What bikes are retired road pro Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso riding these days? Based on each of their Instagram feeds, the A on the headtube of the masked bike they have been leaking, and the teasingly named new @Abikesofficial company account… the two look set to debut an all-new A _ _ _ _ Bikes brand next Tuesday with a new road bike…
UPDATE: The bikes now have a name – Aurum – and we have the full details here!
Contador & Basso’s new A _ _ _ _ Bikes road bike brand
Both ex-pros shared this carbon road bike teaser today, giving us a moody look at one black and one blue road bike, teasing an official reveal coming soon on September 29th – next Tuesday. A quick dive into both Basso’s & Contador’s Instagram profiles, and it looks like they’ve been riding the same road bike covered in various camouflaging stripes since January of this year. They look to be the same as what’s in this video teaser as far as we can tell.
So what do we know about A Bikes?
A few things have remained clear and constant over the last nine months’ time: traditional road shaping, disc brakes, smooth roads, crazy premium bike builds (they are ex-champions, after all), that A headbadge, and one more thing on the headtube…
At first the bike looked to feature fully internal cable routing, but at the top of the headtube is a cable port unlike what we are used to seeing on recent road bikes. The cables appear to remain external, in front of the headset, but then go straight down into the frame. It’s unclear how much exposed cable this will really need to allow for regular bar rotation, but it certainly is a tidy-looking solution that seems to retain standard cockpit compatibility.
Oh, and no surprise… but the bike looks light. Contador hung his size 54cm bike with a Dura-Ace Di2 group, 4iiii power meter, Lightweight wheels/bar/stem/seatpost, Continental Competition tires, and carbon railed Bontrager saddle on a home travel scale for a complete weight of 6.19kg (13.6lb).
Yeah, that sub-UCI build is going to cost you!
Speaking of the UCI, the current list of UCI-approved frames does not include any new five-letter bike brand names starting with A that we’ve never heard of. So, it’s unclear if this new A _ _ _ _ Bikes frameset will be approved for racing, even if you build it up over 6.8kg.
As for the rest of the details, we’ll have to wait until Tuesday. That is unless Basso or Contador reveal even more over social media in the meantime…
Update: Basso & Contador’s first all-new road bike, the Aurum Magma has now been revealed. And it is every bit as premium as we expected!
