Last winter when Cervélo debuted their dedicated R5-CX cross bike under Marianne Vos and Wout van Aert, it looked like you pretty much could only get one if you had won a few CX World Championships. But now, much like once-again World Champion Vos, you can now build up your own R5-CX frameset to be ready for the impending race season… #crossiscoming!
Cervélo R5-CX cyclocross race bike
Side note away from Cervélo for a second and back to that Jumbo-Visma team… Seriously, can we just take a moment to appreciate the 11 World & 12 National Championships between that pair. That’s a pretty solid line-up for a CX team that has effectively two athletes racing. 35-year-old Vos is an 8x CX World Champ, not to mention 3x Road World Champ, 2x Track World Champion & 2 Olympic Gold medals. And 27-year-old van Aert is no slouch with 3 CX Worlds and 5 Spring Classics wins on the road.
But yeah, Vos won her record-breaking 8th Cyclo-Cross World Championships on this bike last February – where we got an up-close look at her race build. And while she’ll move on to a custom-painted bike with plenty of well-deserved rainbows, there are two sparkly colors of R5-CX frameset you can buy and build now…
…plus a coming soon limited-edition Moon Drop Camo.
Tech details
For a quick refresher, the Cervelo R5-CX is a cyclo-cross race-adapted R5 with handling & tire clearance tuned for cross – specifically 11mm higher bottom bracket and design for 33mm cross tires with 10mm clearance in all directions. Interestingly, the real clearance is just 1mm less than the gravel Áspero – while the gravel bike is rated at a 700x46mm tire, plus 4mm clear in all directions.
It’s a fully-integrated lightweight carbon race bike with a frame weight claim of 850g, and a 360g fork. It is designed to work only with electronic drivetrains, but is 1x or 2x compatible.
The R5-CX also gets a threaded T47 bottom bracket for easier servicing. (It’s actually BBRight T47 which is kind of a new standard, but just means an inboard non-driveside T47 cup threaded into the BB on the left and an outboard driveside T47 cup threaded into the BB on the right. So just a mix & match to fit.)
And it gets a proprietary D-shaped carbon seatpost that was chosen so your saddle will NOT rotate in a crash. And it’s held in place with a conventional external seatpost clamp, plus a second clamp directly on the post to prevent slipping even after repeated flying remounts.
R5-CX race-proven geometry
The cross racing geometry was first developed specifically for 168cm-tall Marianne Vos (51cm) and 190cm-tall Wout van Aert (58cm). And then Cervelo filled in two sizes in between to fit a wider range of riders (54 &56cm).
It gets 15mm longer stays, an 11mm higher BB, and with it lower Stack height than the road-going R5… but just a 0.5-1° slacker headtube and the same frame Reach for a familiar racy feel.
Cervelo R5-CX – Pricing, availability & options
The Cervelo R5-CX is available as a frameset within the next couple of weeks from your local retailer for $5500 / 4700€ including the frame, fork, seatpost, headset, and 2-piece but integrated carbon stem & carbon handlebar. Get it in Frost white or Five black now, but unfortunately, it seems that the purple Moon Drop Camo won’t be available until after this cross season is already over.
As for complete bikes, there will be a $9000 /9700€ Force eTap AXS build and a $13,000€ Red eTap AXS build, both with power meters included and Reserve 44 tubeless carbon wheels. But those might wait until spring 2023, as well.
In the meantime, snatch up some black & white framesets and build your own cyclocross superbike in time for the race season to start very soon…
