A year or two ago it looked as if aero road bikes were going the way of the dodo. Race bikes were becoming all-rounders – light enough to hit the UCI’s minimum weight limit but with enough aero cues to make them fast on the flats as well as uphill. A brand or two even dropped their aero bikes altogether as a result, and Trek’s own Émonda challenged the existence of its Madone.
It was a concerning time for this iconic platform, but a relaxation of the UCI’s rules concerning tube aspect ratios (profiles can now be deeper for the same width) has breathed new life into the aero genre, and the latest Madone exploits
