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TECH NEWS
Tour de France Bikes 2015: A yellow Trek for Fabian Cancellara?
Could this be a Trek Domane frameset painted yellow and ready to rock just in case Trek Factory Racing’s Fabian Cancellara took the overall lead in the Tour de France, as he has done following a third place finish in the second stage?
We were in Utrecht, Netherlands, towards the end of last week to check out the bikes and equipment that the pros will be using in this year’s Tour de France. We were mooching about – we do a lot of mooching about – around the Trek Factory Racing bikes when we spotted this yellow frame all bubble wrapped-up in the back of one of the team vehicles.
Take a closer look and it appears to be a Trek Domane. We think. It’s kind of difficult to tell. We don’t think it’s an Emonda or one of the new Madones, and it’s certainly not a Speed Concept.
Anyway, no sooner had we spotted it than the nice man from Trek Factory Racing stuck it under his arm and went and squirrelled it away somewhere out of the gaze of prying eyes, so that’s the last we saw of it.
Our guess is that this is a Domane that was sprayed up and ready to go just in case Spartacus took the yellow jersey - as he now has.
The team bikes are painted at Trek HQ in Waterloo, Wisconsin, and knocking up a special paint job in the US and having the frame ready to go the following morning would be out of the question. Like the Scouts, it looks like Trek was prepared for one of its riders to take the race lead.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 6 hours 51 min ago
To be fair the Germans didn't give everyone much notice they were done with the war in November. Could have saved everyone tooling up for the Big...
- Blackthorne 7 hours 32 min ago
I disagree, the lucky few who get to wear one of these will certainly produce more mass.
- Dnnnnnn 8 hours 7 min ago
That wasn't what my original post was about - it was about the NHS as it is now. If you're going to be run over by an ambulance tomorrow, there are...
- imajez 8 hours 31 min ago
I prefer the not haveing to faff with brakes in first place, which is the typical reality for hydraulic systems.
- Backladder 11 hours 35 min ago
I'm sure the met are merely waiting for it to build up to a critical mass and then they'll swoop in and confiscate and crush them all then there...
- qwerty360 13 hours 27 min ago
Reality - I expect most first year lectures have more than 80 students at them; So 80 bicycle spaces is a rounding error on potential demand....
- whosatthewheel 15 hours 6 min ago
Especially that it is a traffic light controlled junction so he must have been completely blinded not to see the red on his left hand side and a...
- biking59boomer 15 hours 37 min ago
Send the details to UK network rail and Transport for Wales as well!
- KDee 16 hours 26 min ago
So that Pulsium from Lapierre has a 415mm wheelbase? I assume it's on 20 inch wheels then!
- ktache 17 hours 22 min ago
It's been one hell of a ride Cav, thanks for letting us share some of it. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/09/mark-cavendish-final-race-...
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22 comments
Last time it was seen was flying through the air after that crash on stage 3. Bloody hell.
Zwift has teamed up with Trek to allow you to ride the celebratory Yellow Madone on Zwift Island, and win a Trek factory racing bottle for every day Fabian remains in yellow!
http://www.titaniumgeek.com/cycling/cancellara-zwift-trek-team-up/
http://www.trekfactoryracing.com/blog/yellow-domane-cancellara
Saying 'it's not exactly scoop of the year' doesn't mean the same as 'everything you post must be a scoop', but you knew that.
You're at the Tour, you've done all that mooching about, and you've seen a yellow bike wrapped up in bubblewrap. It would be the perfect intro to an article about the rise of use of yellow kit for the Tour leader, or the job of deciding what yellow kit to take, or the thoughts of the mechanics who have to build up coloured bikes, or a look at the chances for Cancellara to get yellow.
It could have been a better piece than 'yellow bike in a truck'.
(I know it's easy for me to say; I'm not there and journalist is not my job, but in the almost overwhelming amount of Tour journalism available it would be good to see something else.)
Although having a yellow Domane (that's what this one is) already at the Tour seems like a no brainer, we have actually done the overnight rush jobs in the past, believe it or not.
The cost of last minute air freight is a bit pricey, though. So having one already in the fleet just in case is the better option.
Opaque bubble wrap might have been a better idea.
Well it might still be on ebay by Wednesday, and cheaper too, only one careful owner.
Looks like he needs it now!!!
More news: Oleg Tinkoff buys bottle of yellow hair dye, but keeps the receipt just in case he doesn't need it.
By 'eck, that would be big news: Cancellara wins time trial and team magically has yellow bike ready for the start of the next day's stage. Unfortunately for Trek I think Tony Martin may have a yellow Specialized ready to roll.
Looking forward to 3 weeks of fun!
Stop press: Yellow Dogma spotted in the bowels of the Death Star.
Plus, Cancellara has a decent chance of gaining yellow on a differnt day in the first week if he narrowly misses out in the prologue.
If he doesn't fall foul of the wind on stage 2, then stage 4 will be catching his eye as an opportunity for a stage win and possibly yellow.
I wonder what happens to the unused yellow frames? it's not like we will see it on ebay. maybe the manufacturers just store them in a warehouse somewhere.
If not needed (though this one is now!) they are probably just resprayed into team colours
I think you'll fine there will be two of these bikes in the Trek set up, Cancellara sized and also a Mollema sized one, although they ride almost the same size, although as you have noted, Cancellara prefers one frame over another
It's not exactly scoop of the year is it?
Team with potential yellow jersey wearer bring yellow bike to Tour... in other news, some really obvious things happened...
I can't wait for the rest of your Tour commentary.
And we all look forward to your bilious meta commentary.
are we only allowed to post stories if they *are* scoop of the year? because there won't really be a lot to read. perhaps you can clarify.
Pick it up on Ebay on Saturday night.
Looking likely now.
Isn't there a UCI rule about this? I thought these yellow framesets were supposed to be hand-painted by the guys at the factory working overnight, then rushed off and driven across Europe to arrive and be built up by team mechanics in the hours before the next stage start.
Some of them are - Merckx did a video about painting up bikes for various jersey winners a few years back, but maybe they were slightly caught by surprise. Mostly though these frames are there ready and hidden away in hotel bedrooms or the boot's of the team liaison guy's car. Just in case their star rider has the chance of a sniff at yellow. No doubt there is a bit of rushing about involved if the guy on the team who gets in to yellow isn't the star guy - or maybe he just doesn't get a yellow bike!