Pro Bike: Fabian Cancellara’s Trek Speed Concept time trial bike (video)

Fabian Cancellara's Trek Speed Concept is the time trial bike that the multiple time trial world champion will be relying upon to deliver him towards one final season of glory against the clock.

This is actually the very same Trek Speed Concept that Cancellara was using at last year's Tour de France, with the evidence of this being in the fact that the Trek-Segafredo logos are just stickers that have been place over the old Trek Factory Racing logos from 2015.

The good news is that this means that the bike retains the amazing Spartacus paintjob that could only be pulled off by a man with four rainbow jerseys to his name. Spartacus is written down the top tube, there is a Greek Hoplite helmet on the head tube that will infuriate history buffs, and also a Swiss flag on a shield also on the top tube.

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Beneath the paintjob, this is the same Trek Speed Concept frame that you or I could go and pick up at any Trek dealer, and comes with everything you'd expect from a World Tour time trial bike. That means front brakes that are hidden away within the fork, rear brakes that are positioned out of the wind at the bottom bracket, and aerofoil tubes that push right at the limit of the UCI's 3:1 rules on tube shapes.

Fabian Cancellara's Trek Speed Concept time trial bike sees the Swiss rider move away from the mechanical gears that he uses on his road bike, embracing the benefits of electronic shifting to put shift buttons in multiple positions on his bars. Naturally there are buttons to allow him to shift on the aero bar extensions, but also by the brake levers, so Cancellara can change gear when coming into, or accelerating out of corners, and when climbing out of the saddle.

As you would expect, Cancellara's largest chainring is a bit of a whopper with its 56 teeth (although not quite at the level of the 58 tooth chainring that other time triallists have been known to deploy. This is combined with an 11-25t cassette, with the junction box for the electronic groupset hidden away behind the handlebars. Attached to the chainset is an SRM power meter, the data from which should make the DuoTrap speed and cadence sensor that is built into the chainstay redundant, with the head unit attached to the bars using a custom mount.

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Each of the wheels on Fabian Cancellara's Trek Speed Concept time trial bike come from a different source, although you wouldn't know that from the decals. The front wheel is a Bontrager Aeolus 9 wheel, but the rear disc wheel is actually made by Zipp, with Bontrager stickers added to please the sponsors. Each wheel is topped with a 23mm Veloflex Criterium tubular tyre.

The bars, however, are from Bontrager, with Cancellara opting for the rather smart-looking Bontrager Speed Concept Mono Bar extentions, while the saddle is a time trial-specific perch, the snappily-named Prologo T Gale TT CPC saddle.