Italian bike maker Colnago has joined with ASO, the Tour de France organisers, to create a most desirable bike
£11,090 Ultra-limited, ultra-light, ultra-exclusive homage to the Tour de France
The storied Italian bike brand Colnago has teamed up with Tour de France owner ASO, the Amaury Sport Organisation, to build the first-ever official Tour de France bike.
The V3Rs TDF is limited to just 108 bikes for the whole world so don’t expect to see too many of them on your club run. Why 108? Well, this is the number of editions the Tour de France has run since its 1903 debut, every year with the exception of the two World Wars. But, as befits a bike with such a limited edition, this Colnago isn’t going to come cheap…
The bike’s livery takes in details from both the Tour and Colnago. You won’t be surprised to see that it features the yellow of the leader’s jersey. Colnago’s iris logo sits on the top tube and fork, there’s the official Tour de France logo, a tasteful, subtle outline map of France where the seatstays meet the frame, and colourcoordinated custom components – mostly Italian – to finish it all off.
The frame itself is the disc-braked version of the V3Rs, Colnago’s premier aero road machine and the model on which Tadej Poga ar won last year’s Tour de France. It’s a monocoque carbon fibre design with an integrated bar and stem, aerodynamic tube profiles and a low weight – Colnago claims just 790g for a 50cm frame. Its integration and aero optimisation mean it has a very clean-looking front end, with the gear cables and hydraulic brake hoses routed through the handlebar and stem, and down through the head tube.
The right-hand lever of the custom-finished Campagnolo’s 12-speed Super Record EPS groupset is custom finished in yellow and the bike is decked with components from the Tour de France’s official licensee brands. This means that it’s Campagnolo again for its tubelessready Bora Ultra WTO DB wheels with their C-LUX finish and CULT ceramic bearings, Deda Elementi’s carbon Alenara DCR onepiece bar and stem and a custom Selle Italia Superflow Boost Kit Carbonio saddle. The tyres are Continental’s 25mm Grand Prix 5000s, just in case you were ever brave or foolhardy enough to take the bike out of its display case and actually hit the tarmac.
But if you’re in the market for one of the most exclusive bikes from one of Italy’s most historic bike builders, you’d better be very quick to snap up this extremely exclusive bike, as well as having the necessary deep pockets to be able to afford it in the first place.
Be quick if you’re in the market for one of the most exclusive bikes from one of Italy’s most historic bike builders