A new, range-topping Colnago road bike has been coming in what we suspect to be a deliberately poorly kept secret. The Colnago Prototipo, the prototype version of the new Colnago V4Rs (for those of you who don’t speak Italian), has been semi-officially launched, and we’ve seen it under two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogačar and other UAE Team Emirates riders during the 2022 season.
The time has come, though, for the various prototypes, of which there were four at our last count, to coalesce into a real, available-for-purchase, and as far as Colnago and UAE hope, race-winning bike in its own right. It’s got a fair legacy to follow, with the V3Rs having been raced to two Tour de France victories and two monument victories.
As ever with a new iteration of any of the best road bikes there are claimed wins in aerodynamics, weight, and stiffness; the holy trinity of bike design for so many years. In a similar vein to the new Canyon Ultimate though, there has been more weight given over to comfort and robustness too, indicating perhaps that this is a model that’s more easy to live with. The aim, according to Colnago, is to produce a bike that has the aerodynamic drag of an aero bike, but without any weight penalty over the V3Rs. A tall order, so has it achieved these goals?
Aerodynamics
Aero is the main focus of modern race bike design, but lately, heralded by the killing off of the Venge and the launch of the all-round Specialized Tarmac SL7, brands have slowly taken to produing a single race bike. The V4Rs aims to match the American in this regard, and in terms of aero, there are some significant wins, on paper at least.
In an ‘idealised race setup’, consisting of a rider with one bottle and an empty cage, pedalling at 50km/h at 90rpm, with their head unit attached by the 3D printed aero mount (Wahoo Bolt V2 only, I’m afraid), there is a claimed saving of 27.7 watts over the outgoing race setup. This is definitely significant, and while the frame itself has had improvements made in terms of its wind-cheating ability, the savings appear to be primarily derived from the updated aero cockpit – which features a 1cm flare from hoods to drops – and new wheels. It’s not stipulated what the former and latter wheels are in terms of the testing, but it’s a fair bet to assume it’s the outgoing Campagnolo Boras and incoming Enves.
On the Wahoo mount:…
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