Elisa Balsamo has already been on the rostrum eight instances in 2024, racking up wins in Spain, Italy, and Belgium to this point this yr. However whereas the Lidl-Trek rider has entry to Trek’s full complement of race bikes, all of her victories this yr have been taken aboard her Trek Madone SLR.
In fact, with the latest rumors of a brand new SRAM groupset circulating over the previous couple of months, we have been significantly intrigued by her non-standard levers on her staff bike once we obtained our palms on it earlier than the beginning of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. However mechanics defined to us that these weren’t new or unreleased components, however as a substitute customized levers utilized by Balsamo and several other different riders.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
The shifters in query, characteristic a a lot smaller diameter design than the present SRAM Pink levers and look remarkably much like the present technology SRAM Apex AXS brake levers, however with some essential variations.
A staff mechanic at Lidl-Trek girls’s staff informed Biking Weekly that the Apex AXS-shaped levers characteristic a stripped-down design with a lighter-weight carbon fiber brake lever blade. Reportedly, the rationale behind this was rider consolation. SRAM Pink AXS levers have lengthy been recognized for his or her bigger hood design, which has been comparatively polarizing. Balsamo’s levers then supply an alternate, a hybrid taking the perfect shifter design of SRAM’s present smaller lever hoods, and mixing it with the lightest weight components out there.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
The remainder of Balsamo’s groupset is a way more customary affair, although some fascinating gearing selections have been made for the Classics season. Balsamo rides a bigger 52/39 chainset up entrance.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
As soon as upon a time, this might be a ‘semi-compact’ chainset, however with Sram’s smaller 10t sprocket on the rear, this setup permits for the equal of operating a 56t chainring with an 11-speed rear sprocket.
The cassette in query has a wider vary 10-32, which permits Balsamo to have a big gear vary for the tremendous steep Belgian bergs with out sacrificing top-end velocity.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
One other element on the Lidl-Trek bikes that has been inflicting fairly the stir is the unreleased Pirelli tires marked as ‘prototype’. To this point, the prototype tires have already been ridden to victory by Balsamo at the Basic Brugge-De Panne, however Pirelli has launched no additional particulars about them. The tires are fitted aboard a Bontrager Aeolus RSL 51 TLR disc wheelset, arrange tubeless.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
Moreover WorldTour-only and prototype package, the Lidl-Trek staff mechanics have made a few smaller modifications to the previous world champion’s bike for the Classics, most notably a bottle cage hack.
(Picture credit score: Future (Andy Jones))
Small rubber O rings have been added to every facet of Balsamo’s bottle cages, a transfer which the staff hopes will cut back the probabilities of loosing bottles over the brutal bumps in races like Roubaix and Flanders.
