Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig’s Lapierre Xelius SL strikes the eye with lightning paint scheme and pro

Danish rider goes for World Championships glory on electrifying custom Xelius road bike

This competition is now closed

By Oscar Huckle

Published: August 12, 2023 at 4:00 pm

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will ride this custom Lapierre Xelius SL at tomorrow’s UCI World Champion Women’s 154km road race in Glasgow, Scotland.

Released in 2021, the third-generation Xelius SL is the French brand’s all-round road bike. It’s inspired by the Aircode DRS, the brand’s aero road bike with improved aerodynamics, cleaner cable routing and more aggressive geometry.

Easily the most striking feature of the frame is its triple-triangle-esque design, where the seatstays begin 9cm in front of the junction of top tube and seatstay, bypassing the seat tube.

Lapierre calls this the ‘3D Tubular Concept’ and claims improved compliance because vibrations can be dispersed via the top tube, in tandem with the skinny 27.2mm-diameter seatpost.

Let’s not beat around the bush – you’re all here for what is possibly the most striking paintjob this season.

The women’s cycling champion has her own bespoke design with nods to her Danish heritage and spirited personality.

The metallic red frame fades into a gloss maroon at the rear end and base of the fork blades. Contrasting white Lapierre branding and sponsor graphics stand out from the red backdrop.

Airbrushed white and blue lightning bolts explode from the head tube into the down tube, top tube and fork blades. This will have been a seriously labour-intensive job for the sprayer, requiring tons of masking.

On the top face of the top tube is a graphic with Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, emerging from a cloud with a lightning strike underneath it. Forget a boring old name sticker, Ludwig has her full name painted around the graphic.

Another neat touch is the Danish flag, crafted to resemble a Viking sword with lightning emanating from its sharp blade in front of the integrated seat-clamp wedge.

Lapierre says the graphic is also in reference to Ludwig’s first title, when she became Danish champion in 2022.

Fittingly for a pro, the bike wears a top-flight Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset with a matching power meter.

The Japanese brand is also on wheel duties with its Dura-Ace C50s. The carbon wheels are claimed to weigh 1,532g and sport a conservative 21mm internal rim width.

Continental Grand Prix GP5000 S TR tyres are set up tubeless on the wheels, although the width is curiously blacked out in permanent marker. Given the Xelius SL has a tyre clearance of up to 32mm, we suspect they are 28mm rather than 25, otherwise there would be a cavernous amount of room around them.

The own-brand, integrated bar-stem completely hides the Di2 wires and hoses, which are then fed through a proprietary Acros headset cover.

This is an interesting spec choice because off-the-shelf Xelius SL bikes come with a separate bar and stem combo, with the exception of the hard-to-come-by Symbiosis Edition.

The Lapierre Combo UD Carbon bar-stem is also only available in 40 and 42cm widths and we’re led to believe Ludwig is running a narrower 38cm bar.

A Prologo Dimension 143 saddle is installed on the own-brand, inline carbon seatpost and is mounted quite far forward so Ludwig can achieve an aggressive position. Prologo also supplies the matching black Onetouch Neutro handlebar tape.

The build is rounded out with Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 pedals, Elite bottle cages and a K-Edge computer mount.

Technical writer

Oscar Huckle is a technical writer at BikeRadar. He has been an avid cyclist since his teenage years, initially catching the road cycling bug and riding for a local club. He’s since been indoctrinated into gravel riding and more recently has taken to the dark art of mountain biking. His favourite rides are epic road or gravel routes, and he has also caught the bikepacking bug hard after completing the King Alfred’s Way and West Kernow Way. Oscar has a BA degree in English Literature and Film Studies and has close to a decade of cycling industry experience, initially working in a variety of roles at Evans Cycles before joining Carbon Bike Repair. He is particularly fond of workshop tool exotica and is a proponent of Campagnolo groupsets. Oscar prefers lightweight road and gravel frames with simple tube shapes, rather than the latest trend for aerodynamics and full integration. He is obsessed with keeping up to date with all the latest tech, is fixated with the smallest details and is known for his unique opinions.

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