Cervélo

Cervélo is a bike manufacturer based in California, USA. The company produces bikes for road, track, triathlon and off-road, all with a strong focus on innovation.

History

The company started out as the university project of Gérard Vroomen and Phil White at Canada’s McGill University. The former began his studies of bike dynamics in his home country of the Netherlands but crossed the Atlantic to continue his research. Here, he met White, another student engineer passionate about bikes, and founded Cervélo in 1995.

Cervélo’s first design is arguably one of its most iconic, the Baracchi. The ultra-modern frame design and garish green paint job make it hard to forget. Despite its novelty and traditionalist disapproval, the bike was a sign of what the company had to offer.

Within a matter of years, the company launched several bikes, including the P2 TT, the Soloist Team and the T3 track frame. These groundbreaking bikes helped Cervélo to sponsor the CSC pro team from 2003. In the years to come, Fabian Cancellara used the company’s bikes to devastating effect in the Classics whilst Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France aboard a Cervélo.

This success saw the company set up its own team a year later, the Cervélo TestTeam. Having a top-tier pro team only sped up innovation at the business’s headquarters. However, over the next few years, there would be wholesale changes within both the team and Cervélo as a whole. Cervélo TestTeam became Team Garmin-Cervélo, whilst Pon Holdings bought the company and Vrooman left shortly after. By 2017, White would also depart his role as chief innovation officer.

Nonetheless, Cervélo’s pioneering attitude remained, largely thanks to its continued collaboration with some of road cycling’s top riders such as Dave Zabriskie, Mark Cavendish and Primož Roglič. They helped the company to shape its current range of bikes, from the aero S5 and the P5 TT bike, to the lightweight R5.

Between 2019 and 2020, Cervélo moved into the off-road market, first with its gravel Áspero, built for racing on the rough stuff, and then the ZHT-5 hardtail mountain bike for XC racing

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Pro cycling

Current sponsorships: Jumbo-Visma

Highlights:

• Team CSC delivered Cervélo’s first Monument in 2003 with Tyler Hamilton at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before Ivan Basso won the 2006 Giro d’Italia.
• 2007 saw Stuart O’Grady win Paris-Roubaix with a remarkable solo attack and Fabian Cancellara don rainbow bands at the World Championships road race.
• Cervélo Test Team’s Thor Hushovd became world champion on the road in 2010 - the company’s second Rainbow Jersey.
• Now as Garmin-Cervélo, Johan Vansummeren delivered a second Paris-Roubaix title in 2011 before Ryder Hesjedal won the 2012 Giro d’Italia by a matter of 16 seconds.
• His teammate Dan Martin would then win two Monuments in as many seasons at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2013) and Il Lombardia (2014).
• Mark Cavendish won four stages of the 2016 Tour de France aboard a Cervélo, with his teammate Steve Cummings making it five stage wins for the Dimension Data team.
• Women's team Cervélo-Bigla picked up runners-up spots at La Course by Le Tour de France and the Aviva Women's Tour in 2016 with Lotta Henttala and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio respectively.
• Cervélo became Jumbo-Visma’s bike sponsor in 2021 and reaped instant rewards from the partnership with a Vuelta a España title through Primož Roglič.
• The next two years then saw the team win two Tour de Frances with Jonas Vingegaard, a World Championships ITT title with Tobias Foss (2022) and the 2023 Giro with Roglič.