It has been widespread data for a while now that Bora Hansgrohe could be welcoming Purple Bull on board as a brand new key sponsor simply earlier than the Tour de France. The Purple Bull Bora Hansgrohe sponsor launch is going down this week within the run-up to the Tour kicking off on Saturday and contains the creation of a brand new U23 workforce.
New sponsors usually imply package design adjustments, and sponsors as huge as behemoth Purple Bull proper earlier than the world’s largest bike race undoubtedly imply new package and bike designs.
Cyclingnews has unique entry to pictures of the brand new Bora Hansgrohe race bike forward of the race. The bike’s official identify is, await it, deep breath, S-Works Tarmac SL8 LTD: Purple Bull-BORA-Hansgrohe Version.
If you wish to be taught concerning the different bikes and tools within the Tour, head to our Tour de France bikes information for a full breakdown of each workforce’s machines.
In essence, this bike is a custom-painted S-Works Tarmac SL8 in a Purple Bull / Bora color scheme that is referred to as ‘Sticker Slap’. It is a huge departure from the inexperienced color scheme we’re used to seeing at Bora and has been designed by Tom Briggs, the Lead Idea Graphic Designer at Specialised.
The bike connected press launch states that this explicit mannequin is an ‘actual reproduction of the bike the workforce will on the 2024 Tour de France’ It will likely be restricted to 500 individually numbered bikes worldwide. Worth-wise, the brand new mannequin will set you again $16,500 if you would like one (take a look at our piece on how a lot Tour de France bikes price for extra eye-watering value tags). We hope that the bike, not less than, comes with a complimentary can of Purple Bull or two.
At first look it is simple to dismiss the bike as merely ‘pearl white, with Purple Bull color accents’ however upon closure inspection, there are certainly dozens of smaller graphics hiding in plain sight. The design is made up of ‘S-Works’ and ‘Bora Hansgrohe’ and repeats. That is the ‘Sticker Slap’ design which Lead Designer Briggs expanded on;
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“The design was impressed by youth tradition and 90’s skateboarding aesthetics. The clustering of logos on boards and different objects within the type of stickers confirmed authenticity and connectedness to one thing counter-culture.”
We aren’t consultants on Skateboard tradition right here at Cyclingnews, nevertheless it appears skateboard stickers shaped part of the artwork and tradition across the sport again then. Specialised as a model has its headquarters in California the place numerous surf and skateboard tradition initially flourished and celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this 12 months, so will definitely have lived by means of a few of these instances. The model mentions this and its ‘want to maintain innovating’ within the bikes press materials.
The bike’s spec naturally is a high one. It is fitted with the most recent Sram Purple AXS groupset and Hammerhead Karoo pc, Roval’s Rapide CLX II Workforce wheels that are additionally restricted to 1500 units. Then there’s the Roval Rapide cockpit and Specialised Turbo cotton tyres in addition. Specialised additionally claims a measurement 56cm bike weighs in at 6.66kg.
We’ll quickly see if workforce chief Primoz Roglic pilots the brand new bike to success within the Tour. 500 bikes worldwide make this machine a uncommon one, however additionally they symbolize a extremely public big-money sponsor coming into the highway biking world in a transfer which ought to be good for the Bora Hansgrohe workforce and sport.
