A closer look at Adam Yates' Colnago V4Rs that propelled him to the first Tour de France stage win of 2023

Team UAE Emirates stormed into yellow on stage one of this year's Tour de France, but perhaps not with the rider we expected. Here's a closer look at the Colnago V4Rs that Adam Yates rode to victory. 

The Colnago V4Rs is the only bike Team UAE Emirates use for road stages, and so the frame is shared between sprinters such as Matteo Trentin and climbers such as Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates. Despite the aero features such as Kamm tail tube profiles, the frame is competitively light at just 798 grams.

> Which Tour de France superbike is the best? Pinarello vs Specialized vs Colnago vs Cervelo

2023 has seen quite the shakeup for Yates' team. Gone are the Campagnolo groupsets and wheels, and in their place is Shimano Dura-Ace and Enve componentry. Predictably the groupset is the latest 12-speed Shimano R9200 Dura-Ace, and we'll get to the bars, chainrings and disc brakes further down the page.

@colnagoworld

Yates appears to opt for 54/40T chainrings most often, and an 11/34T cassette at the back. From what we've seen, this is by far the most common choice for riders using Shimano.

However, since seeing this bike we've noticed that CarbonTi's X-Carboring Evo carbon chainrings (as shown on Pogacar's bike above) have been making more and more appearances on Team UAE bikes, including on Adam Yates' stage-winning bike.

> How to make your bike lighter — save a kilo or more from your road or gravel bike with these affordable upgrades

The 170mm cranks are paired with this 54T ring with aluminium teeth, carbon body and titanium elements which weighs in at 112g. That sounds pretty impressive, until you realise that the Dura-Ace ring weighs just 4 grams more at 116 grams. Let's hope it shifts just as well!

> Best road bike tyres 2023 — ride faster and further with fewer punctures

The wheels in question are Enve's SES 4.5 wheels (56mm deep rear/50mm deep at the front) which have a claimed weight of 1,452g.

Wheels have been getting wider and wider in recent ywars, and these follow that trend. In fact, these have a monstrous internal rim width of 25mm! That means that Enve doesn't recommend these wheels for any tyres narrower than 27mm. 

Yates is indeed using tyres larger than 27mm; 28mm, in fact. UAE Team Emirates is sponsored by Continental tyres, and Yates opts for the GP5000 S TR set up tubeless.

At the front end, we're seeing a real mix of components between the UAE riders. Some are opting for the Colnago CC.01 integrated cockpit, others this two-piece arrangement from Enve. Pogacar is using a very good-looking, unreleased Enve SES Aero road one-piece handlebar.

Mounted to all of them are Wahoo cycle computers, and Yates opts for the latest Wahoo Roam at the end of his 130mm-long stem. The Enve stem seamlessly integrates with the V4Rs frame thanks to a custom 3D-printed headset cap.

An Instagram post from Enve states that the rest of us will be able to purchase the new bar "later this year", and no doubt it will carry a sizeable price tag. Have a guess at what you think it will cost in the comments section below!

Another exciting point is that the post says that this is the first product developed in conjunction with the UAE team. Does that mean that more are on the way?

> Tour de France 2023: From Bilbao to Paris, our stage-by-stage guide to cycling’s biggest race

Hiding underneath the Colnago own-brand bar tape is a Shimano sprint shifter, allowing easy access to gear changes while in the drops.

Despite the name 'sprint shifters', Yates proves that the additional buttons aren't just for the heavy hitters of the bunch finishes, and rather for anyone who wants the additional shifting option when riding in the drops.

In what is presumably an effort to save more weight, the UAE team have specced seatposts from Darimo. The boutique carbon specialists confirmed this in social media posts, and has been supplying UAE with its seatposts throughout the 2023 season. 

A carbon cup cradles the saddle rails, which are then held down using two saddles yokes and screws. These attach to a metal rod that goes right the way through, something you won't find on the V4RS seatpost.

> Best road bike saddles 2023 — here are the top bike seat picks for every budget

Yates perches on a 153mm wide, carbon railed, short nose Prologo Space Dimension saddle.

Dura-Ace pedals adorn all the UAE bikes that we spotted, but one thing that isn't Shimano is the brake rotors. These come from the boutique Italian brand CarbonTi, and as the name suggests have semi-floating carbon carriers, a steel braking surface and titanium rivets to hold them together. Yates' rotors measured 160mm at the front and 140mm at the rear.

The Ultralight X-Rotor SteelCarbon 3 brake discs aren't exactly a completely new creation. These are in fact the third generation and have been on weight weenie mountain bike riders' wishlists for quite some time.

You can expect to see more and more of these popping up on road bikes now that CarbonTi have released their adaptors to take the six-bolt rotors to direct mount. The edge of the disc also has more rounded edges to please the UCI.

CarbonTi also provides the thru axles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a World Tour team is using aftermarket thru-axles in the pro peloton. The thru axles in question are the X-Lock Evo thru-axles, which weigh in at 23g for the front one and 30g for the rear.

> Check out the bikes ridden to every 2023 Tour de France stage victory

Elite Leggera carbon bottle cages complete the build, which weighs in at a not-ever-so-light 7.6kg - although that is with a cycle computer and empty bottles mounted.

Even so, that means that despite the weight-saving measures Yates' bike is a good few hundred grams over the UCI weight limit of 6.8kg. It doesn't seem to have slowed him down yet though!

Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

Do you rate Yates' modifications? Let us know in the comments section below...