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This month the DARE Velocity Ace-AFO (VA-AFO) hit’s the market available for general sale. If the brand name DARE isn’t ringing any bells, this Tour de France bike is the one that Uno-X used this year.
Just to further jog your memory, in stage 8 the first attack came just after the flag dropped. Three riders went up the road in a breakaway. Thirty kilometers later, as the road turned into a descent, Uno-X Mobility rider Jonas Abrahamsen whittled that down to a solo move.
While sporting the climbers jersey, Abrahamson managed to stay away for roughly another 135 km before eventually getting dragged back. At that point the commentary reported the Norwegian rider spent 489 km, out of 1200 km covered, off the front of the peloton.
The bike that was under him throughout that performance was the, at the time, unreleased DARE Velocity Ace-AFO. It’s a seemingly endangered breed of machine. As advanced materials allow low weight to claw back much of the gains from aero in the last few years, there are very few pure aero bikes out there.
As with many bikes in this category, the visual profile of the DARE Velocity Ace-AFO seems to follow the rule book more than the artist’s hand. UCI rules dictate max tube depth and the Velocity Ace-AFO obviously takes advantage.
The result is something a bit like a mashup of the Orbea Orca Aero, the Cervelo S5, and the Simplon Pride. You can see touches of the integrated bar and stem from both Cervelo and Simplon plus the seat tube shape of the Orbea. Up front the deep headtube, and wide fork, of the Simplon and the Orbea are on display.
The product of all this optimization is significant according to DARE. In comparison to the 2023 DARE VSRu, claimed savings are 5.2 watts at 35 km/h and 11.4 watts at 45 km/h. Despite that, there’s no doubt many fans of traditional shapes aren’t giving this a second thought.
If you aren’t looking for traditional though, there’s choice here. The bike sells as a chassis, similar to an Enve bike, and includes the “V:C1 Aero cockpit, V:P1 Aero seatpost, V:B1, V:B2 Aero bottle cage, and CeramicSpeed SLT headset bearing.” That leaves specifics up to you.
Colors on offer are also wide open. The Swift Black frameset sells for a retail price of $5,200 while the special edition Silver Lightning frameset comes in a bit higher at $5,580. If neither of those fit the bill for you, there’s also MYDARE custom colors. No matter the color, every frame uses the same Toray T1100G and M46X carbon. No weight is given.
Despite the US MSRP reporting, good luck for those reading from the US. This latest Tour de France bike only sells through dealers and there are none listed in North America.
For more info, check out the DARE bikes website.
