The use of artificial intelligence has not given wings to the Groupama-FDJ team, which is still pedaling after a first victory in the Tour de France 2023, but it has at least provided it with a new original and aesthetically innovative bike. This year, David Gaudu and his teammates are riding a bike called Xelius 10.0 Symbiosis Edition which has the particularity of having been partly developed by artificial intelligence.
Rest assured, the engineering teams of the Lapierre cycle manufacturer did indeed design the carbon machine, but its design was generated by computer with Obvious, a trio of French artists (Pierre Fautrel, Hugo Caselles-Dupré and Gauthier Vernier) who design works with AI. A first in the world of competition cycling.
“I find the design modern and innovative. I like this new bike, it changes from the ordinary. Artificial intelligence represents the future and this is what Lapierre is developing, whether on its machines or in communication”, confided to Figaro Valentin Madouas, lieutenant of David Gaudu on the Grande Boucle.
The trio of artists was inspired by Cyber Punk, a dystopian science fiction movement where man and machine become one. A movement which distinguishes the two universes by a well-marked color code, with pink for the human, the flesh, the fabrics, and the blue for the mechanics, the machine. “Inspiration also comes from the book Neuromancian, a science fiction novel written by the American William Gibson. A nod to the book can be found under the diagonal tube with a mathematical formula that reminds us that the characters in the novel ride their bikes in a stadium where gravity is half as low as on planet Earth”, specifies the brand, which has declined a replica bike of the original that the French team used on the roads of the Tour de France. The price of this little marvel: 9999 euros.
