Tadej Pogačar kicked off his season today at the 2025 UAE Tour, debuting his custom Colnago Y1Rs.
The world champion was spotted training on the cobbles of the Trouée d'Arenberg – one of Paris-Roubaix's most iconic sectors – last week, aboard his trusty Colnago V4RS, but Pogačar has opted to race his new aero road bike at the first opportunity.
The Colnago Y1Rs is claimed to be the most aerodynamic bike in the WorldTour peloton, with a radical design created to take advantage of the latest changes to the UCI equipment regulations.
Pogačar’s build is almost identical to the model the historic Italian brand showed off when it launched the Y1Rs late last year, save for even more bling.
If there’s any rider who has the legs to justify a bike like this, though, it’s Pogačar.
The fastest bike in the peloton?
While Pogačar firmly established himself as the best rider in the peloton last year, Colnago claims its new aero bike is also better than the rest.
According to the brand, the Y1Rs is a whopping 20 watts more efficient at 50kph compared to the V4RS – the bike Pogačar used to dominate the men’s WorldTour in 2024.
The gap compared to the bike’s unnamed ‘best competitor’ is, unsurprisingly, narrower – at just a single watt (again, measured at 50kph).
However, any gain is a gain, and considering how fast Pogačar was already, the prospect of him finally racing on a class-leading bike surely has his competitors scrambling for ways to claw back the performance gap.
Could Cervélo answer the call to action with a new S5 and R5 for Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard this year?
Both bikes are a few years old now, and with the latest UCI equipment regulations allowing for more aerodynamic tube shapes – such as deeper, narrower head tubes – there might be untapped gains there for Pogačar's key Tour de France rival.
Rainbow regalia
As befitting the current men’s world road race champion, Pogačar’s bike and kit are fully decked out in white and rainbow regalia.
As on the famous world champion’s jersey itself, Pogačar’s custom frameset is predominantly white, with rainbow stripes adorning the top tube and fork legs.
Beyond that, the bike’s spec is as bling as we’ve come to expect, with a Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 drivetrain, upgraded with CarbonTi chainrings.
Of course, every sponsor is doubtless ecstatic to have the world champion using their kit, and so goes the extra mile to celebrate that fact (or exploit the marketing opportunity, for the more cynical out there).
ENVE, for example, has supplied Pogačar with a set of its SES 4.5 wheels with custom rainbow decals – not something any punter can just pick up at their local bike shop.
DMT also looks to have made a special set of rainbow-themed ‘Pogis’ shoes, while his MET Trenta helmet also gets a similar treatment.
As we saw late last season, when he carried his form through to take victory at Il Lombardia (the final ‘Monument’ classic of the season), Pogačar also looks set to continue with white shorts for 2025 – matching his white and rainbow jersey.
These have been a controversial topic within road cycling in recent decades.
First popularised by the likes of Oscar Friere, Mario Cippolini and other world champions in the 2000s, the Velominati’s infamous ‘rules’ (which gained cult popularity in the 2010s) dictated, “Black shorts, or at least standard team-kit shorts, must be worn with Championship jerseys and race leadership jerseys.”
Much like his predecessors, Mathieu Van Der Poel and Remco Evenepoel, Pogačar seems blissfully unfazed by such limitations, though – and long may it continue.
