Vuelta a España pro bike: Romain Grégoire’s Lapierre Xelius SL

Groupama-FDJ’s bikes for the Vuelta a España are sporting a new colourway, more closely mirroring the team’s kit

Updated 10:30, Sunday 3rd September 2023. Published 14:32, Thursday 31st August 2023

Romain Grégoire's Lapierre Xelius SL

Groupama-FDJ
- Nationality France
- Founded 1997
- Team Principal Marc Madiot
- UCI Code GFC
- Bike Sponsor Lapierre
Romain Grégoire
- Team Groupama-FDJ
- Nationality France
- Age 21
- UCI Wins 12
- Height 1.77m
Vuelta a España
- Dates 26 Aug - 17 Sept
- Race Length 3,133 kms
- Race Category Elite Men
Lapierre
Founded in 1946 by Gaston Lapierre, the French bike brand has established itself as a mainstay in the world of cycling.
Shimano
Shimano is a bike component manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. The company is one of the industry’s most popular manufacturers and it makes up around three-quarters of the bicycle component market by value.

After making the step up from Groupama-FDJ’s development team, Romain Grégoire has easily adapted to life at a higher level, flourishing in 2023 in his first full season as a WorldTour pro. The 20-year-old has caught the eye with his flamboyant riding style and, in a case of substance as well as style, has plenty of impressive results to show for it, including overall victories at 4 Jours de Dunkerque and the recent Tour du Limousin.

Despite still being only 20 years old, he’ll be one of the team’s big hopes at the Vuelta a España, alongside fellow Frenchman Lenny Martinez, who took the red jersey on stage 6. Both riders lit up the under-23 scene and were stars in our Tour de l'Avenir documentary. They’ll be hoping to translate some of that success to the Spanish Grand Tour, and they’ll partly be relying on the Lapierre Xelius SL road bike.

Groupama-FDJ's bike has a new purple and blue colourway

The Xelius SL is Lapierre’s climbing bike, sitting alongside the aero-focussed Aircode DRS, and for the Vuelta they’ve all received a new colourway. Formerly an all-purple design, the colourway has been tweaked rather than revamped with blue across the top tube and seatstays. It’s a familiar shade that mirrors the team’s kit.

Looking beyond the colourway, the Xelius is one of the more eye-catching bikes in the peloton thanks to its unique seatstay design. These don’t connect to the seat tube, instead routing around it before linking up with the top tube. It’s a familiar sight, with a version first appearing on the bike in 2016. According to Lapierre, the design “disperses the vibrations in the zone between the two support points (saddle and handlebars); frees the seat tube which gains in flexibility on all its length; and it lightens the bike with the use of carbon fibre in an area with low mechanical constraint”.

The Xelius' unique seatstay design

FDJ is partnered with Shimano whose components make up a big chunk of Grégoire’s bike, including the Dura-Ace groupset. Shimano is by far the most dominant groupset brand in the pro peloton, sponsoring a majority of WorldTour teams, and that in turn makes Dura-Ace the most used groupset. In Grégoire’s case this is in the form of a fairly standard 54/40t drivetrain and 11-34t cassette. We’re increasingly seeing cassettes with wider ranges like this used at pro level. This set-up will change throughout the race as the demands of the race change.

Shimano's Dura-Ace groupset

Alongside the groupset, Shimano’s Dura-Ace C50s are the wheels of choice. We encountered Grégoire’s bike before the first road stage, a rolling route in and around Barcelona on the second day, and the C50s provide a nice balance between light weight and aerodynamics for such a parcours.