A website has opened offering cyclists the opportunity to buy old race bikes from their World Tour race-winning heroes. Alongside its everyday business of buying used bikes and selling "certified used" bikes, Italian brand Bike-Room (opens in new tab) has signed several agreements with World Tour teams and their sponsors, allowing them to sell their old race bikes to the public.

Bike-Room has already been in operation for about a year, and its previous website sold bikes from Team Cofidis, EF Pro Cycling, and UAE Team Emirates. However, the recent relaunch of the website includes the Pinarello Dogma F12 ridden by Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) in 2019, the Willières Zero SLR ridden by Omar Freire (Astana), various Team BikeExchange in 2021 Bianchi bikes ridden by riders, BMC bikes ridden by AG2R Citroen riders, and many more bikes from other teams.

At the end of each season, it is very rare for a professional cyclist to own a race bike. The race bike is returned to the team, and in most cases the team returns it to the sponsor who provided the race bike, usually the bike brand itself. A select few race bikes returned by the brands are kept, including riders who have won high-profile races. They are given to the rider who won the race, sent to a museum, or displayed at the brand's headquarters along with other memorabilia. The remaining bikes, usually several hundred, are sold to recoup some of the costs.

They are sometimes sold in online auctions and have been featured several times in Cycling News. For example, in 2020 Caja Rural's bikes were sold through the team's own website, and in late 2021 many of Jumbo Visma's bikes were sold at auction. In the latter, two of Wout Van Art's bikes (Cervelo S5 and R5) fetched a whopping 35,000 euros combined. This is more than they would have sold for at their original list price.

Ahead of the Tour de France, we asked the question, "How much does a Tour de France bike cost?" and the answer was that to own the same model bike as a professional cyclist, you need to spend at least £11,000/€13,000/$13,000, or at most 37,340 pounds/43,350 euros/$45,600 at best, he concluded. The number of viewers for this type of article indicates that interest in the cost and opportunity to purchase a professional bike is high. Until now, there has been no outlet to make this possible, except for the occasional online auction. What's more, you can get not only the same model, but the exact bike that your favorite pro rode on the Champs-Elysées, Mount Etna, or Alto de Langueil. Even better, the prices are relatively low.

Moreover, given the shortage of bikes and parts that has affected the industry over the past few years, the used market is booming, and with it comes risk. In our guide to buying and selling used bikes, we have covered several such risks, the most pertinent of which is being scammed. The introduction of Bike-Room's "Certified Pre-Owned" program, similar to how The Pro's Closet works in the US, will help countless people avoid these risks when selling their old bikes or buying their next new bike.