The beautiful spring and summer weather is fast approaching and it has already got our test team excited about what lies ahead.
Five particularly exciting road bikes have already piqued our interest – from an endurance bike that looks as though it might put Cannondale back on the map to one that could pull the rug out from under the established manufacturers.
Let’s take a look at the five bikes that are already lighting up our 2025.
Cube C62
Cube appears to be after a bigger share of the road bikes market this year, with prices that many buyers can celebrate.
Its Agree C:62, with a full Ultegra Di2 groupset and Newmen 50mm carbon wheels, costs £3,299. That’s the same price as the mechanical Dura-Ace build from 2016, which is brilliant.
Let’s not forget that bike prices across the industry rocketed through the Covid years and most brands hiked their prices to levels that meant most of us couldn’t even consider buying new.
Lower down the Agree price ladder, there's a 105 Di2 bike, which again comes with full-carbon wheels for only £2,799.
Cube's endurance-focused Attain is cheaper still, at £2,499 for the 105 Di2 build with carbon wheels. If you prefer mechanical shifting, the price is only £1,700.
While that’s still not pocket change, it's a lot more competitive than its competitors.
We’re really not sure how Cube has managed to offer these bikes at such low prices, with many in the bike industry similarly puzzled.
Perhaps Cube’s aggressive pricing will force other brands to bring their prices down too.
Cannondale’s unreleased Synapse
If you want to keep a new bike hidden, don’t send it to Lachlan Morton for a lap of Australia. Chances are, lots of photos will be taken.
Then again, covering 14,200km in 30 days is a good proving ground for an endurance bike.
Cannondale’s current Synapse missed the mark for many, focusing too much on built-in tech that never really took off.
The new seatstays look even more dropped than they were before, while the top tube slopes down more too.
This effect could be accentuated by Morton, a WorldTour professional turned adventure rider for EF, riding a smaller frame than might be recommended.
Pros often do this and run a super-long stem to get a long-and-low ride position.
Whatever the case, Cannondale looks to have slimmed down the tubes around the seatpost, making us think that weight and rear-end comfort are priorities for the new bike.
Move towards the front of the bike, however, and those tube shapes look suspiciously aero-optimised.
It doesn’t look too dissimilar from what Giant has done with its latest Defy, taking that bike back to what made it so popular. It's lightweight, with good tyre clearance and a sporty geometry.
Whatever happens, we can’t wait to ride the new Synapse as soon as we can get our mitts on it.
Scott Addict RC
Scott’s latest Addict RC is another bike we’re very keen to get in for review, with one due to land at BikeRadar HQ any day now.
The reason this new Addict has got us talking is the reason for its claimed 5.9kg weight, but it’s also something you can’t see.
Scott has used its inflatable polypropylene (PP) mandrel technology to bring down the weight.
This involves wrapping carbon fibre around the inflatable mandrels before deflating and removing them, leaving behind a smooth interior free of unnecessary resin or material.
Scott already uses this production technology on its electric mountain bikes and the Scott Foil RC, which launched in 2022.
The Swiss brand says it has refined the manufacturing technique for the latest Addict, so it could also be used on the fork, which it claims is the lightest on the market, at 270g with an uncut steerer tube.
Racers such as Pidcock will have to stick to the UCI’s 6.8kg weight limit, but for hillclimbers and those of us not racing, the 5.9kg model should offer some assistance when the road points up.
Colnago Y1RS
Colnago claims its new Y1RS aero bike is 20 watts faster than the V4RS at 50kph and 0º yaw, although Colnago’s own testing recorded an advantage of only 1 watt over what it cryptically called the 'best competitor'.
Tadej Pogačar’s team is set to continue using the V4RS in the mountains, because while the new bike might be faster, it’s also heavier, at a claimed 7.45kg in a team build with pedals and cages.
Other brands have done a better job of slimming down their aero offerings. The Giant Propel, for example, sits at only 6.8kg without pedals.
The data from Colnago’s wind-tunnel testing suggests the deep tube profiles may act as sails in crosswinds. While drag increases from 0 to 5º yaw, it then declines through the 7.5º and 10º measurements.
Colnago told us its designers looked to take full advantage of the UCI’s revised tube-shape rules. This changed in late 2022 from a depth-to-width ratio of 3:1 to 8:1, enabling brands to make tubes much deeper while retaining narrow widths.
The front end sees Colnago employ a dual-pronged aerodynamic strategy, featuring a hinged head-tube design reminiscent of the Cervélo S5.
Complementing this is the CC.Y1, a newly designed integrated cockpit with a distinctive split-stem configuration. Its angular, gull-winged profile is purposeful, although Colnago has not provided specific drag-reduction figures for this setup.
We’re looking forward to seeing how these features translate in the real world, but expect to see the bike at the pointy end of the peloton at the grand tours.
XDS X-Lab AD-9
The XDS X-Lab AD-9 is a possible industry disruptor because it’s the first Chinese-branded bike to feature in the top echelon of road cycling.
It’s hard for smaller brands to muscle their way into the big leagues of WorldTour sponsorship, so to see a relatively unknown brand getting its products onto the biggest stage is brilliant.
X-Lab is for the XDS brand what S-Works is for Specialized. It’s top-level stuff.
We’re yet to see pricing for the bike, but given its East-Asia heritage, we’d expect it to be more affordable than other WorldTour bikes.
In terms of Astana’s setup, the team is largely on what it used last year. That means a suite of Vision components, with the brand providing its Metron wheels and cockpit.
The Astana team buys in its Shimano Dura-Ace groupsets and, while the riders now seem to be running Continental’s GP5000 S TR tyres, there were photos floating around earlier in the year featuring Vittoria tyres, which possibly indicates a late sponsorship change.
A Prologo saddle and matching bar tape complete a bike we’re going to try hard to get in for review.
