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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Cervelo's New R5 VWD Road Bike


IN THE DAYS leading up to the world’s biggest bike show, Eurobike, taking place this week in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Bicycling.com got an advance look at Cervelo’s newest offering, the 2012 Cervelo R5 VWD.

First off, the VWD stands for Vroomen White Design, a company within Cervelo that handles all the design and engineering used in the bikes. Second, a quick run-down of Cervelo’s main lines of road bikes: the P series, the time-trial bikes; the S series, the aero road bikes; and the R series, which are more traditional-looking road bikes optimized for maximum stiffness and low weight.

And in case you somehow missed it, at this year’s Tour de France team Garmin-Cervelo won stages on each of Cervelo’s three major platforms—on the P series (the Stage 2 team time trial); on the R series (Tyler Farrar’s sprint victory on the Fourth of July), and on the S series (Thor Hushovd’s two individual stage wins). What’s more, Tom Danielson, the team’s top climber and the highest-placed American in the general classification, rode into the top 10 overall on his matte-black Cervelo R5 CA.


The VWD is for Vroomen White Design. (Daniel McMahon)

So where does the new VWD fit in?


As with all R series bikes the seat stays are very thin, and make for a super-plush ride. (Daniel McMahon)

“This is one of the more traditional bikes, and it’s an incredible standard bike,” said Cervelo’s Mark Riedy. “Some have called the R5 VWD a climbing bike, but it’s not a climbing bike; it’s an all-around traditional road bike. It has a lot of features that make it very light but also quite comfortable.

“And things like BBright and some other aspects of the design make it quite stiff in the right places.”


The VWD has a tall head tube, which debuted with the R5 CA. (Daniel McMahon)

Riedy said the VWD should compete with the Specialized Tarmac, Trek Madone, and similar road bikes.

(Continued)

Source: Bicycling Magazine

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