This is the Trek Speed Concept time trial bike of former UCI road world champion Mads Pedersen.
Trek launched the latest version of the Speed Concept in November 2021 with redesign tube profiles and, for the first time, disc brakes.
This is, according to Trek, the fastest bike the US brand has ever tested in the wind tunnel, with a claimed 16-watt saving over the outgoing model at 26 mph / 41.84 kph (in its triathlon guise).
On that note, the Speed Concept is available in two versions: this UCI-legal time trial bike and a tri option with down tube storage and the addition of Trek’s IsoSpeed decoupler at the rear for enhanced comfort.
The UCI says ‘no’ to aero-enhancing storage and road time trials aren’t long enough to significantly benefit IsoSpeed, so neither port across to Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo team bike.
There are deep tube profiles throughout, however, exploiting what is possible within the UCI’s rulebook, while the heavily-dropped seatstays now feature a stepped design on this third-generation Speed Concept.
Everything is integrated up front, as you’d expect, with the base bar flowing into the head tube, which in turn has a deep, truncated Kammtail design. The fork is suitably skinny, too.
We photographed Pedersen’s bike ahead of the stage one time trial in Copenhagen, where the Dane finished sixth on home roads.
For that short, 13.2km test, Pedersen used a 1x setup, pairing a huge 60-tooth chainring with his SRAM Red eTap AXS 12-speed drivetrain.
The front wheel is a Bontrager Aeolus RSL 75 and the rear a Zipp Super-9 disc, both wrapped in Pirelli P Zero Race tyres.
