And so it begins; the circus of pre-Tour de France bike leaks kicks off for 2025 with some grainy shots of what looks to be the new Cervélo S5, underneath some Visma-Lease a Bike riders including Jonas Vingegaard and Victor Campenaerts at their recent training camp.
How do we know it is the new S5 and not a new aero bike? Well, primarily because from the shots it looks almost exactly the same as the current version. This, combined with the fact the current model is three years old – the usual development cycle time for pro bikes – means we can be really quite sure this is an updated version.
Naturally as we are going on some quite grainy shots posted on the ever-useful Cycling Spy Instagram page we are currently light on official detail, but there are some things we can shine a light on for the new model, primarily around the new cockpit. The images, I am told, came from some athlete’s Strava profiles, but have since been deleted.
The Cervélo S5 has perhaps had the most Darwinian evolution of any modern race bike, with the 2022 version only receiving modest changes versus the previous model. This, coupled with the fact that in our own lab testing it was the most aerodynamic of the current crop of race bikes, even some a lot younger than it, perhaps means it shouldn’t be a surprise to find that the bike has been tweaked rather than overhauled.
Up front the easiest change to spot is the new cockpit. The same Y-shaped stem remains, but the connecting truss across the two struts has been thinned out and kinked forwards in the central section. There is scant room for mounting a computer, but whichever rider accidentally leaked these images has managed to do so, we suspect with a proprietary mount.
Whichever mount it is, it’s capable of supporting not only a Garmin computer but also a light underneath. Given every professional rider rides with a bike computer it may well be that the new bar was designed with one mounted on it, and the forward kink helps make the computer itself behave in a more aerodynamic fashion.
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You’d be forgiven for not noticing this was a new bike. (Image credit: Cycling Spy)
The handlebars are different though, as are the fork legs. (Image credit: Cycling Spy)
The cockpit is now a one-piece system, so no more adjustment to be had. (Image credit: Cycling Spy)
There isn’t much room to mount a computer mount, but here Victor Campanaerts has managed to succeed. (Image credit: Cycling Spy)
While the headset bolt covers remain, the two rounded rectangles on the bar tops have been removed, and the smooth joins indicate that it is now a true one-piece cockpit. Gone is the 5 degrees of rotational adjustment, locking the riders instead into what is presumably the most aero setup. Also, no bolt covers and smoother surfaces likely adds a little aero boost. We cannot see any width notation, but it is likely that a narrower selection will be available than on the outgoing model, in step with modern trends towards narrower bars.
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Still at the front of the bike, we also appear to have a new fork profile. The current setup has straight legs that taper down to just a little more than the width of the thru-axle head, whereas the shots we can see here show a fork that remains the same width for the entirety of its length. The current trend for maximising aero gains at the front of the bike where they matter most is again coming to the fore here.
From the fork backwards the bike looks very, very similar. We suspect that any changes here have been made in terms of layup and weight reduction, without affecting the shape. If it ain’t broke – in aero terms – then don’t try and fix it. The very steep seatpost, heavily wrapped seat tube, and dropped stays all remain as was.
While we cannot see the head tube, thanks to a usefully placed right thigh, it is safe to assume the same hinged fork remains. With the likes of the new Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 showing how deep head tubes can go we may well see a deeper head tube, but for now we will just have to wait and see.
If new images come to light we will update this page accordingly, and we will be on the ground at the Critérium du Dauphiné to get some shots ourselves.
