Let me start with this: the new Colnago V5Rs looks to be an excellent bike by any objective measure.
Of course, Colnago says it’s lighter and more aero than the V4Rs. Of course, it balances stiffness and compliance well. And, of course, it’s designed to meet the evolving needs of Tadej Pogačar and his merry band of lieutenants.
It would take a cataclysmic shift in the balance of power of the UCI Men’s WorldTour for the Slovenian to not win – a lot – aboard it in 2025. It might even eventually outstrip the V4Rs as the brand’s most successful race bike ever, if he keeps going as he is.
This is one of the greatest cyclists of all time, riding the bikes of one of the sport's most storied brands.
But Colnago has been conservative with the V5Rs, and that means it could be a mere footnote to the history the Slovenian looks set to write.
Bikes should be a brand’s showcase
The marketing power of Tadej Pogačar can’t be underestimated. Some call him the greatest ever (a bit premature, in my humble view), but he’s already cemented as a legend of the sport. He may yet transcend it.
Any brand would move mountains to have him ride its bikes – there’s little more potent than a prolific stream of wins to gain publicity.
However, the V5Rs, as refined as it may be, fails to push the boundaries of bike design in the same way the rider is pushing the limits of what we consider achievable in racing.
For example, had Colnago pushed tyre clearance to 35mm or more (which would be progressively wide for a race bike) instead of 32mm, incorporated a fresh and interesting standard, or had a more striking silhouette, it could have been considered a trend-setter.
More powerfully, it could have demonstrated Colnago’s ability to innovate – as the Y1Rs aero bike did.
Indeed, Colnago has a long history of supplying iconic bikes to iconic riders. Eddy Merckx and the Merckx-branded Colnago Super; the timeless Master – surely Colnago's most iconic – of the 1980s, with its star-shaped tubes; and the lugged Colnago C40 and C50 ridden by the likes of Johan Museeuw, Franco Ballerini, Óscar Freire, Michele Bartoli and Alessandro Petacchi.
Even the C-series bikes – up to today's modular C68 – offer more than a passing nod to Colnago's heritage, but that line has been abandoned by Colnago-sponsored riders.
Time moves on, of course, and the V5Rs is reflective of both the exacting requirements of top riders and the general homogenisation of high-end road bikes, but even within this confined brief, Colnago had an opportunity to move the dial.
“Our sponsored teams didn’t ask for anything specific for the V5Rs,” Colnago’s head of research and development, Davide Fumagalli, says. “Instead, they just asked for a bike that met the latest standards and trends.”
Meeting standards is a very different thing from pushing them.
The risk-reward conundrum
Ultimately, pushing design limits is a risky game for any brand.
Get it right (as Giant once did with the TCR, and Cervélo with the Soloist, to name two beyond my previous Colnago examples) and you enter legendary status. I can’t remember who won on these bikes, but I know the history of the bikes themselves.
Get it wrong, and you can look slightly foolish and take a PR hit along the way. The 1x-only 3T Strada of Team Aqua Blue Sport is one such misstep.
With Tadej Pogačar, though, you have just about as strong a guarantee of success as you’re going to get. The risk is reduced, and the potential rewards are great.
I completely understand Colnago’s apparent reluctance to try too hard, though. After all, it has the Y1Rs – one of the most striking aero bikes in the pro peloton – in its stable doing the heavy lifting when it comes to progressive road bike design.
To me, though, the V5Rs – even as the all-rounder in the range – feels like a missed opportunity to cement Colnago’s position at the top of the road cycling tech tree, beyond the usual stated goals of ‘lighter and more aero’.
Of course, these things matter, especially when Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates XRG need a trusted platform on which to challenge for the biggest bike races in the world. And, ultimately, it's the V-series bikes they primarily trust.
Despite the benefits improved aerodynamics plainly offer to all pro riders, Pogačar himself stuck with the V4Rs to win the 2025 Tour of Flanders, rather than use the Y1Rs. He then narrowly missed out on what Colnago surely hoped would be a ‘glorious send-off’ for the V4Rs at Paris-Roubaix.
Nevertheless, the V5Rs feels a lot like most bike launches in the last few years – a tentative step forward in marginal evolution, rather than an ambitious leap or brave step forward.
Will we remember the Colnago V5Rs?
I don’t think the V5Rs is bold enough to set itself apart from the rest, and that disappoints me, just as I find it slightly discouraging that the rules set by the UCI around bike design remain as stringent as they are.
Generally, the bike industry could use the pep-up a ‘relaxing’ of the rules would afford – in line with technology available in 2025. It surely is time for rules such as the 6.8kg weight limit and 700mm wheel-tyre diameter limit to be reviewed.
But this isn’t Colnago’s fault, and perhaps a more progressive outlook from the UCI might have steered Colnago in a different direction. For now, familiarity appears to carry its own benefits, and I also understand the notion that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
Nevertheless, Colnago had (and continues to have) an opportunity to lead the road cycling tech conversation thanks to the platform Pogačar offers.
But in 10 or 20 years' time, will I be talking about the V5Rs as a landmark bike that helped steer – under the steam of Pogačar – the course of bike evolution, in the way Colnagos of old are venerated? I doubt it.
