Pro bike: A closer look at Groupama-FDJ's new Wilier Filante SLR

The off-season is always a period of change in the WorldTour peloton, but few teams experienced quite as much tech disruption as Groupama-FDJ. Ending their 22-year collaboration, the French team split with bike sponsor Lapierre over the winter, although it didn’t come as a total surprise with rumours abounding throughout the season. It means that, for the 2024 season, fans will have to get used to watching the team ride new bikes.

Those new bikes will be supplied by Wilier after the Italian brand stepped into the Lapierre-sized hole to supply its Turbine SLR time trial steed and the Wilier Filante road bike, which the team debuted at the recent Tour Down Under. We managed to get our hands on Rudy Molard’s bike at the race to see what’s new and what has carried over from the team’s previous Lapierre bikes.

• Read more: Tour Down Under tech gallery: WorldTour equipment and accessory changes 2024

Wilier doubles up in WorldTour peloton

Far from new to the peloton, the Wilier Filante is a seasoned WorldTour veteran that’s accumulated plenty of experience at the hands of Astana Qazaqstan since 2019. With the addition of Groupama-FDJ to its line-up, the Italian brand has doubled up to join Specialized and Canyon as the only three brands to sponsor two WorldTour teams.

© GCN

The team previously rode Lapierre bikes

2024 could also be a big year for the Filante that could see it enter the history books if Astana’s Mark Cavendish is successful in his bid to break the Tour de France stage win record. Its targets at the hands of Groupama-FDJ are likely to be a little more modest, although it will be piloted by a host of France’s top young talents, including Lenny Martinez and Romain Grégoire, as well as the more experienced David Gaudu.

The bike itself is technically Wilier’s aero offering, sitting alongside the 0 SLR, but Groupama-FDJ will use it for every race. That’s because the boundaries between bike categories are becoming increasingly blurred as brands are now able to pack both aero and a low weight into one package.

So, although the Filante is an aero bike, it’s also lightweight - Molard’s version registered at exactly 7kg on our scales which is only slightly above the 6.8kg UCI limit and was one of the lightest bikes we encountered at the race.

© GCN

The Filante is both aero and lightweight

This weight saving can partly be explained by the tube profiles which are modest by some aero standards with shallower depths, while Wilier says that the frame was constructed with the same materials and technology as the 0 SLR.

Completing the oft-mentioned performance bingo card, it’s also stiffer with an improved stiffness-to-weight ratio of 12.5%, according to Wilier.

Shimano remains

Groupama-FDJ are a team that tends to stay loyal to their brands and they’ve used Shimano components for as long as they were teamed up with Lapierre. That won’t change in 2024 as the team’s bikes will once again be specced with the top-tier Dura-Ace groupset.

© GCN

A Shimano Dura-Ace 54/40t chainset

For Molard, this consisted of a popular 54/40t chainset combined with a less-popular 11-30t cassette - 11-34t is now the choice of most of the WorldTour pros.

© GCN

11-30t cassettes are becoming rarer in the pro peloton

Things became a bit more peculiar with the disc brake rotors, with a previous-generation Ultegra rear disc paired with a previous-generation Dura-Ace at the front. It’s something that we previously spotted on the team’s Lapierre bikes too.

• Read more: 2024 Men's WorldTour bikes: A guide to the bikes, groupsets, and tech of the top-tier teams

Tubeless rules, but not at Groupama-FDJ

Willing to buck trends in other areas of the bike too, Molard’s Filante also had Continental Competition Pro Limited Tubulars. Old-school cycling fans will be rejoicing but it places the team firmly in the ‘outlier’ category in the face of a tubeless WorldTour takeover - at this point the takeover is in the distant past and the set-up is now well established.

© GCN

Tubulars have been taken over by tubeless set-ups

Staying loyal to the trend-bucking theme, the tyres were in a 25mm width rather than the 28mm that the majority of teams are now using, and were paired with Shimano’s Dura-Ace C50 wheels, which have depths to match their name.

• Read more: Tour Down Under tech gallery: New bikes, shoes and custom components

Finishing touches

Both the handlebars and the seatpost were Wilier’s home-brand offering, designed for the Filante.

The levers on the handlebars were angled inwards despite the imminent UCI regulations to restrict such set-ups.

© GCN

Rudy Molard's lever position may soon be outlawed

Elsewhere, many of the finishing components have carried over from the Lapierre age. This included a Prologo Scratch 2 saddle and Prologo bar tape.

© GCN

The Prologo Scratch 2 saddle

There was also an Elite Vico bottle cage.

Bike Specification