For this evening's Bike at Bedtime we're heading back in time to check out Lance Armstrong's Trek Madone, designed by British artist Damien Hirst and ridden by Armstrong on the Champs Elysées at the 2009 Tour de France. This bike eventually sold for half a million dollars.
The original idea of this bike was to mark Lance Armstrong's return to cycling after initially retiring in 2005, and the selling price of this one-off creation makes it the most expensive bike in the world. It was one of seven of Armstrong's Trek bikes that went up for auction, which in total raised $1.3 million for LiveStrong. Many of these still feature in lists of the world's most expensive bikes.
> Lance Armstrong auction: Damien Hirst 'Butterfly bike'
Hirst is well known for a series of artworks in which dead animals are preserved and he made no exceptions to this recurring theme when designing Armstrong's Trek Madone.
Hirst used real butterfly wings lacquered onto the frame and said, "I wanted to use real butterflies and not just pictures of butterflies, because I wanted it to shimmer when the light catches it like only real butterflies do, and we were trying not to add any extra weight to the bike."
Unsurprisingly, the project attracted some negative attention, with some animal rights activists branding the use of real butterfly wings as 'barbaric'.
The Bontrager wheels also feature real butterfly wings. They're rim brake wheels which we don't see in the pro-peloton anymore.
> Everything you need to know about disc brakes
Armstrong's Trek Madone was equipped with a SRAM Red groupset, their newest top-end road groupset at the time. SRAM launched its Red group in 2007 as the "lightest, fastest shifting, and most adjustable on the market."
The most recent SRAM groupset to be released is the Rival eTap AXS for road and gravel riding that sees most of the features of higher-level SRAM Red eTap AXS and SRAM Force eTap AXS – including wireless electronic shifting – at a more accessible price. It currently costs £1,448.00 at Sigma Sports.
> Find out about SRAM Rival eTap AXS here
To say the least, a whole lot has happened in Armstrong's life story since the 2009 Tour de France. In 2013, he eventually confessed to doping during his career. You might have heard!
Armstrong has recently appeared back in cycling news due to Klaas Lodewyck, sports director at Remco Evenepoel’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team, comparing Evenpoel's determination to succeed with that of Lance Armstrong.
He said, “It may be a wrong comparison, but in terms of character I do see similarities between Remco and Lance."
> Read more about it here
As for the Trek Madone, the latest version is perhaps the most significant new bike to have been released this year thanks to its radical aero design. Trek have described it as the “fastest road race bike ever."
It was first spotted at the Dauphiné race by our intrepid road.cc reporters, used by the Trek-Segafredo team.
> Brand new Trek Madone breaks cover
This is said to be the lightest ever disc brake Madone, about 300g lighter than the previous model. Trek claims a frame weight of just under 1,000g and a fork weight of just over 400g.The Madone SLR is compatible with electronic drivetrains only.
Check out more of our Bikes at Bedtime features here.
What do you think has been the best Tour de France custom paint job? Let us know in the comments section below...
Ah, privatisation! That wonderful treatment that has worked miracles with our energy supplies, water and sewage treatment systems, trains, bus...
Try WH Smith. Although not all branches are open on Sundays.
Ultegra quick-release cranks? Lancs police saving thousands by avoiding unnecessary prosecution of offenses? Can't see grounds for complaint?
...he doesn't want to do it on his own time
Indeed, more space than to be given to a cyclist. Not diving into a muddy verge earned me the threat of assault and being declared a f*cking idiot.
I think we have a lot in common with equestrians - like our lives on country roads are made difficult and dangerous by drivers being the main one....
This seems to be my theme ATM but I think almost every infra / legal story here could be ended with the following and have the majority of the...
It sure is!
If this happened to my wife or mother I would make it my personal mission in life to find and torture this person until he accidentally died.
I recieved notifications. Make sure you have game emails ticked in your account settings.