Check out the Cervelo S5 that Mark Cavendish rode to four Tour de France stage wins

With Mark Cavendish having just retired from professional road racing, let’s take a look back at the Cervelo S5 that he rode to four Tour de France stage victories in 2016, including Stage 1 of the race which secured him his a day in the race leader's yellow jersey.

Pics above and below: Simon Wilkinson, simon [at] swpix.com

We all know by now that Cav finished his career with 35 Tour de France stage victories, beating Eddy Merckx’s record which stood for almost five decades.

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When it comes to aero road bikes, Cervelo has been at the heart of things from the very beginning, having launched the Soloist way back in 2002 (Cervelo reintroduced the Soloist to its range in 2022).

The S5 was unveiled in 2011 and quickly became both popular and influential with a seat tube that was sculpted around the rear wheel in much the same way as that of the brand’s time trial bike, along with flat stays and a bladed head tube.

Cervelo launched an updated version of the S5 for the 2015 model year, and it’s this version Cav was riding in the 2016 Tour de France. Cervelo said that this model was faster than the original – of course; when did a bike brand say anything else? – offering a drag reduction of the equivalent of 21.3 watts at 40km/h (25mph), a 35% stiffer head tube, a 17% stiffer fork and a 6% stiffer bottom bracket while maintaining the same weight. Bike industry PR has run on attention-grabbing statistics for years. If anywhere near correct, that reduction in drag was huge.

The brand developed its own aero-optimised carbon handlebar for the S5 that was said to be responsible for a significant reduction in drag, but Cav wasn’t using it. Instead, he was using a bar from Pro with electrical tape stuck over the logos. Too bad that the raised paint gave the game away.

Why not go for the new handlebar? Maybe Cav preferred the Pro bar's stiffness, shape, or ability to survive a crash. We don’t know for sure because when sponsored riders go off-piste, they don’t tend to talk about it.

Cav’s Dimension Data team sponsor Enve provided the carbon-fibre rims, the stems and, in most cases, the handlebars.

The rims were laced to DT Swiss 240 hubs and fitted with 25mm Continental tyres. That’s about as wide as pro riders would go back in 2016, although things have changed since then.

> Why wider tyres on road bikes are here to stay… and why they may get wider still

Cav used a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset – 9070 series. It has been updated twice since then.

> Check out our Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 groupset review 

This bike, which we saw in France just ahead of the Grand Départ, was fitted with Rotor’s 3D Power chainset with 170mm crank arms and noQ round chainrings. However, despite Rotor being a sponsor, Cav raced with a Shimano Dura-Ace chainset with the logos taped over.

Cav had Di2 satellite shifters fitted to the inside of the drops, allowing him to change gear more easily when sprinting.

A bit of bling came in the shape of a gold KMC chain and red Ceramic Speed jockey wheels.

Other details included a Fizik Arione saddle with aluminium rails (not carbon, as you might expect), with the Shimano Di2 junction box attached to the rails, well out of the airflow.

Cav ended up winning stages 1, 3, 6 and 14, more than any other rider in the race. With Steve Cummings and Chris Froome also winning stages, Froome winning GC (general classification) and Adam Yates coming out on top in the young rider classification, it was a big year for the Brits.

A new version of the S5 was released for 2019 and it was disc brake only, so the rim brake version that Cav rode marked the end of an era. 

Check out load more Bikes at Bedtime here.