For his second-place finish at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, Primož Roglič was riding what looks to be an all-new Cervélo road bike.
On the exact same day that the brand launched its all-new racier Aspero gravel bike, Cervélo has teased even more new tech, with what looks like a new lightweight road bike in the pipeline.
Judging by the aesthetics of the bike and the terrain on which it was raced, it's likely to be the new R5 Disc. However, the brand's recent form of bike model nomenclature - namely the Aspero and Caledonia - does throw doubt on this theory.
Of course, at this stage, no official word has come from Cervélo and details, therefore, are in short supply, but there are a few things we can surmise from photographs taken during the race.
Overall, the bike's update looks to be evolution, rather than revolution. There's no groundbreaking additions or omissions, but a few modernisations to an otherwise popular lightweight road bike.
Notable by their absence are the gear cables and brake hoses at the bike's cockpit (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The most apparent change comes at the front. The bike's cockpit is notably void of any cables, suggesting Cervélo is following the recent integrated cockpit trend by fully containing Roglič's Shimano Di2 cables and brake hoses within the handlebars and through the stem.
Beyond the cockpit, it looks as though tube shapes have been given the aero treatment, too, but aside from that and the jazzy paint scheme, much of the rest of the bike remains the same, which brings us onto one notably unchanged feature; the positioning of the seat stays.
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The position of the seat stays remains unchanged, but the seatpost junction looks to have been updated (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
In recent years, the majority of road bike brands have switched to dropped seat stays for their combination of improved aerodynamics and vertical compliance. Cervélo has even followed suit with its Caledonia and S5 road bikes, yet this new road bike has clearly eschewed the idea.
Trek is one of the few other brands to stick with the traditional seat stay position, claiming during the launch of the new Emonda that it enabled the frame weight to remain beneath 700 grams. If Trek's reasoning is anything to go by, this new Cervélo could be seriously light.
Looking closer, despite a lack of clear imagery it looks as though the seatpost-frame interface could feature some comfort-enhancing technology. The seatpost itself looks to be thinner than the seat tube, and there looks to be room for the seatpost to flex inside the frame.
While the evidence is inconclusive, it looks as though the seatpost has room to flex for added comfort (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Specification-wise, the rest of Roglič's bike remains as expected, with a sponsor-correct FSA cockpit, Shimano Dura-Ace R9170 Di2 disc brake groupset and Dura-Ace C40 tubular wheels from the same R9100-series range.
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.
