Aero chain catchers and taped up seatposts: Jonas Vingegaard's 'prototype' aero bike leaves no stone unturned at the Tour de France

Jonas Vingegaard's bike.

While Remco Evenepoel is certainly well and truly in the conversation to take the yellow jersey at this year's Tour de France, the two big favourites are Tadej Pogačar, whose bike I've already bought you an in-depth gallery of, and Jonas Vingegaard. The latter of the two favourites has already won the race twice, but fell short last year in part thanks to having to come back from some career- or even life-threatening injuries.

This year, Visma-Lease A Bike has two new machines to ride on. In the high mountains, they can call upon a brand new, lightweight Cervélo R5, but for the majority of the race, they will be aboard a brand new, all-aero Cervélo S5.

Visually this bike is very similar to the outgoing model, something I went into when I first saw it at the Critérium du Dauphiné, but now while driving around various team hotels before the start of the race, I got a chance to spend some proper quality time with it, in the presence of some of the Cervélo engineering team.

From what I'm told - bear in mind the bike still has a 'prototype' sticker on it - this new machine is a full 6 watts faster than the old S5, a bike that came out fastest in our own wind tunnel testing at zero yaw (a block headwind).

The cockpit has a lot to do with this, sitting as it does at the leading edge of the machine, but there's also a higher bottom bracket shell, sharper cutoffs for the trailing edges, and wheels designed in system with the frameset.

The wheels, new Reserve 57/64 numbers, are allegedly three watts faster for the same weight as the older models, and these, I'm told, are key to adding higher yaw performance to complement the arrow-straight performance of the frameset.

Don't be fooled by the prototype sticker though, from what I can tell, these bikes are basically production models now in all but name.

Finally, while it may seem like we are chasing smaller and smaller gains with each new machine, I was informed by the Cervélo engineer that we "aren't even close" to the peak of aerodynamics yet, which is good news for my job at least.

• Tadej Pogačar's Colnago Y1Rs
• Remco Evenepoel's Specialized Tarmac SL8
• Matteo Jorgenson's unreleased Cervélo S5
• Geraint Thomas' last ever Tour de France bike
• Tim Merlier's sprint spec Tarmac

It's not really a visual departure from the old S5, so think of it more like evolution than revolution. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The front end has been given a protruding nose cone, much like that of the Specialized Tarmac SL8 and the Pinarello Dogma F (Image credit: Will Jones)

The downtube is sculpted around the front wheel. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The fork is a bayonet, hinged affair, which creates a far deeper effective head tube for greater aero benefits. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The new bars are slimmer, and are now a one-piece unit rather than a modular system. They are backwards compatible with the old model too. (Image credit: Will Jones)

Jonas is a smaller rider, and with the rise for his position being taken up to a greater degree by the stem his head tube is really rather short. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The thinner crossbar still manages to house a computer mount. I'm told the riders like to hold the tops with their thumbs through the gap. (Image credit: Will Jones)

I couldn't get to the bottom of what this coding means I'm afraid. It seems different from rider to rider and bike to bike. (Image credit: Will Jones)

Unlike the new R5, the brakes on the S5 are flat mount to maximise aerodynamic benefit. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The trailing edges of the tubes have sharper cutoffs. (Image credit: Will Jones)

And the bottom bracket area has been made higher. (Image credit: Will Jones)

It says prototype, but this is effectively a production model now. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The saddle cradle is now carbon to save some weight. (Image credit: Will Jones)

A Prologo Scratch M5 PAS saddle is Vingegaard's perch of choice. (Image credit: Will Jones)

The mechanics have taped over the rear adjustment dial to make it more aero. (Image credit: Will Jones)

A Wolf Tooth LoneWolf Aero Blade Chainguide, designed specifically for Cervelo, keeps the chain secure on his 1x setup. (Image credit: Will Jones)

Here it's fitted with a 52t single chainring up front, but we expect that to change from day to day depending on the profile of each stage. (Image credit: Will Jones)

And he's using 160mm cranks, which although slightly longer than the 155mm cranks we've seen him use in the past, are still significantly shorter than most of the peloton, who hover between 170 and 175mm. (Image credit: Will Jones)