Project One

Want to build your own Madone or see what Lance’s exact spec would look like in your choice of color? Project One can build it for you and depending on your choices, ship it to your Trek retailer in about a week.

Trek’s Project One custom bike program is all about individuality and personality. Be like Lance or better yet, be like you. From matching wheel and component graphics to minute hand-painted accents, no detail is too small, from bar tape to cable color — creating dream machines is what Project One is all about. Ready to design your ride? Project One is waiting for you.

Madone Technology

The 2009 collection of Madones represents the most technologically advanced road bikes Trek has ever made. And with three grand tour victories (Tour de France 2007, Giro d’Italia 2008 and Vuelta d’Espania 2008) in only two years of production, we feel like they’re the most proven race machines on the road today.

The Madone Pro and Performance framesets are each available in three different versions- all identical from the exterior. Inside, we use 3 different recipes that combine different grades of raw carbon material and lay-up complexities within the carbon mold. The result is essentially three different weight frames that offer a similar ride. We label them White, Black and Red Series frames with Red being the lightest and most complex lay-up process. Each is built in Waterloo, Wisconsin USA, with the patented and proprietary Trek OCLV carbon process.

Within that carbon process, Trek adds a slew of additional industry-changing proprietary technologies like BB90 bottom brackets, E2 forks and headsets, and no-cut integrated seat masts, just to name a few. The end result is a ride that’s impossible to rival. Learn more about the technology behind the world’s best road bikes.

Bontrager Tires

For racing, Lance almost always uses tubular tires. Over a year ago, the Astana team, (and now Lance) switched to Bontrager Race XXX tubular tires for all race wheels. Glued on with precision and a time tested Belgian method, the XXX tubulars have gain the team’s confidence for cornering performance, durability and most importantly puncture resistance.

For training, the team uses Bontrager’s 25c RXL AC or RXL Hardcase tires because training is all about riding and not flatting- they’re low maintenance, low worry and high durability.

Race XXX Lite VR Handlebar

VR stands for Variable Radius and refers to the reach and drop of the handlebar. VR handlebars have a shorter reach than manly traditional bars, which eliminates forearm rub on the top of the bar when in the drops and provides for more lever positions and easier access to brakes and shifters. It’s just one of the subtle changes that Lance appreciates. The VR bar was essentially designed to Lance’s preferences and then extrapolated to a wide range of widths for the general riding public. Because of his relatively wide shoulders, Lance rides a 44cm wide handlebar, a detail that also helps open up his chest cavity for efficient breathing. The RXXXL VR’s High Compression Molded carbon construction provides Lance with a super stiff, super lightweight platform that dampens road vibration and offers many comfortable hand positions, and reduces flex while climbing. Lance and team Astana wrap their handlebars with Bontrager Cork Tape. Lance in yellow with the rest of the team in light blue.

Race XXX Lite Stem

Lance rides a stem that’s 120mm long with a -7° rise, supported by 25mm of headset spacers. Bontrager’s carbon Race XXX Lite Road stem provides him with a stiffer front end that transfers power better during out-of-the-saddle climbing and features a four-bolt face plate and two opposing steerer clamp bolts to help distribute clamping forces evenly. Lance choose the XXX over the RXL because he really likes the side to side stiffness, as he has more upper body strength than most.

RXL Saddle

While Lance rode the same saddle for the majority of his career, he began to suffer from back pain during the training period leading up to his comeback. Now with his return, Lance has switched to something from the Bontrager line. Lance is currently on a prototype InForm RXL, Bontrager's top of the line performance road saddle. Offered in three separate widths, each with its own Size Specific Curvature, the inForm RXL saddle ensures the perfect match to support pelvic structure of any rider.

SRAM Red

As an official partner of team Astana, SRAM Red provides riders with the ridiculously light weight and resilient drive train components that the pro peloton demands. SRAM Red is a living lab, creating competition-vanquishing advantages that exceed the demands of the sport’s most serious riders.