Same colours, new design: A closer look at Visma-Lease a Bike’s 2024 Cervélo S5

There have been plenty of changes for Visma-Lease a Bike over the off-season but the team’s Cervélo bike and the familiar yellow and black colours have remained

06:00, Thursday 8th February 2024

Tom Hallam-Gravells

Online Production Editor

Koen Bouwman's Cervélo S5 at the Santos Tour Down Under

Team Visma | Lease a Bike
- Nationality Netherlands
- Founded 1984
- Team Principal Richard Plugge
- UCI Code TVL
- Bike Sponsor Cervélo
Koen Bouwman
- Team Team Visma | Lease a Bike
- Nationality Netherlands
- Age 30
- UCI Wins 7
- Height 1.78m
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.
SRAM
SRAM is a components manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. The company mainly produces drivetrains, for a wide variety of disciplines, alongside many other components. SRAM’s has acquired other brands within the industry such as Zipp, RockShox and Quarq.
Vittoria
Vittoria is an Italian bicycle tyre manufacturer. The company produces over seven million tyres yearly for a wide range of cyclists, from road racers and commuters to BMX riders and mountain bikers.
Wahoo
Wahoo is a fitness technology company based in Atlanta, USA. Wahoo produces a range of cycling technology products, from cycling computers and smart watches to indoor trainers, pedals and other accessories.

With a change in sponsors and a new name to go alongside it, plus the loss of Primož Roglič to Bora-Hansgrohe, it’s fair to say that Visma-Lease a Bike endured a busy off-season. It could have been even more hectic had rumoured mergers with Soudal-Quick Step played out, in a move that would have rocked cycling.

In the end, things played out much less dramatically and the team will carry on their current course with Lease a Bike added to the fold in place of Jumbo as title sponsors. Perhaps surprisingly, Jumbo’s departure hasn’t also led to the demise of the yellow livery that the time has been using for multiple seasons.

That means that, once again, Visma-Lease a Bike will stand out from the crowd thanks to their distinguishable yellow attire, as will their Cervélo bikes, although they’ve still undergone a revamp.

We caught a close-up glimpse of the team’s Cervélo S5 bike at the WorldTour curtain raiser, the Tour Down Under, to learn more about the new design and the components the team will be using throughout 2024.

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

The changes: Subtle can make all the difference

Last year Jumbo-Visma kept things simple with a dominantly black colourway that was only broken up by yellow on the fork and the seat tube. It was basic and, if we’re being honest, not particularly captivating to look at - although the bike made up for that, but more on this later.

A comparison of the new bike (left) with the 2023 bike

The team have gone some way to rectify this for 2024 through the latest iteration which uses a more adventurous pattern, although not radically different. On closer inspection, it actually appears that there is less yellow on the design than last year, but it’s the way the team has integrated it into the overall design that is key. No longer cut adrift on the fork, yellow lines now trail across the length of the top tube before weaving neatly down the fork, while also encroaching on the seat tube. There’s no clear rhyme or reason to the pattern other than to enhance the appearance of the bike and, by our judging, it scores well.

The bike features a new yellow pattern along the top tube

Read more: Vuelta a España pro bike: Primož Roglič’s Cervélo S5

Cervélo S5: A race-winning machine

As does the Cervélo S5 bike that the colourway adorns. In their previous guise as Jumbo-Visma, the team ruthlessly strung together one of the most dominant seasons in WorldTour history in 2023, culminating in a clean sweep of Grand Tours. That’s impressive in itself, but the fact they were delivered by three different riders, Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss, elevates the accomplishment a little more.

The S5 is a pure aero road bike

The S5 played an instrumental, if not decisive, role in those victories. Cervélo’s aero bike, whilst not present on the mountain or time trial stages when those Grand Tours were won - a job left to the R5 - ably guided them through the flat and rolling stages that punctuate the high mountains. It’s well qualified for the task, as is given away by the bike’s clear aero leanings. Deep tube profiles, an aggressive geometry and a funky aero cockpit, it ticks all the boxes.

The V stem has a unique design

Those deep profiles push the boundaries to reap all the benefits allowed within the UCI rules. The cockpit in question is headlined by Cervelo’s V stem which, as the name suggests, cuts a very distinctive V shape that stands out in the peloton.

Bikes tend to conform to modern trends and the S5 is no different in a couple of notable aspects. Firstly, it has tyre clearance for up to 34mm wide tyres, not too shabby for an aero bike. Then there’s the weight saving to consider, with the latest model used by Visma-Lease a Bike shedding a moderate 65g over its predecessor. A low weight isn't really the goal, though, for a bike that tipped our scales at 7.77kg - that was on the higher end of the spectrum and is nearly a full kilogram over the UCI's weight limit.

Read more: Analysing the Visma-Lease a Bike Giro d’Italia team

SRAM back for more Grand Tour success

Apart from the colourway, basically everything else is the same as last season, which we’re sure the team’s partner brands will be delighted about, especially if the team can replicate previous successes.

The team stuck to 2x groupsets at the Tour Down Under

One of those brands is SRAM whose groupset offering allowed Jumbo-Visma to diverge from the crowd at a few key intersections in 2023. That was thanks to the American brand’s selection of 1x SRAM Red groupsets which Roglič specifically took full advantage of, especially during his late-race heist at the Giro d’Italia. Vingegaard and Wout van Aert also joined the 1x party at different points of the season. There doesn’t appear to be too much consistency as to when the team uses 1x over 2x just yet, but we’ll see how that plays out in 2024.

A 10-33t SRAM cassette

There was no 1x in sight on the bike we encountered at the Santos Tour Down Under, belonging to Koen Bouwman, which isn’t too surprising as, despite 1x catching more headlines, 2x is still used the majority of the time by the team. The Dutchman’s 54/41t chainset didn’t buck any expectations either and was paired with what we think was a 10-33t cassette. We saw the bike ahead of stage 1’s rolling parcours which culminated in a sprint, so that gearing would have been more than ample.

Read more: Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič go 1x on stage 2 of Vuelta a España

Reserve exclusive to Visma-Lease a Bike

Beyond its Grand Tour success, Visma-Lease a Bike is unique in the WorldTour peloton for one other reason: it’s the only team that uses Reserve wheels. The company, which falls under the same umbrella as Cervélo, has only been around since 2014 and has already more than made its mark less than a decade later.

Visma-Lease a Bike use Reserve wheels

The 40/44 option, with rim depths to match the name, was a relatively shallow choice of wheels by Bouwman, especially for an aero bike.

Those wheels were paired with Vittoria Corsa Pro 28mm tyres, set up tubeless as is dominant at WorldTour level.

The Fizik Argo is a 3D-printed saddle

Bouwman was using Wahoo Speedplay Aero pedals along with a Fizik Argo R1 Adaptive saddle. It’s one of the increasing number of 3D-printed saddles now available and features a shorter nose.