If you haven’t seen this yet, we’re here to catch you up with video and photos of Colnago’s new reportedly super-aero road bike built for Tadej Pogacar and his expected continued dominance of world road cycling. Alastair was at the launch and captured pics & video …
The official press info reads like this:
A New Bike for Tadej Pogačar?
Colnago Y1Rs: Built to Defy Wind
A new benchmark for performance: Colnago introduces a cutting-edge aero bike designed to dominate in speed and efficiency.
Colnago unveils the Y1Rs, a bicycle engineered to redefine aerodynamics in professional cycling. Developed in close collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Khalifa University, the Y1Rs represents a leap forward in design and technology, offering riders a bike built to meet the highest speed and precision demands.
Key Features and Innovations
CC.Y1 Handlebars with WYND Technology
The CC.Y1 handlebars are a centrepiece of the Y1Rs’s aerodynamic advancements. Incorporating WYND technology, the handlebar design features a distinctive Y-shaped profile inspired by aeronautical and motorsport engineering. The horizontal bars are raised and detached from the central body of the headset, creating a ‘gull wing’ shape that minimises turbulence in the frontal area.
- Aerodynamic Gains: The WYND design reduces flow detachment and drag, allowing for smoother airflow across the handlebars and cockpit.
- Stiffness: Built with a custom carbon layup, the CC.Y1 handlebars are 16% stiffer than leading competitors, ensuring no loss of power during sprints.
- Integration: Fully compliant with UCI regulations, the handlebars are seamlessly integrated with the spacers and fork, enhancing overall aerodynamics without compromising vertical or lateral stiffness.
DEFY Seatpost Joint
The seatpost joint introduces a novel design that optimises both aerodynamic performance and rider comfort.
- Innovative Dual-Y Structure: The joint features two interlocking Y-shaped elements that allow the seatpost to align perfectly with the seat tube while following the contour of the rear wheel. This design reduces drag in a critical airflow zone.
- Vertical Compliance: The increased angle of the seatpost allows for enhanced shock absorption without affecting peddling stiffness. This ensures a smoother ride on long stages or during breakaways.
- Comfort and Efficiency: Despite the frame’s high stiffness, the DEFY joint provides compliance that reduces fatigue during extended efforts.
Curved Downtube and Integrated Bottle Cages
The downtube of the Y1Rs is meticulously designed to optimise airflow while maintaining
structural integrity.
- Shape Optimisation: The top section of the downtube closely follows the curvature of the front wheel, reducing drag caused by wheel interaction. The lower section straightens out to balance aerodynamic efficiency with frame stiffness.
- Custom Bottle Cages: Standard bottles disrupt airflow, but Colnago’s integrated bottle cages are designed to align with the downtube, minimising aerodynamic loss while maintaining practicality by being compatible with standard round-shaped bottles.
Aerodynamic Studies and CFD Optimisation
To achieve the Y1Rs’s advanced aerodynamic performance, Colnago developed a highly accurate CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Khalifa University.
- Enhanced CFD Model: Traditional CFD methods often oversimplify airflow conditions, leading to inaccuracies. Colnago refined its model through real-world pressure mapping, drilling 70 strategically placed holes in prototype frames to gather precise airflow data.
- 3D Printing for Prototyping: Rapid prototyping with 3D printing allowed for iterative testing and design modifications, ensuring that the CFD model accurately represented real-world conditions.
- Real-World Validation: The data collected was used to refine the aerodynamic shape of the frame, resulting in a model twice as accurate as standard industry practices (average error reduced from 30% to 15%).
This meticulous approach allowed Colnago to optimise every component, from tube profiles to the positioning of the handlebars and bottle cages, ensuring seamless integration and aerodynamic efficiency.
Aerodynamic Results – better than the best.
The Y1Rs delivers unparalleled aerodynamic efficiency, validated through extensive wind tunnel testing.
- Power Savings: Compared to the V4Rs, the Y1Rs requires 20 watts less power to maintain a speed of 50 km/h in real-world racing setups.
- Wind Tunnel Testing: In tests with a fully-equipped racing mannequin, the Y1Rs outperformed the best aero competitors in the World Tour across all yaw angles, particularly excelling in crosswind conditions.
- Reduced Drag: The Y1Rs’s optimised profiles and minimised frontal area contribute to a 19% reduction in drag compared to its predecessor. Stiffness and Weight – a bike for sprinting and breaking away while achieving aerodynamic excellence, the Y1Rs maintains exceptional stiffness and competitive weight.
- Stiffness: Colnago proprietary Real Riding Stiffness (RRS) tests show a 3.5% improvement in sprinting stiffness compared to the V4Rs. This ensures maximum power transfer during high-intensity efforts.
- Weight: The ready-to-paint frame weighs 965g, with a complete frame-kit weight of 1,415g. While not the lightest in Colnago’s lineup, the balance of stiffness and aerodynamics makes it ideal for riders focused on speed and efficiency.
A size M in UAE Team Emirates’ configuration, fully assembled with pedals, weighs 7.51 kgs (16.55 lbs)
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