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The Critérium du Dauphiné is always a useful performance yardstick for teams and riders in the run-up to the Tour de France, which is just weeks away now. New equipment is often rolled out at the Tour or in the run-up to it and this seems to be the case with Team AG2R Citroën who have been spotted with a new BMC race bike at the start of the Dauphine. BMC appear to have been busy after we covered the prototype BMC time trial bike that appeared at the Tour de Romandie
Cyclingnews spotted some new prototype bikes ahead of the race’s opening stage mounted on the team’s car roof rack. The new bikes have a plain black paint scheme except for a large ‘create speed’ logo on the downtube and a small RedBull advanced technologies logo on the fork (more on this below).
The first question that needs answering is: What is it? AG2R have the BMC Team Machine SLR01 and more aero BMC Time Machine Road 01 at their disposal to race on. The Time Machine is the more aero, speed-focused model of the two but this new black bike seems to be taking the aero considerations up a level with a chunky, aero headtube and seat stay junction in particular as well as generally aero profiled tubes and aerodynamic features such as the bottle cages and their low mounted position. The ‘create speed’ logo also points to an aero-focused, race machine. Could this be a new Time Machine or perhaps a brand new all-out Aero model?
The headtube is seriously deep on the new bike and the fork legs look wider than normal too. The above picture provides a really useful comparison between the existing TeamMachine bike and the new frame, where the differences are clear.
There have also been rumours of AG2R switching to Van Rysel bikes and equipment for the 2024 season. Will we see AG2R racing aboard this new bike next season? Or will a different team be riding it if the rumours are true?
This wouldn’t be the first time BMC has collaborated with RedBull advanced technologies, with the two companies partnering to create what they called ‘the world’s first F1 bike’ last year when they created a new time trial bike.
The inclusion of the Red Bull logo on the fork leg points to some collaboration happening between the brands for…
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