HIGH FLYER

When Trek introduced the first Emonda back in 2014 it completed the brand’s triple line-up of pro-level race bikes. Trek, like the rest of the pro-peloton providers, had a bike for every stage of major races. Trek’s Madone, introduced in 2003, was raced by Lance Armstrong. In 2012 Trek diversified with its first anagram of Madone: the Domane. This bike was designed to attack the cobbled classics - a comfort-orientated race bike to take on Specialized’s all-conquering Roubaix, Trek even secured classics specialist Fabian Cancellara to ride it in 2014. In the same year the Madone had morphed into a full-on aero-road bike but Trek knew that its climbing specialists required a lightweight bike for the highmountain stages of the grand tours and so the Emonda was born, a bike designed to be lightweight above all else.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Bike design and the requirements of the pro-riders has changed since 2017. Many teams saw aerodynamic gains from the likes of the Madone, (Specialized) Venge, (Merida) Reacto and (Cervelo) S5 as worth the extra weight (usually around half a kilo to as much as a kilo) over a race distance. But pro climbers still wanted light bikes and were having to make tough decisions on bike choice, which is why we’re now seeing classic lightweight bikes being reinvented with aerodynamics as a major consideration. The Emonda’s competition (Specialized Tarmac, Cannondale SuperSix EVO, BMC Teammachine, Giant TCR)