Ellen van Dijk's time trial bike may be the most stunning we've ever seen
World TT champion and Hour Record holder gets new Trek Speed Concept in bling chrome finish
It's not uncommon for successful riders to receive a custom bike to commemorate their victories. In fact, nowadays, it's almost more uncommon for them not to. It's a great way for sponsors to congratulate the rider and a nice celebration of their victory.
More importantly, it's also a marketing department's dream. It allows the brand to really draw attention to the fact that its very own bike was ridden to the highest honours in the sport.
Naturally, whatever the victory being celebrated, the brand wants the custom bike to stand out in a crowd, but when that celebration is in relation to two of the biggest wins available in time trialling - the world championships and the hour record - a brand will want to pull out all the stops. That's exactly what Trek has done for Ellen van Dijk, who took those very honours in 2022.
There has to be some consideration of the appropriateness of the design, of course. For a world champ, the blue-red-black-yellow-green of the rainbow bands must feature, but exactly how, where, and among which other colours is limited only by the imagination of the designer.
Credit where credit is due because whoever Trek asked to design this Speed Concept, they've played a blinder; there's no denying it will stand out in a crowd.
Chrome finish aside, the bike's spec is equally premium, with top tier components dressing the bike from top to bottom.
The groupset is courtesy of Sram, with the Red eTap AXS groupset. Up front, a 56/43 chainset is paired with what looks to be a 10-33T cassette. This makes for a huge maximum gear, equivalent to a 61 x 11, while maintaining enough range to handle the hillier terrain found near to the team's training camp in Alicante.
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Wheels come courtesy of Trek's subsidiary, Bontrager... sort of. The front is cut and dry; it's a Bontrager Aeolus RSL 75. The rear is a little more complex: it's marked up with Trek Segafredo branding, as per the team name, however, neither Trek nor Bontrager make a disc rear wheel. It's actually a Zipp wheel with the logos removed. This has been the case for the team for a number of years. If you look closely, you can see the outline of the Zipp wordmark circling the cassette.
Both wheels are shod with Pirelli P Zero Race tyres, and differences continue here. The front is using a black valve, suggesting the tyre is set up with inner tubes, specifically the Pirelli P Zero Smartube TPU inner tubes. The rear, meanwhile, uses a gold valve, suggesting the rear is a tubular.
The time trial extensions appear to be custom moulded to Van Dijk's arms, and the upper face has been covered in a foam material to aid comfort. At the end of these, shift buttons are integrated, and a second set of shifters is mounted near to the brake levers on the base bar, meaning Van Dijk can shift from both hand positions.
Rounding off the build are a set of Time XPro 10 pedals, and a Bontrager Hilo Pro saddle.
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As the Tech Editor here at Cyclingnews, Josh leads on content relating to all-things tech, including bikes, kit and components in order to cover product launches and curate our world-class buying guides, reviews and deals. Alongside this, his love for WorldTour racing and eagle eyes mean he's often breaking tech stories from the pro peloton too.
On the bike, 32-year-old Josh has been riding and racing since his early teens. He started out racing cross country when 26-inch wheels and triple chainsets were still mainstream, but he found favour in road racing in his early 20s and has never looked back. He's always training for the next big event and is keen to get his hands on the newest tech to help. He enjoys a good long ride on road or gravel, but he's most alive when he's elbow-to-elbow in a local criterium.