TDF 2023: The Lapierre Bike of Groupama – FDJ, the First Bike Designed with AI

Throughout the 21 stages of the 2023 Tour de France, and the 8 stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, the riders of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team and the FDJSUEZ women’s team will ride the Xelius SL 10.0 Symbiosis Edition, the most versatile performance bike in Lapierre’s road range.

Always in search of innovation, Lapierre stands out at the 2023 Tour de France with the launch of a new Xelius SL created in collaboration with Obvious, a trio of artists who use Artificial Intelligence to generate works on various media, such as a car or an NFT. Very much in vogue and increasingly used in our daily lives, Lapierre wanted to innovate by integrating Artificial Intelligence into this new project.

The design

The main difficulty in creating the design using Artificial Intelligence was working on a bike frame, made up of a series of carbon tubes of different shapes and sections where there are no flat areas, unlike a painting or an NFT. Through this singular work, Lapierre and Obvious wanted to highlight the artistic and scientific subject around the theme of movement and particularly the mechanical and biomechanical rotation of the cyclist, which act in true symbiosis to pursue the same goal: to go ever faster and aim for victory.

The colors

Still in this logic of symbiosis between man and machine, the Obvious artists drew inspiration from Cyberpunk, a dystopian science fiction movement where man and machine merge. A movement that distinguishes the two universes with a distinct color code, with pink for the human, flesh, tissues, and blue for mechanics, the machine. The inspiration also comes from the book Neuromancer, a science fiction novel written by the American William Gibson. A nod to the book can be found under the down tube with a mathematical formula that reminds us that the characters in the novel ride bikes in a stadium where gravity is half that on planet Earth.

The Xelius SL 10.0 Symbiosis Edition

Made from UD SLI Team carbon fiber, with two levels of stiffness depending on the size, the Xelius SL is one of the lightest frames in the peloton, weighing only 725 g for the bare frame (raw finish) in its lightest version. Light, dynamic, and responsive, the Xelius SL also stands out for its versatility, comfort, and easily recognizable design with its 3D Tubular concept.

A true replica of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team’s bike, the Xelius SL 10.0 Symbiosis Edition is equipped with the best components such as the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed groupset, Dura-Ace C36 wheels, and the extremely light and stiff Lapierre carbon combo handlebar.

Price: €9999
Frameset at €3799

Source: Press Release

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