2024's Top 5 BEST Road Bikes | Race Bike Of The Year 2024

Our 2024 Race Bike Of The Year Awards are here! We tested nine of the hottest high-end bikes on the market to crown our winner. We had five categories, best climbing bike, best value race bike, best aero bike and our overall best race bike. The Look 795 Blade RS won our best aero bike award, the Merida Scultura 9000 topped our best value category, the Giant TCR Advanced SL 0 took the best climbing title, the Enve Melee got us all aquiver so is deemed the most desirable bike on test. And now, drumroll please... Cycling Weekly's 2024 Race Bike of the Year is the Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8. What do you think of the winners, and which would you put on your wishlist?

00:00 - Intro
00:33 - Best Aero Race Bike
04:39 - Best Value Race Bike
09:41 - Best Climbing Bike
15:13 - Most Desirable Race Bike
19:12 - Race Bike of the Year

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[cyclingweekly]

*Correction - The Van Rysel which Joe had on test retails for £5, 500.

[ronlosa]

Pretty good video. My only gripe would be the Best Value Category. $7k is not a value for 90% of riders, unless you're a racer with no sponsorship.

[dannyjbr]

Why is the Merida such a big shock? The value for money over the past few years has been fantastic.

[lukepowell]

Gotta say I have been super impressed by Joe as a presenter. I love that he's regularly throwing in tasty details and specs that have been harder to track down on my own. I also appreciate his insights on the geometry of the bikes and how it relates to the experience. Very knowledgeable and well articulated. I really enjoyed his review of the new SRAM Red groupset as well. Nice details that I'm not seeing other places.

[massimoserafini]

This kid is quickly becoming one of my favorite presenters. 👍🏻

[Resoluteofficial]

My S-Works SL8 thanks you for your service

[jasonbanales]

Can you list all the bikes you tested?

[eduardoschneider]

what about brands like Cube or Rose? did you condider them? Cube hast the best climbing bike but everyone ignored it.

[stevebolt]

sorry but when the best value bike is £6k plus I lose interest 😢

[chemboy]

I'm not even going to read the other comments... I can only imagine. I agonized for weeks over a Tarmac SL8 and an S-Works Aethos. Ultimately it came down to me being a 60 year old and not a racer, so the Aethos was my choice. No regrets . Many people will be dismissive of the Spesh, but they make an absolutely GREAT bike. I agree with the choice and the hot take at the end.

[matts]

Cannondale Evo 2 at $5, 500 is the best-value all-rounder race bike.

[glennicol]

For most of the population a Gusto Evo Cobra which was recently raced in Tour of Slovenia would be enough and in 105 only cost around 1600$US or 2500$ with DI2

[jbudrfs]

I feel like somehow in all of these tests people never mention the Aethos but riders who want to ride the best feeling bike own one. It really was a game changer but probably doesn't get enough credit.

[monkeays]

The TCR is by far the best all round bike on the market

[chrisdavis]

Are we not confusing pure aero bikes with all-rounders by mentioning how well they climb? In my case, I use my aero bike for the flats for maximum speed. Or is that just where we are now with the new designs? Hmmm

[petersouthernboy]

My local Specialized Dealer sold every S-Works SL-8 they’ve gotten in.

[Mattyjayw]

Can we have a correction please. The tcr geometry wasn’t brought over from MTB, it was a design and developed by the late great Mike Burrows. Who also designed the iconic Lotus bike that Chris Boardman rode to Olympic glory in 92. Apologies if someone else has already mentioned this.

[StopTheRot]

I’ve ridden the SL8 for 6 months now, and the stiffness matches the frame weight. By which I mean, it’s far too flexible. Carbon is not a magic material: less weight means less carbon. It’s really not stiff enough. I reckon the pros MUST use the Specialized version.

[cryptobond]

The Best Road Bike in 2024 is a Vintage Steel Reynolds 531c for 1/10 the price.
Weighing under 10kg.

This is why vintage road bikes are coming back, easy to service, easy to repair yourself, decent set of carbon wheels your just as fast as 11k Grand Bike.

[MichaelWilliams-ivdj]

I can’t get any bike off the showroom to work with my fit coordinates. Maybe the ENVE would work, but I think I am best off building my bikes from a bare frame.