After months of speculation, XDS Astana has revealed a new look and new X-Lab race bike for the 2025 season, revealing the arrival of the Chinese brand on the men's World Tour.

The Astana team has secured a major investment from Chinese brand XDS Carbontech, which traditionally produces carbon frames and components for other brands and has specialized in the Chinese market; in 2025, XDS will go global and the XDS Astana team will race the brand's X-Lab bikes to race.

We got our first idea of what the new bikes would look like after seeing some promotional material online in early November, but the exact frame, components, and even the colors of the team bikes were unknown until now.

After the official presentation of the contract and the team's new identity and jersey in Shenzhen, China, a video of the new team bike was posted on the team's Instagram page and news was also posted on Astana's website.

Alongside the new X-Lab bikes, the team is keeping most of its existing equipment partners and light blue colors.

The X-Lab frame in the team video is equipped with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset, Vision Metron wheels, Continental tires, and Vision integrated handlebars. This means that team riders do not have to get used to so many equipment changes at once.

So far, not much is known about the X-Lab AD9 bike. There are no aero test claims, no carbon fiber grades, no information on how to buy one.

The XDS website lists the AD road series, but only up to the AD7 series; the AD9 is not currently listed. (Perhaps the AD9 is a new model for the team.

Also, will the AD9 frame be the most affordable bike on the World Tour? This appears to be a carbon fiber frame, wheels, and Sram Rival AXS; we will post pricing for the AD9 frame as soon as we get it.

The team's press release image also shows another model that appears to be a more standard nonaero road frame. While this may be an option for team riders, we assume they will be racing on the Aero AD9.

The frame silhouette is not unexpected and has several familiar design features. Dropped seatstays, aero fork legs, deep aero head tube and downtube, aero seat post, seat tube cutouts, and a tapered top tube. In short, the AD9 looks right at home alongside other riders competing in the World Tour.

The team's new performance engineer, Alex Dowsett, reportedly tested the new bike in the Silverstone Sports Engineering wind tunnel. This is the same location where the World Superbike aero tests were conducted.

Cyclingews contacted XDS for more information on the X-Lab series.