This sparkling chrome marvel is the last bike Jens Voigt raced in his 17-year career as a professional racing cyclist, specially prepared by Trek's Project One division for his participation in the USA Pro Challenge race last month. And you can see the bike with your own eyes at The Cycle Show next week (26-28 September) where it will take centre stage on Trek's stand. Voigt will also be taking part in a live Q&A at The Cycle Show from 1.30-2.00pm on the Sunday.
Jens hasn't quite hung up his racing shoes yet though. Tonight he's tackling the Hour record at the Vélodrome Suisse in Grenchen, Switzerland. You can watch it live on Eurosport at 6.00pm. For that assault on one of the hardest records in cycling, Jens will be riding another custom painted bike, this time a Speed Concept creation finished with some very special touches. Take a look at it here.
Back to the last Trek Madone that Jens raced in his professional career then. It's a regular Madone, not the newer Emonda that he might have been expected to ride, probably due to that bike being introduced so close to his retirement and he might have simply decided to stick with the bike he's been riding for the past couple of seasons. You can't teach an old dog new tricks and all that.
Aside from the custom paint job, the bike is otherwise just the same as he and the rest of the Trek Factory Racing team would normally race. In this case it's a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 11-speed groupset with a smattering of Bontrager parts, including the Aeolus 5 carbon fibre wheels and handlebar. The stem has been colour matched to the frame, a nice touch, and there's a regular plain black Serano saddle.
No specially painted frame for Jens would be complete without his now famous motto "Shut up legs" reproduced in a prime spot. Right on top of the top tube is prominent enough and will have served a handy reminder for Jens in his last race, though we doubt he thinks of anything else when he's pedalling.
Coloured bands striped along the length of the top tube are a nice nod to some of the teams he's raced for in his long career.
The down tube meanwhile is adorned with symbols denoting the “number of souls Voigt has crushed in his career of attacking."
The coloured bands from the top tube are continued into the seatstays, which are clean and uncluttered with the brake caliper removed to the chainstays.
And on the fork blades too. All in, it's a lovely looking bike, much better in real life so we urge you to get along to the Cycle Show to see it for yourself. It's also only a matter of time before Trek produce a slightly more restrained version of this paint job for public consumption. We'd certainly be interested, and we bet a fair few people would too.
Don't forget, if you want to go to The Cycle Show at the NEC next week (26-28 September) you can get a discount courtesy of road.cc, just use the code RCC to get £1.50 off the price of the £13 advance ticket at the www.cycleshow.co.uk website.
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