24-year-old Eritrean pro cyclist Biniam Girmay just won the Tour de France green jersey, after a hat trick of impressive sprint stage victories in the first two weeks of racing. We caught up with Biniam’s glittery translucent green Cube Litening Aero C:68X TE for a closer look at the bike that he raced from the 6th stage of this year’s Tour. And to see the surprisingly affordable ultralight aero wheels he raced to those 3 TdF stage wins…
Custom green finishing touches for the 2024 Tour de France Green Jersy winner
After becoming the first black African to win a Grand Tour Stage two years ago at the Giro when we last featured Biniam’s bike, he set a bunch of new benchmarks at this year’s Tour. Starting with a Stage 3 bunch sprint, consistent finishes had him ride into the green jersey as the points leader two days later – the same day his “idol” Mark Cavendish nabbed a record-setting 35th Tour stage win.
The Intermarché-Wanty team had this shiny green Litening Aero ready for Biniam on July 4th.
And he went on to take two more bunch sprint wins on Stages 8 & 12 on the new bike fully kitted out in green.
Biniam’s Tour Green Cube Litening Aero TE C:68X road bike
For the most part Biniam’s bike is the same Cube Litening that we tested all the way back in 2019… even down to his finishing kit. Kind of surprising to see a 5-year-old aero road bike still winning in the Tour de France, right?
The bike has gotten a naming update to the Litening Aero after Cube introduced a lightweight climber’s bike under the similar Litening Air name a couple of summers ago.
Biniam’s aero road race bike gets the TE team edition label, and the C:68X mark of Cube’s top-tier hi-mod carbon layup.
But otherwise, we see the exact same frame, now with a sparkling dark green paint job revealing a light green crystalline pattern underneath. And the same extra-long 1-piece integrated carbon cockpit, now with forest green Prologo bar tape.
As much as the Cube Litening Aero features pretty much all of the latest aerodynamic road bike features, it still uses a shallower depth seatpost than most other aero bikes we see these days.
What’s new?
One new bit of kit on Biniam’s Litening since we last looked though, are these Look Keo Blade Ceramic pedals. Sure, they are in classic PMU Tour sprinter’s green. But more importantly, they are the more durable, more aero version introduced earlier this year with Biniam Girmay the face of the new pedals’ product launch campaign.
Overall, I’d rate this as one of the best-looking Le Tour Points Classification leaders bikes. The more subdued green of the current green jersey looks nicer that in years past. And Cube & Intermarché-Wanty have dialed that down eve further to create a paintjob that I could image many Litening Aero buyers would love as a pro replica.
Rounding out the build, Biniam’s Cube Litening Aeroaero gets a complete Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed groupset. And he has the Shimano powermeter crank, so no need for the powermeter version of the Look pedals.
Interestingly, it does not feature the CeramicSpeed Aero OSPW cage upgrade that we first spotted as a prototype on one of his bikes a couple seasons ago.
Lastly, Biniam is still racing with the Bryton S800 GPS cycling computer. But he gets a green sticker around his display to remind him to go fast when he looks down at his power numbers.
New ultralight Newmen Streem S.60/66 Vonoa wheels
One completely new bit on the bike are these all-new ultralight Newmen Streem Sprint 60/66 wheels with Vonoa carbon spokes. With a 60mm deep front and 66mm deep rear rim, the latest aerodynamic wheels from Newmen are 22mm hooked internal and weigh just 1355g. That’s a wild weight claim for such a deep aero wheelset (610g front / 750g rear). Even more so, considering that they are adequately stiff for one of the world’s best sprinters.
The stright-pull wheels are also surprisingly affordable, just 1690€ for the pair.
As usual for the team, Biniam is racing with one of the Intermarché-Wanty mechanic’s secret tricks. A tubeless valve is mounted inside the aero rim cavity, so they can inflate the tires with a removable valve extension, then take it away for smoother aerodynamics while racing.
The team was racing on 28mm Continenetal GP5000 TT tubeless tires, which likely measure up to 30mm wide on these new wide aero wheels.
One more smart detail on the Intermarché-Wanty wheels. The team is racing with Effetto Mariposa tubeless sealant, and the mechanics have placed labels on each wheel listing how much sealant was added and on what date, so they can easily stay on top of having fresh sealant in all wheels.
