Wout van Aert spotted riding an unreleased Cervélo P5 at Volta ao Algarve

Visma-Lease a Bike used a new and unreleased version of the Cervélo P5 time trial bike at the recent Volta ao Algarve.

Riders, including Wout van Aert, were spotted using a model which features some small but noticeable differences from the current bike, as first reported by Escape Collective. It's set to get a run out at the upcoming UAE Tour too, with team mechanics confirming to GCN that the team would be using a new time trial bike.

Stage 4’s 22km individual time trial, held on Saturday, was won by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) on a day that failed to generate any headlines for the Dutch team. Jan Tratnik scraped into the top 10 while Van Aert fell one place behind in 11th. With no standout performances from the team, it is the bike that has instead stolen attention, although you have to look closely to spot any changes.

Cervélo appears to have refined rather than revamped the design. The overall silhouette remains the same but it’s the seatpost area that is the main giveaway. This previously followed a familiar recipe, with the top of the seat tube and the end of the top tube meeting to form a right angle which covered the base of the seatpost. Now, there is a curved angle where they meet which slopes down roughly halfway across the seatpost.

© Dario Belingheri/Velo Collection via Getty Images

There was clear daylight between the rear tyre and the frame, plus the junction between the top tube and set tube is curved

Sticking to the rear of the bike, there is also now clear daylight between the rear tyre and the seat tube, suggesting that Cervélo has upped the tyre clearance a little. This clearance is incredibly snug on the current model. It is hard to tell for certain from the far-off images, but it looks like the larger tyre clearance has also been replicated at the front of the bike where there is considerable space between the fork crown and the tyre. Many brands are making their forks wider too, as this is deemed more aerodynamic, so we wouldn’t be surprised if Cervélo has followed suit.

The fork in question appears to be similar to the one used on the current bike, although its front nose cone - which sits in front of the head tube - is shallower. That would buck recent trends seen across road bikes, where brands have been increasingly favouring bulbous head tubes that protrude out of the front of the bike.

© Heinz Zwicky/Velo Collection via Getty Images

The current P5 has smaller tyre clearance at the rear and the tube shaping around the seatpost is different

While a new bike is in the offing, it’ll have to perform admirably to match the achievements of the current P5 which has been an ever-present during Visma-Lease a Bike’s success over the last few years. That success reached new levels in 2023 as the team secured a clean sweep of Grand Tour titles, including Jonas Vingegaard’s second consecutive Tour de France win. While he finished comfortably as the victor, his general classification triumph was anything but secure until the stage 16 time trial when the Danish rider pulled off one of the greatest time trials of all time, aboard the current P5.

Vingegaard will be heading to the Tour de France in the hunt for a third title in 2024 but it appears that he’ll be equipped with a different time trial bike for the first time. If there were any lingering doubts, the current P5 was released way back in 2019 and if modern release cycles are anything to go by, it’s due an update.

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