Today saw the only individual time trial at the 2026 Tour de France, and here’s one of the Colnago TT2 bikes that race leader Tadej Pogačar hopes will propel him to overall victory.
Remco Evenepoel, who is placed second in the general classification, won the time trial and clawed back 28secs from Pogačar, but the Slovenian is still 4:32mins ahead overall, and everyone knows that, barring accidents, he is almost certain to join the elite club of five-time Tour de France winners this weekend… But we’re here to talk about the bike.
This is actually Pogačar’s spare bike – he was out on his race bike when roving reporter Ryan swung by the team bus… which is entirely reasonable in the circumstances. He’s got things going on.
At the heart of things is the new Colnago TT2. Pogačar rode a prototype of this bike at the Tour de Romandie back at the end of April. The final version will be made available to the dealer network starting from the end of September.
Colnago says that, compared with Colnago’s TT1, the TT2 has a “focus on a significant reduction in overall weight, while maintaining—or where possible, slightly improving—its aerodynamic performance”.
The total weight of the frame, fork, and seatpost is said to have been reduced by 550g.
“The goal is to deliver an even higher-performing platform for athletes, especially in light of the latest trends in time trial racing: courses increasingly feature climbing sections or technical segments requiring repeated accelerations,” says Colnago.
Although only 26.1km, today’s time trial featured about 500m of elevation gain, so maybe Pogačar was particularly grateful for that weight reduction.
In terms of aero performance, Colnago says that the TT2 achieves approximately 2 watts of savings at 50km/h (31.1mph), measured as a weighted average across yaw angles. That’s tiny, but it’s the weight advantage that it’s all about.
Pogačar has an Enve SES Pro wheel up front and an SES Disc Pro at the rear, both logoed up in yellow to match his leader’s jersey.
The tyres are Continental Grand Prix 5000 TT TR (Tubeless Ready).
Pogačar uses custom ENVE aero extensions on his time trial bike. Don’t be misled by the Richard Mille logos on the armrests; that’s the luxury watch brand that sponsors UAE Team Emirates XRG.
The team uses Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets and Pogačar has shifters on both the base bar and at the end of the aero extensions.
The computer mount sits between the extensions so that Pogačar can see the display without moving his head.
The chainring isn’t from Shimano; it’s a carbon-fibre option from Carbon-Ti. We reckon it’s a 64T. Animal though he is, even Pogačar didn’t spend all of his time in a 64 x 11 gear, though. As well as the need for large gears, the reason for using such a massive chainring is for drivetrain efficiency when in the most frequently used gears in the middle of the cassette.
What’s that saddle? Fizik sponsors UAE Team Emirates XRG, and that looks very much like an Aeris Long Distance R1 Light or a Transiro Aeris Long Distance R1, but free of any logos. That’s odd. Brands usually like their logos over everything used by any pro riders, never mind Pogačar.
Granted, there are five stages to go, three of them mountainous, but Pogačar is home and hosed, isn’t he?
