The train of pre-Tour bike releases has already left the station, kicked off with a new Wilier seen underneath Lenny Martinez a few days ago. It is now speeding up, fuelled by another new bike spotted at the prime race for Tour de France tech testing, the Critérium du Dauphiné. Before I torture the metaphor too much, I’ll just say this: We’re not entirely sure what this bike is.
Walking for some lunch I stumbled on the team bus and snapped a few spy shots. The new bike isn’t something unexpected, with a new frame spotted on the WeightWeenies forum back at the start of the year, but its use in racing has been unseen until now. Given development timeframes we assumed it would be a new Emonda, but it bears more than a passing resemblance to the team’s aero option, the Madone.
Another one-bike race solution
Whatever the model name, Madone or Emonda (Madonda? Emondone?), this is clearly yet another example of teams (or brands) pushing for a single race bike that’s neither an all-out aero machine nor a featherweight climber. In much the same way as the Tarmac SL8 and the Bianchi Specialissima, whatever this bike is, it is almost certainly the only bike we will see the team riding during the Tour de France and beyond.
The hole in the seat tube remains, which is where it bears its most striking resemblance to the current Madone. Dubbed ‘IsoFlow’, this apparently aids airflow at the rear of the bike, as well as cantilevering the seatpost.
Hopping to the front of the bike, there are again similarities to the Madone. The fork legs are more or less as deep, and the slightly kinked downward lower surface of the top tube remains. The head tube, though, is less deep, and as you move rearwards the effects of a clear carbon-starved diet are plain to see.
The top tube is similar to the Madone, though the downtube is less deep. The seat tube, ignoring the hole at the top for a second, is still scalloped around the rear wheel for improved airflow, but the chainstays are substantially narrower. This follows the trend of the latest race bikes opting for a strategy of aero up front, where it has the greatest impact, and weight saving at the rear.
Madone or Emonda, expect to see it at the Tour de France.
Aero bottles
Something that is new for this bike is aero bottles. We've seen some before on the Cannondale SuperSix but the EF squad doesn't use them. It seems Lidl-Trek is however using a custom set of bottles clearly aimed with aero in mind.
