It's been common knowledge for some time now that Bora Hansgrohe would be welcoming Red Bull on board as a new key sponsor just before the Tour de France. The Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe sponsor launch is taking place this week in the run-up to the Tour kicking off on Saturday and includes the creation of a new U23 team.
New sponsors generally mean kit design changes, and sponsors as big as behemoth Red Bull right before the world's biggest bike race definitely mean new kit and bike designs.
Cyclingnews has exclusive access to shots of the new Bora Hansgrohe race bike ahead of the race. The bike's official name is, wait for it, deep breath, S-Works Tarmac SL8 LTD: Red Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe Edition.
If you want to learn about the other bikes and equipment in the Tour, head to our Tour de France bikes guide for a full breakdown of every team's machines.
In essence, this bike is a custom-painted S-Works Tarmac SL8 in a Red Bull / Bora colour scheme that's called 'Sticker Slap'. It's a big departure from the green colour scheme we are used to seeing at Bora and has been designed by Tom Briggs, the Lead Concept Graphic Designer at Specialized.
The bike attached press release states that this particular model is an 'exact replica of the bike the team will at the 2024 Tour de France' It will be limited to 500 individually numbered bikes worldwide. Price-wise, the new model will set you back $16,500 if you want one (check out our piece on how much Tour de France bikes cost for more eye-watering price tags). We hope that the bike, at least, comes with a complimentary can of Red Bull or two.
At first glance it's easy to dismiss the bike as simply 'pearl white, with Red Bull colour accents' but upon closure inspection, there are indeed dozens of smaller graphics hiding in plain sight. The design is made up of 'S-Works' and 'Bora Hansgrohe' and repeats. This is the 'Sticker Slap' design which Lead Designer Briggs expanded on;
"The design was inspired by youth culture and 90’s skateboarding aesthetics. The clustering of logos on boards and other objects in the form of stickers showed authenticity and connectedness to something counter-culture."
We aren't experts on Skateboard culture here at Cyclingnews, but it seems skateboard stickers formed a part of the art and culture around the sport back then. Specialized as a brand has its headquarters in California where a lot of surf and skateboard culture originally flourished and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, so will certainly have lived through some of these times. The brand mentions this and its 'desire to keep innovating' in the bikes press material.
The bike's spec naturally is a top one. It's fitted with the latest Sram Red AXS groupset and Hammerhead Karoo computer, Roval’s Rapide CLX II Team wheels which are also limited to 1500 sets. Then there's the Roval Rapide cockpit and Specialized Turbo cotton tyres to boot. Specialized also claims a size 56cm bike weighs in at 6.66kg.
We will soon see if team leader Primoz Roglic pilots the new bike to success in the Tour. 500 bikes worldwide make this machine a rare one, but they also represent a highly public big-money sponsor entering the road cycling world in a move which should be good for the Bora Hansgrohe team and sport.
