Giant Bicycles missing from the WorldTour for the first time since the '90s
(Image credit: Courtesy)
Welcome to the Cyclingnews WorldTour bikes guide for 2021: A complete and comprehensive roundup of the 2021 UCI WorldTeams, their bikes and their equipment in the upcoming cycling season.
We're all aware that the 2020 season was a season like no other. What started off with promise and excitement was quickly curtailed by COVID-19 in the lead up to the Classics. Races were postponed and the five-month hiatus led to a lack of exposure for sponsors. As a result, some teams experienced painful funding cuts, while others chose to go the extra mile to create additional exposure for their sponsors.
But when it finally resumed, the 2020 season didn't disappoint. On the road, we were treated to what many are calling one of the best Tours de France ever, while in the paddocks, the rim versus disc debate was louder than ever, clincher tyres stole the limelight from the tubeless debate, and saving weight was still as important as ever, as teams looked to mountain bike disc rotors to save a few grams.
But let's put past in the past and look at this season. Plenty of races are still falling foul of COVID, but there's plenty to look forward to. As always, the arrival of a new season means new teams, new sponsors, new bikes and new tech, as well as a likelihood of new trends for us to unravel.
Bikes
Every few years, the WorldTour has veritable merry-go-round of sponsorship change. At the start of 2019, we saw BMC, Giant and Cervélo all swap as BMC Racing became CCC Team and switched to Giant. Team Sunweb moved from Giant to Cervélo and Dimension Data signed with BMC to complete the triangle.
This year, a similar triangle involves Bianchi, Cervélo and Scott. Mitchelton-Scott will rename to Team BikeExchange and switch to Bianchi bikes. Jumbo-Visma step away from Bianchi and climb aboard bikes from Cervélo, while Team Sunweb rebrand to Team DSM and their partnership with Cervélo ends, leaving the door open for Scott to step in.
A separate change involves French outfit AG2R-Citröen, who step away from Eddy Merckx bikes in favour of BMC. As a result, Eddy Merckx's brand leaves the WorldTour and BMC's presence in the peloton grows from one team to two, since the Swiss brand is also currently in its third of a three-year deal with Doug Ryder's South African outfit that was recently renamed to Qhubeka-Assos.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
The number of teams in the WorldTour has remained steady at 19, although the makeup of one of those teams has changed significantly. Want You Cycling, the company behind the Circus-Wanty Gobert team has taken over Continuum Sports, the operating company behind CCC Team, and will step up into the WorldTour as a result. With them, they bring Cube Bikes into the WorldTour for the first time in the company's history.
Perhaps more notably, however, is the fact that 2021 will be the first season without a Giant bicycle in the men's pro peloton since 1996.
Best road bikes: Category-leading aero, lightweight, endurance and aluminium road bikes
Shimano remains fitted to the vast majority of bikes in the peloton, with 13 teams running its Dura-Ace Di2 groupset. SRAM will be used by two teams while Campagnolo has grown by one, and will now be employed by four.
Ceramic bearings maintain a presence in the sport with both Astana and ISN running the OSPW from Ceramicspeed and Lotto Soudal running C-Bear for another season.
Other changes
When it comes to computers, Garmin retains its majority presence with nine teams already confirmed, however, Wahoo's ascendency continues and the Atlanta company grabs a bigger slice of the WorldTour pie with two new teams, now up to five.
Both teams that used SRM in 2020 move elsewhere, with Lotto-Soudal moving away to Garmin and Cofidis opting for Wahoo. Team DSM also switch to Wahoo, but from Sigma computers.
SRM does retain a presence, though with just one team this year, as UAE Team Emirates make the jump away from Stages.
Best cycling computers: Route mapping and data tracking, the best bike computers will do it all
Circus Wanty Gobert, who are to be known in 2021 as Intermarché Wanty Gobert, will be supplied with cycling computers from Bryton, a brand that in 2020 was found on the bikes of Israel Start-Up Nation. Their one-year deal has not been renewed, and instead, Chris Froome's new team will be using Hammerhead this year.
Just one team is yet to confirm their brand of computers for 2021 so far. Trek Segafredo, who last year used a Garmin rebranded as a Bontrager. Given they've taken this long to announce the news, we expect change is afoot, but as yet, it's unconfirmed.
What we do know, is that with just one spot up for grabs, either one (or both) of Sigma and Stages will disappear from the handlebars of the WorldTour bikes.
A change that is confirmed takes us back to the Israel Start-Up team. We're not talking about Alex Dowsett's newborn, but we might see little Juliette wearing babygrows from Jinga Clothing this year on his YouTube channel, as the team switches away from Katusha clothing.
And on the subject of clothing, the newly named Bahrain Victorious will no longer wear Le Col and will instead wear kit from Italian company Nalini. Meanwhile, Team DSM are taking their kit sponsorship into their own hands, launching their own clothing brand called Keep Challenging clothing.
Want to check out the best kits in the WorldTour this year? Cyclingnews staff have ranked and rated them all, do you agree with our number one?
Josh is Associate Editor of Cyclingnews – leading our content on the best bikes, kit and the latest breaking tech stories from the pro peloton. He has been with us since the summer of 2019 and throughout that time he's covered everything from buyer's guides and deals to the latest tech news and reviews.
On the bike, Josh has been riding and racing for over 15 years. He started out racing cross country in his teens back when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s, racing at a local and national level for Somerset-based Team Tor 2000. These days he rides indoors for convenience and fitness, and outdoors for fun on road, gravel, 'cross and cross-country bikes, the latter usually with his two dogs in tow.
