New Trek Émonda in 2024?

Preseason team concentrations are also the place where new material is usually tested that will be used throughout the year. Even on some occasions, brands take the opportunity to test prototypes of bikes and other components. In this world hypercommunicated by social networks, it is not complicated that despite the care that brands put, they end up leaking. This has happened to Trek during the concentration in Alicante of Lidl-Trek in which Giulio Ciccone has been seen on a new bike.

Giulio Ciccone trains in Alicante with what could be a new Trek Émonda

In the well-known Weight Weenies cycling forum, the photo that opens this article appeared. A Lidl-Trek cyclist, Giulio Ciccone by the tattoo observed on his wrist, on a bike that, at first glance, for most people, could be the aerodynamic Trek Madone. However, the keen eye quickly realizes that, despite having a design of the upper area of the seat tube similar to the IsoFlow of the aerodynamic model, it has much more stylized tubes, far from the large volumes that the Madone exhibits.

Everything points to it being a prototype of what would be a new Trek Émonda, the brand's climber model, whose latest iteration, which already included certain aerodynamic skills, dates from 2020 so it would be a bike that is already at the end of the life cycle usual in bike brands in recent years.

The profiling of the tubes that can be seen in the photo seems to be quite similar to the current Émonda, with the main change being the incorporation of a design similar to the IsoFlow of the Maddone but without the gap that this leaves for the passage of air in search of limiting interaction with the legs. Presumably, more than aerodynamics, which is sure to also be improved compared to the current design, what Trek is looking for is to take advantage of the advantages of this floating design in terms of absorption as the upper part of the seat tube and its mini-post are suspended in the air.

This is curious from the point of view that the Émonda model had always sought maximum stiffness above other considerations without including the IsoSpeed damping system which its sisters Madone and Domane did have. However, the increasing stiffness of the bikes does not make it strange that Trek has decided to expand the absorption capacity of this bike in addition to, as we indicated, improving aerodynamics following the increasingly common paradigm of aerolight bikes.

Beyond the bike, which being painted in a flat color, without any type of logo we can infer that it is in the prototype phase and we will surely still see changes regarding the final design that, if the usual trend in brands is met, should see the light a few weeks before the Tour de France. We say that, beyond this new model, another point attracts our gaze.

It is the SRAM Red AXS rear derailleur that has an attachment that appears to be of the UHD type that the brand has incorporated in its mountain groups and that allows the derailleur to be fixed directly to the axle. This would amplify the rumors that the arrival of a new SRAM Red that has been rumored for months would be imminent.

In any case, it is difficult to get much more information from a single photo but this will make us keep our eyes open for upcoming team concentrations to discover what Trek and SRAM have prepared for us for this 2024.