Cervélo S5 Disc

$8,000–$15,000 With its visually striking Y-shaped bar and stem combo, Cervélo’s S5 bike spares nothing when it comes to making you go fast. Much of that can be attributed to that adapted front end, which allows the bike (and you) to cut through the air way faster. With a traditional bar and stem set up, the airflow is interrupted, which causes lots of air resistance. With the S5, the air is passed along the top tube and out between the rider’s legs, causing way less disruption. In their wind tunnel testing, Cervélo found this saved over five watts when riding at 40 km/h.

Changes were also made to the geometry of the frame to allow for a more aggressive position. In classic Cervélo fashion, though, they’ve also made it easy to fit the bike and there are multiple stem lengths available to ensure you can comfortably put the power down in your next draft-legal event.

The changes Cervélo have made to the geometry will ensure that you’ll have no problems flicking this bike around even the most technical courses. The bottom bracket is now two mm lower (on a size 54), and the trail values are consistent across the size range.

Maybe you’re thinking, why do I need all these optimizations if I’m just sitting in the pack? Well, whenever you need to chase down your age-group nemesis, the aero benefits will be there to help you. Or, if you know somebody has a 5K split that’s 30 seconds better than yours, you can try that late break to get an advantage going into T2. And, finally, if you can go faster with less effort, you’ll have more energy to push yourself on the run.—DAN WALKER