New wheels and a SRAM derailleur spotted on Visma's Omloop winning bikes
The winning bikes of Marianne Vos and Jan Tratnik are pretty stock, but there are unreleased parts on them
While the dying embers of the first race of the 2024 classics season still glow, and before I hit publish on the usual tech gallery and other such pieces from what is always a hectic weekend, I thought I'd bring you the first of what seems like many winning Visma-Lease a Bike bikes.
On a grey but mercifully dry Belgian day, Jan Tratnik beat the rest of the pack at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on a bike that is genuinely rather... normal. The only noteworthy difference from what we've seen on the team's bikes in 'regular' racing is the switch to 30mm tyres.
This was swiftly followed by Marianne Vos taking the victory in the women's race, aboard an equally unremarkable Cérvelo (if a superbike of this calibre can be considered unremarkable). Genuine classics bikes are fewer and farther between, and Tratnik's bike, besides the spit and mud, is more or less as it would be for the entirety of the season, from what I can tell.
Vos' bike, too, was devoid of the usual classics flourishes. No special tyres, save for wider rubber. No alloy bars, no tools taped to the seatpost; save that for Roubaix, things aren't that hectic just yet.
Hidden away in plain sight on both bikes, though, is an unseen SRAM front derailleur, suspected to be the new SRAM Red. Tratnik, too, had an as-yet-unseen set of Reserve wheels on his bike. Given Visma has access to a suite of wheel options from Reserve these are easily missed.
Without further ado, though, here are the winning bikes, snapped in five minutes while the victors did their press duties, and before the commissaires whisked them away.
Jan Tratnik's bike
Marianne Vos' bike
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Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. There are very few types of cycling he's not dabbled in, and he has a particular affection for older bikes and long lasting components. Road riding was his first love, before graduating to racing CX in Yorkshire. He's been touring on a vintage tandem all the way through to fixed gear gravel riding and MTB too. When he's not out riding one of his many bikes he can usually be found in the garage tinkering with another of them, or getting obsessive about tyres. Also, as he doesn't use Zwift, he's our go-to guy for bad weather testing... bless him.
Rides: Custom Zetland Audax, Bowman Palace:R, Peugeot Grand Tourisme Tandem, Falcon Explorer Tracklocross, Fairlight Secan & Strael