to more durable, but still fast Continental GP 5000 S tubeless tires on the less deep Enve SES 4.5 wheels.
Yellow Jersey Podium bike for Pogačar
Like we saw with Evenepoel yesterday, Pogačar also got a special custom-finished bike to match his leader’s jersey for the final podium in Nice. And again, since the final stage was a time trial, he didn’t actually even ride this bike. He just held it up in the air for pictures.
The UAE team worked with all of their sponsors to go all-out with extra yellow details for the final stage, even if Pogačar didn’t get to ride it down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées for a traditional Tour finish.
That didn’t stop Enve from coming up with some custom TdF graphics to decorate a set of SES 4.5 wheels.
More yellow, but just for show
While Colnago kept it more chill during the race with just custom decals, Pogačar’s victory celebratory V4Rs goes all-yellow to honor his 3rd Tour de France win.
We already saw the yellow bar tape, bottles, and at least the yellow outline for his Wahoo Elemnt Bolt. But since this isn’t one of his official race bikes, it doesn’t get the 3D-printed aero mount and we can see the entirely yellow computer.
And there’s the same Carbon-ti and AbsoluteBlack upgrades.
The saddle is the same Prologo Nago R4 Nack that Pogačar rode during the race, down to the details. It still lists all of his major Grand Tour & Monument wins and gets a Slovenian crest. But now, in Maillot Jaune matching yellow, too.
Tadej Pogačar 2024 Tour de France winner customized Colnago V4Rs road bike_
All-in-all it makes for a more over-the-top yellow bike for the 2024 yellow jersey winner. But Tadej Pogačar didn’t actually get to ride this customized Colnago V4Rs road bike in this year’s Tour de France. Likely, it will see some friendly kilometers in the upcoming post-Tour celebratory Critérium races in northern Europe, before ending up as an exhibition piece down the road.
