“The lightest road bike on the market”: Cervélo finally unveils new R5, weighing just 5.97kg

In one of the least surprising bike launches of 2025, Cervélo has officially unveiled its new R5. Yes, that’s the climbing bike which this summer Visma-Lease a Bike were spotted with at the Tour de France and that Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rode to the yellow jersey in the women’s race — so no, nobody’s surprised, but at least now we have all the juicy details, spec, pricing and claims from Cervélo to share as the bike is made available to the public.

It has been a big year for Cervélo, the R5 update following its S5 aero bike getting a major overhaul earlier in the summer, while the brand also released its new Aspero-5 with some very bullish billing about it being the most aerodynamic gravel bike ever made.

There’s no shortage of confidence with the R5 either, Cervélo clear everything is designed “to compete at the highest levels of professional cycling”. That sort of marketing is, admittedly, easier to pull off when you can call on someone like Ferrand-Prévot winning two stages and the overall at the Tour de France Femmes aboard your new bike just one month ago.

It is worth noting that, despite Visma-Lease a Bike showing off their new R5 to us at the start of the Tour in Lille, a certain Jonas Vingegaard opted — like Tadej Pogačar on his Y1Rs — to complete the race exclusively (time trial miles aside) on his S5 aero bike, even in the high mountains and on the toughest climbing stages, one of this year’s pro cycling trends seemingly the re-emergence of the re-emergence of the aero bike.

> Is ‘one bike to rule them all’ dead? Why the latest wave of dedicated aero bikes could be leaving superlight all-round race bikes behind

At 5.97kg in SRAM Red and Shimano Dura-Ace builds, the new R5 is 800g below the UCI’s weight limit or, in Cervélo’s words “incredibly light” and “the lightest road bike on the market” for any amateurs who don’t have to bulk their ride up to keep UCI commissaires happy.  

We’ll have to report back once we have ridden the R5 for ourselves but, again, the brand is confident it has not lost any stiffness in achieving such a featherweight mark and “accelerates rapidly” and enables “confident and predictable” descending.

That 5.97kg figure is in a size 56 too, with the frame weighing 651g and the fork 298g. Cervélo has shaved off 100g here, but the main weight savings come from its attention everywhere else which has apparently meant “a total weight reduction of 326g from all Cervélo components”. For context, 5.97kg is lighter even than Specialized’s S-Works Aethos, even if that rival has claimed weights of 585g frame and 270g fork in the same size 56, backing up Cervélo’s statement about making plenty of weight savings elsewhere.

Scott might have something to say about the “lightest road bike on the market” claim, its Addict RC in November unveiled with a claimed weight of 5.9kg or 640g for the frame, however that was for a size medium which would be a 54cm, rather than the 56cm weights cited by Cervélo. Getting bike brands to agree on weight comparisons is probably an impossible task, so let’s just say all of the above are bloody light.

Around half of Cervélo’s component weight-saving figure of 326g comes from the new HB18 one-piece cockpit, which has apparently saved 150g and two whole watts versus the previous R5. More significant than saving two watts however is the fact the new bar system is UCI-legal, even with the governing body’s controversial incoming bar width regulations.

One area of concern with one-piece bar/stem systems can be fit, as they tend to be less adjustable than traditional set-ups, however Cervélo says there are 15 different size combinations and customers can go through an authorised retailer to “help you get the right size, for no additional cost”.

Those super skinny seatstays are about as thin as we’ve seen (and the UCI will allows) and, while it may look like the old design, we were told at the Tour de France that the seatpost is a new design too.

The new R5 comes with a Reserve 34 | 37 wheelset, saving 60g on the previous edition, unsurprisingly Cervélo sticking to the classic bike launch line that these are as strong and stiff as the old ones, just lighter.

In the UK the frameset will set you back £5,000, the R5 priced at £8,500 with SRAM Force AXS or Shimano Ultegra Di2, rising to £11,000 with SRAM Red XPLR AXS 1 or Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, and £11,500 with SRAM Red AXS.

The black and bronze colourscheme is available on all builds, or there’s a black and silver available for Ultegra, Force or frameset buyers. There are six sizes — 48, 51, 54, 56, 58 and 61 — the Ultegra, Dura-Ace and Red XPLR AXS 1 builds coming with a 4iiii Precision Pro power meter.

All models come with Vittoria Corsa Pro SpeedTLR G2.0 26mm tyres, although Cervélo says the bottom bracket drop has seen a slight change to account for 29mm tyres, the width used by the Visma-Lease a Bike pros.

Check out full details on Cervélo’s website.