The Tour de France. The Giro d’Italia. The Vuelta a España. The three Grand Tours of cycling. All won by Alberto Contador. And all won on a Trek Madone. Only four other riders in the history of cycling have won all three races, and none has won in quicker fashion than Alberto Contador, who needed just 14 months to etch his name alongside the legends of the sport—Anquetil, Gimondi, Merckx, and Hinault. With success like that, it’s only fitting that Contador’s Trek pay tribute to his accomplishments. (And it doesn’t hurt to remind the peloton who they’re dealing with.)

Working closely with Trek’s design team, Contador had an active hand in crafting his special, one-of-a-kind championship Madone. Revolving around a simple, stylized, and abstracted interpretation of his signature victory salute (found on the top tube and Aeolus wheel decals), the overall design is tranquil and unassuming—just like the man himself. And of course the three colored bands on the seat tube—yellow, pink, and gold—reference his Grand Tour wins and work to tie together the entire design theme by playing off the mark itself. Of course, Trek’s Project One crew turned the design concept into a rolling reality.

It may be a surprise to some, but Bontrager road wheel systems have won more Grand Tours than any other wheel system—ever. Of course, Alberto Contador had something lot to do with that, but being the Astana Team’s choice of wheel systems is worth bragging about.

For 2009, Astana riders roll into the season with three Bontrager wheel systems in their race-day arsenal. Bontrager’s Aeolus 5.0 is the team’s mainstay race wheel, giving them a perfect balance of wind-defying aerodynamics, exceptional low weight, consistent, predictable braking, and long-haul durability. When the road turns up, Astana riders reach for the amazing low weight of Bontrager’s Race XXX Lite carbon wheelset.

And new for 2009 is the Aeolus 9.0. At 90mm tall, it's not just the deepest, most aggressive Aeolus wheel we've ever made, it's also the fastest. Compared to our already slippery Aeolus 6.5, the 9.0 is nearly 10 seconds faster in a 40km time trial—an eternity in a world where every fraction of a second counts. Built around the proven Aeolus formula of an aerodynamically superior rim profile mated to an extremely lightweight OCLV rim, the new Aeolus 9.0 gives Astana a whole new way to rule the wind.

Heroic individual effort might be enough to get the leader’s jersey, but to keep it, you need a team that’s powerful enough to defend it. Fortunately for Contador, his Astana team is arguably the strongest pro team ever assembled. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. Two-time Tour de France runner-up Andreas Klöden.

Four-time top-10 Tour de France finisher and three-time Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer. Not to mention super-domestiques like “Che Chu” Rubiera, Yaroslav Popovych, and Chris Horner. All ready to ride for Alberto, and all ready to help deliver him to the line. And as if all that horsepower weren’t enough, Contador’s also got the keen insight and masterful direction of the peloton’s most accomplished Director, Johan Bruyneel. The mastermind behind 12 grand tour wins in the last nine years, if there’s one thing Johan knows, it’s winning.