Côte d’Azur

The place for our first rendezvous with the 2018 Pulsium is in Frejus on the Cote d’Azur, where smooth coastal roads are interspersed with smaller, more rough-and-ready country lanes. It’s certainly not the Carrefour de l’Arbre, but it’s enough to get a initial flavour of the bike’s ability to deaden the everyday buzz and bluster you might get from UK roads.

– Model year 2018: new bikes from BMC, Specialized, Trek and more –

With my bike equipped with the latest Shimano Dura-Ace R9120 Di2 groupset, I know what I’m riding is very similar to the machines used by the FDJ team at the Classics, give or take a 28c tub here and a sponsor-pleasing wheelset there (FDJ’s bikes are kitted out with Shimano wheels, whereas mine has Mavic hoops). With the Pulsium’s resemblance to the Xelius, I’m hoping for plenty of punch to go with the compliance expected of an endurance bike.

Confident and direct handling

Back down the other side, the sweeping and cambered bends give the opportunity to really bank the Pulsium into the corners, testing the limits of the grip afforded by the (in my opinion) solid-if-unspectacular Mavic tyre setup. I’m struck by the fact that although I’d prefer a set of Michelin Power Competitions or Continental GP4000 IIs on my excellent Ksyrium Pro Carbon hoops, I can really trust the frame to sit planted and reliably tell me when I’m reaching the limits of adhesion.

The Pulsium tracks straight and true, while shifts in weight are easy to make thanks to the lightweight toptube, no doubt contributing to the already impressive climbing ability. There’s not a hint of undue isolation from the road and when my skill (read: bravery) fails and I hit the brakes to bring myself back from the edge, the chassis is composed and stable.

The front end, albeit with rake increased and wheelbase lengthened slightly over the Xelius owing to the endurance geometry, feels sharp and tactile, ready to translate subtle inputs into the road. When those inputs become less subtle, the Pulsium still takes it in its stride.

And, when the speed ramps up as we descend off the hillside down an open sweeping section, it’s only the limitation of the compact chainset born of the need to play to the endurance market that’s really putting a halt on things. I want to go quicker than the 68.4km/h top speed recorded on my Strava, but it’s clear that our other chaperone, ex-Finnish national champ-turned-FDJ directeur sportif Jussi Veikkanen, can’t get much more out of it either (he tops out at 71.6km/h), limited by the amount of teeth on his chainrings too.

However, it’s obvious to me that there’s untapped race potential in the Pulsium in my hands. Make no mistake – the bike barely breaks sweat under the duress of a semi-competent rider like myself, while our first ride displays hints of what it can really do under the likes of Demare and the other FDJ Classics specialists.

We’ll have the chance to test the 2018 Lapierre Pulsium on home roads back in the UK but, for now, first impressions suggest this is an impressive race-focused endurance machine which attempts to hit the sweetspot between performance and comfort. A full test will further reveal just how adept it is at handling the rough stuff.

Website: Lapierre Bikes