Niki Terpstra’s solo victory at the 2018 Tour of Flanders may have made the headlines, but 22-year-old Dane Mads Pedersen’s second place was as impressive and perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the 102nd edition of the race.
- Tour of Flanders: huge tech gallery from De Ronde
- Horse for the Course: Trek Madone for Flanders Sportive
The run into the race finish in Oudenaarde begins at the top of the Paterberg and consists of long, exposed stretches of road. Pedersen’s gap to Terpstra stuck at around 30 seconds in this finale, but with only 15 seconds on the chasing group — including Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet — Pedersen being caught initially seemed inevitable.
Racing aboard the aero-specific Trek Madone, Pedersen would have been grateful of his bike choice in the final run-in, using an integrated aero cockpit, deep carbon wheels and the frameset itself for maximum aerodynamic efficiency when it was needed most.
Despite plenty of climbing along the 265-kilometre race, Pedersen opted for a slightly larger than normal 54/42 chainring combination to pair with the more standard 11-28 Shimano Dura-Ace R9100 cassette.
Shimano provides the Trek-Segafredo team with full Shimano Dura-Ace R9150 electronic groupsets and for 2018, the team switches from SRM power meters to Shimano’s R9100-P power meters.
Bontrager and Trek launched the new range of Bontrager Aeolus XXX carbon wheels ahead of the race and Pedersen ran the deepest Aeolus XXX 6 options. The wheels were paired with Vittoria Corsa Control cobble-specific tubular tyres.
Click or swipe through the gallery above for a closer look at Pedersen’s Tour of Flanders Trek Madone.
Trek Madone 9 Race Shop Limited specifications
- Frame: Trek Madone 9 Race Shop Limited
- Fork: Trek Madone KVF full carbon
- Front brake: Trek Madone aero, integrated
- Rear brake: Trek Madone aero, integrated
- Brake/shift levers: Shimano Dura-Ace R9150
- Front derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace R9150
- Rear derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace R9150
- Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace R9100, 11-28
- Chain: Shimano Dura-Ace R9100
- Crankset: Shimano Dura-Ace R9100-P, 54/42
- Wheelset: Bontrager Aeolus XXX 6
- Tyres: Vittoria Corsa Control
- Handlebars: Trek Madone OCLV Carbon bar/stem combination, 420mm wide
- Pedals: Shimano Dura-Ace R9100
- Bottle cages: Bontrager Bat Cage
- Computer: Garmin Edge 520