Pro bike: Sergio García's Orbea Orca

Pure climbing bikes are becoming a rarer sight in the pro peloton. Sure, many still have the ‘climbing’ label attached to them, but most have now transitioned into all-round machines with additional aero leanings.

Not the Orbea Orca. One of the last climbing bikes to shun aerodynamics for an all-out lightweight approach, it’s becoming increasingly unique in the pro peloton. We caught a close-up glimpse of one of the bikes, belonging to Sergio García of Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho, at the recent Volta ao Algarve. Here’s what we found.

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A trend-bucking lightweight bike

Being lightweight doesn’t buck trends. Being solely designed to be lightweight with virtually no aerodynamic influence does. That’s the rare path Orbea chose to take for the 7th generation of its Orca, a climbing bike that lives up to its name.

Most climbing bikes have now edged along the scale into all-round territory, with aerodynamics often providing as much influence as weight. Orbea took a path less travelled, at least in modern times, by sticking to the Orca’s traditional formula to create a bike that visually differs from other pro-level bikes. There are none of the aero hallmarks that we’re so accustomed to seeing, which makes sense as a low weight was the goal.

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The Orbea Orca has a traditional climbing frame

Orbea’s decision to follow this route was a well calculated one to avoid turning the Orca into a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’, as it believes many modern superbikes have become. And the Spanish brand conducted research to back this up.

“The Low Speed Efficiency tests measure the number of watts needed to maintain a given speed on a steep climb,” Orbea road product manager, Joseba Arizaga, said in a press release upon the bike’s release in 2023. “This test removes aerodynamics from the equation. To perform well, bikes need to be light and transmit the power from the cranks to the wheels efficiently.”

The result of this thinking is a bike that can easily duck below the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum weight limit. Stiffness is also a key part of the climbing equation and that is taken care of by the Powerspine frame, which is designed to handle the torsional and lateral loads for more efficient power transfer. All of this leads to a bike, Orbea claimed upon its release, that is “around three watts faster than an aero bike, for an average rider, on a 5% slope, and around six watts faster on a 10% slope”.

• Read more: Lightweight vs aero - which bike climbs faster?

In-house components keep the weight down

While the frame is the most obvious area to shed some grams, it generally only accounts for less than 20% of the overall weight of a bike. The rest of the weight is made up by the components.

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Wheels from Orbea-owned Oquo

To ensure that it had control over this and could minimise weight over the entirety of the bike, the Orca comes adorned with components from Orbea’s in-house brands, including Oquo wheels. For García this was the RP45TEAM wheelset, with 45mm rim depths to match the name. That’s in the middle of Oquo’s depth range, which goes from 35mm to 57mm offerings.

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The cockpit was formed of OC components

Elsewhere, the stem and handlebar were also sourced in-house from Orbea’s own OC range of components.

• Read more: Ollie Bridgewood’s Orbea Orca: All-in for lightweight

Shimano Ultegra makes a rare appearance

Every Shimano-sponsored team at WorldTour level uses the Dura-Ace groupset, but teams in the levels below often use Ultegra. That’s the case for Continental team Aviludo-Louletano-Loulé Concelho. They’re unlikely to notice too much difference as much of the tech trickles down Shimano’s range and Ultegra is still a high-performance groupset.

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This is the older 11-speed version of Shimano's Ultegra groupset

Like Dura-Ace, the latest Ultegra is 12-speed but the Portuguese outfit were using the older R8000 11-speed version instead of the newest R8100 series. For his set-up, Garcia had a 53/39t crankset with 172.5mm cranks.

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The Fizik Antares saddle features a cut out

Elsewhere, Garcia used the Fizik Antares saddle.

The Oquo wheels were paired with Vittoria Corsa N.Ext tyres in a 28mm width that is being adopted by the majority of pro teams.

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The Elite Custom Race Plus bottle cages

The build was completed with Elite Custom Race Plus bottle cages.

Bike Specification