Tadej Pogačar has turned in some pretty good results with the current Colnago V3Rs, among them the past two Tours de France, but now he has a new V4R Prototipo road bike at his disposal, as well. The new race-ready prototype that the UAE team has at its disposal starting this weekend, shares many similarities with Colnago’s single all-rounder road racing bike, but it does hint at improved aerodynamics on the outside and all-new construction inside the carbon…
Colnago Prototipo prototype V4R road bike
While many companies build separate climbers’ bikes and aero road bikes at the top of their line, Colnago focused on one universal road bike for its pro racers – the current V3Rs. Revamped with disc brakes and subtly tweaked aerodynamics back in 2019, it looks like there’s a new version in the works…
Colnago is calling it the Prototipo, which is simply prototype in Italian, but my money is on it ultimately being dubbed the new V4R, a single all-rounder lightweight climber & aero road bike, all-in-one.
The new bike is still in the prototype stage, with Colnago officially giving it to their UAE Team Emirates riders to start racing this weekend, as they verify the final carbon layup that will make up the production bikes. In all likelihood though, everything on the outside will stay the same, and it will probably get an official announcement at the V4R this summer, perhaps as early as the start of the Tour de France which starts in just 3 weeks. What we do know is it has not yet made it onto the UCI’s approved frame list yet (interestingly Colnago hasn’t had a new frame approved since the current V3Rs.)
Colnago prototype development
Colnago says the team has already helped them refine individual elements of the bike, and even its layup by sticking together pieces of the new V4R Prototipo into their tube-to-tube C68 carbon. Even though the new V4R Prototipo will be a monocoque carbon production bike like its predecessors for the best balance of lightweight & stiffness, the C-series construction allowed them to iterate and refine individual elements separately, on an accelerated development schedule.