Orbea has launched the Orca Aero, the Basque brand's new aero bike, updating the previous iteration from 2022. The bike will be ridden by Lotto-Intermarché riders at the upcoming Tour de France. The story behind the new bike runs rather longer, roughly 185 years, depending on where you start.
Founded in 1840 by brothers Juan Manuel, Mateo, and Casimiro Orbea, the company spent nearly a century making guns before pivoting to bicycles in the 1930s. In 1969 it became a worker cooperative, and shortly afterwards joined the Mondragon Corporation, the world's largest federation of worker cooperatives, and a quiet but significant engine of the Basque Country's economy.
The heritage is industrial, collective, and local. It shapes, says Kepa Otxoa, Orbea's road product category manager, how the brand thinks about everything it builds: "I think we are tough people, we work hard, and I think that's why we developed such a big industrial business in the Basque Country and it's something that we also apply in Orbea. We try to work hard, be tough, and strong, and to always try to find things to improve."
Otxoa grew up in Mondragon. His grandfather worked within the corporation. The Orca Aero is the latest expression of that community tradition. Built around a rider-plus-bike aerodynamic approach, a notably low bottom bracket, and OQUO wheels – another Mondragon business, because in the Basque Country the supply chain is kept close – the Orca Aero is Orbea's fastest ever bike.
I got an early look at the bike ahead of launch. Here's what the hard work has produced.
Total system approach
Orbea's global road product manager, Joseba Arizaga, is convinced by the direction of travel of cycling tech – it's no secret that bike racing is speeding up.
"The 2025 season was the fastest season ever in terms of average speed in the races and 2026 season is going in the same direction, so it is going faster and faster. The demand for these highest speeds in the peloton is huge," Arizaga pointed out. Everything about the new Orca Aero is built to optimise the coefficient of drag area (CdA), the most important metric in aerodynamics, quantifying how much air resistance the rider and bike has to overcome.
Otxoa explained that Orbea were guided by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, using 3D-printed fairings to test the bike at the velodrome near the Orbea factory. But Orbea were keen to create a bike for real-world conditions – fast on the open roads, not just in a velodrome. For this, they homed in on the yaw angle, which is the angle between direction of travel and the direction of the wind.
With yaw in mind, the new Orca Aero has a sharper head tube, optimised forks, a narrower seatpost and integrated bottle cages, which are optimised to always have two bottles – the Lotto-Intermarché riders have been told to keep both bottles in even if they are empty (sorry roadside fans looking for a Tour souvenir). All of this has resulted in a claimed saving of 5.1 watts at 50kph compared to the previous model.
The bike also has a 90° Spin Block steering limiter, meaning it's less likely to be destroyed in a crash (and is easier to fit in the back of a car – a big plus in my book). The frame accommodates tyres up to 37 mm, meaning it is one of the most capable bikes in the WorldTour while keeping optimised aerodynamic performance with tyre widths from 29mm to 35mm. This additional clearance can reportedly save 6-7 watts at 40kph on cobbles or rough asphalt by reducing vibration losses.
Fit for modern demands, there are 13 different handlebar and stem sizes ranging from 360/80 to 400/140.
Lowered bottom bracket
Lowering the bottom bracket – the axle and bearing assembly at the lowest point of the frame where the crank arms attach – drops the rider's centre of gravity closer to the ground. The Orca Aero has a 78mm bottom bracket drop, the lowest on the market (measured from a horizontal line between the wheel axles to the centre of the bottom bracket). Stability is one reason, aerodynamics is another.
"We have the lowest bottom bracket in the industry. It is the most important feature of the bike – it's giving the rider and the bike rider system the stability and also the reduction in CdA," explained Otxoa. The previous Orca Aero was already a pretty optimised machine – hence the modest 5.1 watts saving at 50kph in drag reduction – but where they saw considerable gains was in the bottom bracket lowering.
"After all the CFD calculations, after going to the wind tunnel, and so on, we saw that lowering the bottom bracket was the main improvement that we've done on the bike," said Otxoa.
The bottom bracket is not only lower, but it also houses the Di2 battery.
"We moved the battery to the bottom bracket area, and this allowed us to go narrower on the seatpost and the seat tube, reducing the drag," said Otxoa.
The frame has a stiffness of 93Nm/° at a frame weight of around 900 g, which is pretty handy (the previous model was 90Nm/° for a 1,150 g frame). Orbea claims this allows it to save approximately 2 watts at 17kph on an 8% climb compared with the previous generation. They also claim to have saved 14 watts from reducing drag caused by instability when riding at 50kph
Oquo wheels
A bike is nothing without decent wheels and Orbea don't have to look far to find some – roughly 15 kilometres, in fact. The new Orca Aero features OQUO wheels, a collaboration which is burgeoning.
"This is the first time that we have introduced OQUO wheels in the CFD calculations," explained Otxoa.
Álvaro Mañé, OQUO's PR manager, said that the brand, which was founded in 2020, values local employment and responsible manufacturing, with a focus on quality over quantity, ensuring each wheel is assembled to precise standards. OQUO has grown from six employees in 2021 to around 100 today, launching two generations of mountain bike wheels and two generations of road wheels.
"Since the very beginning, the goal was to be an independent brand inside the same group," said Mañé. "With its own team, own facility, own strategy, and own projects… There is a concept in English that I really like, which is 'sibling brands'. For me it's important because as a sibling brand, we are part of the same group, but we operate independently."
Collaborative beyond the co-operative
The new Orca Aero is being tested extensively by Lotto-Intermarché, with a focus on weight reduction while maintaining aerodynamic performance. Mikey Van Kruiningen, logistics and head mechanic at Lotto-Intermarché, said it wasn't always the case: "Lotto was already with Orbea for a number of years, but it was quite a passive agreement. It was like, 'here you have the bike, and this is the bike you're going to ride'. We had some contact during the year, but there was not much collaboration, but after the merger [of Lotto and Intermarché], that's something that really changed.
"We have a test group of selected riders who live close to the service course, and are interested in equipment – because not all riders are super interested in equipment. These guys test stuff regularly, like tyres, frames, handlebars, wheels or whatever, and then I gather the feedback and reports and send it back to the equipment supplier."
First ride impressions
I was able to test the Orca Aero over a couple of days riding in Andalusia, which included some climbs and a 30-kilometre descent from the Sierra Nevada ski centre to Granada, perfect for testing the bike's handling and aerodynamics.
The lowered bottom bracket took a couple of hours to get used to, but even in the brief time I spent on the Orca Aero, I could feel the benefits of the lower riding position and its increased stability. The descent to Granada felt particularly gusty and, with the lower position directly reducing the frontal area exposed to the wind, the bike felt stable, knocking on 75kph – I wasn't willing to go much faster.
Getting into an aerodynamic position felt natural, but it was agile enough to nip around potholes. Like all aero bikes, it didn't feel like you had to work much to get up to 35-40kph and, despite its impressive aerodynamics, it didn't feel cumbersome when slowing and twisting through the narrow lanes of the Andalusian villages I passed through.
The Orca Aero has already been used by Lotto-Intermarché at the Tour Auvergne Rhône Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné). Look out for it in the sprints at the Tour, with star rider De Lie looking to grab his first stage win.
The Orca Aero has customisable options (M10i LTD, M11e LTD, M21e LTD, M20i LTD, M22 LTD, M30i LTD) where you can choose different specs, sizing options, wheels and even customise the paintjob using the Myo option. The retail price starts at £4,999 and goes up to £9,999.
For more information on the bike, visit Orbea's website.
