Factor has revealed two custom Factor One aero race bikes for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift decked out in SpongeBob SquarePants graphics.
Human Powered Health will ride the yellow-and-blue One XXRAY Plus SpongeBob SquarePants Edition, featuring the hit show’s eponymous sea sponge on the radical aero bike’s deep fork leg. Ma Petite Entreprise will race the One XXRAY PLUS Patrick Star Edition in pink and purple. A graphic of SpongeBob’s friend Patrick, a starfish, runs down the fork.
(Image credit: Factor)
Nods to the cartoon’s setting in the submarine city of Bikini Bottom, such as starfish symbols, cover the vibrant colourways of both bikes. Factor wanted to liven up the looks of its bikes ahead of the fifth Tour de France Femmes, which starts on 1 August in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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David Millar, Factor’s chief brand officer, said: “The reason for doing it was to create an unexpected meeting of two worlds. The One is Factor’s most advanced aero race platform, developed for performance at the highest level, while SpongeBob, Patrick and the XXRAY concept bring optimism, personality and playfulness.
“Putting them together shows that a cutting-edge race bike can be technically serious without being visually predictable, and that elite cycling still has room for creativity, culture and fun.”
The graphics are the artwork of Jason Freeny, who designs the XXRAY pop culture collection. The former professional cyclist said the One’s large surface area helped Factor’s global creative director Jay Gundzik translate Freeny’s artwork onto the bikes.
(Image credit: Factor)
“The One’s broad, sculpted aerodynamic surfaces gave him an unusually large canvas, allowing the characters to appear at a scale and with an impact that would not be possible on a more conventional frame,” added Millar. “Rather than simply adding small graphics, Jay was able to make the artwork part of the bike’s overall visual presence.”
Human Powered Health, a WorldTour team based in the United States, and Ma Petite Entreprise, a French ProTeam outfit, are both sponsored by SRAM, so will ride the brand’s Red AXS groupset and Black Inc 62 wheels from Factor’s in-house component brand.
As unlikely as the partnership may seem, it’s not the first time we’ve seen SpongeBob in cycling. Fashion brand Supreme released a SpongeBob range of jerseys and bib shorts with Castelli in 2025.
Factor has a history of collaborations, too. It launched an exclusive version of its aero bike called the Bugatti Factor One, which features an even deeper, vented fork harnessing Bugatti’s motorsport know-how. At this year’s Paris-Roubaix, some riders from Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, an American UCI Pro Team, and Human Powered Health raced a Factor Monza with graphics designed by Belgian artist Vexx.
Factor says it will sell a limited run of both SpongeBob SquarePants bike designs online and through official dealers.
