Lapierre has been the stalwart bike sponsor of the Française des Jeux cycling team since 2002, and on Wednesday the French bike brand got to celebrate a Giro d’Italia stage win thanks to Arnaud Démare who’s racing with Groupama-FDJ colors.
Démare piloted Lapierre’s Airdcode DRS with a complete Shimano build, Continental tubeless tires, and Lapierre’s new integrated cockpit.
Like so many Shimano bikes in the WorldTour right now, Démare’s machine has a complete 12-speed Shimano Dura-Ace 9250 group — but with a direct mount in place of the derailleur hanger and a 9150 crank with power meter.
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Lapierre is now on its third iteration of the Aircode aero bike, which has all the internal integration common in WorldTour race bikes. Lapierre’s signature seatstay design carries forward, but in a more subtle design than on its Xelius SL road bike.
Démare has 12-speed 54/40 rings on his 11-speed crank, as Shimano continues to struggle to deliver the new 12-speed power meter. The other change from a stock configuration is the derailleur direct mount that replaces the top knuckle of the rear derailleur and the frame’s derailleur hanger.
Lapierre has an integrated magnet for the Shimano power meter.
Well before Trek launched its IsoSpeed decoupler, Lapierre had this frame design where the seatstays wrap around the seat tube and connect to the top tube.
Continental’s latest Grand Prix 5000S TR tires wrap Shimano’s new tubeless C50 wheels, which have a 21mm internal width — the widest Shimano has gone with road wheels.
Lapierre has a new integrated aero cockpit.
The latest Aircode gets a 1.5-inch lower headset bearing.
Lapierre and FDJ have one of the oldest relationships in the pro peloton.
The clean front end of Démare’s bike, with a K-Edge computer mount bolted under the bar.
A Prologo Nago X10 is Démare’s perch of choice.