Looking at the illustrious career of Dutch superstar Ellen van Dijk, one could be forgiven for wondering where she would end her career. She has won the Tour of Flanders and has wrapped the rainbow band not once, but twice in the individual time trial.

It requires supreme fitness and fortitude, but also a very specific bike. Van Dijk modified his Trek Speed Concept TT machine to allow him to transfer positions from his regular road bike.

The Hour Record has very specific requirements. You might imagine it is for a track bike like the Lotus x Hope HB.T, as seen at the Olympics, but because of its long duration, it is more like a hyper-controlled time trial than a track event. Wiggins will ride a Pinarello Bolide and Dowsett will ride a Factor Hanzo. Wiggins rides a Pinarello Bolide and Dowsett rides a Factor Hanzo. If your contracted riders are going for one of the biggest prizes in cycling, you want them to use your equipment.

Trek's designers and engineers took a stock Speed Concept and made some subtle but important modifications to make it track-ready. The most obvious change is at the rear: the silhouette is familiar, but the rear derailleur was eliminated in favor of a fixed gearing requirement, and the dropouts were replaced with sliding ones. The entire rear end has also been narrowed to accommodate narrower track hubs. Van Dyke used a 58-14 ratio and maintained a cadence of 93-97 RPM.

Similarly, the forks, normally through-axle on the latest generation of Speed Concepts, have been changed to bolt-on. There is no room for wheel changes, which creates unnecessary drag except for the low-profile, aerodynamically optimized bolts. Other wildly frivolous parts like the bottle bosses have also been removed from the frame, as there is no time to take a drink.

Speaking of wheels, the double-disc arrangement is familiar from most Pursuit disciplines on the track, so it is no surprise that Zipp Sub-9 track wheels are incorporated; glued to 23mm diameter prototype Pirelli tubulars, they run at about 116 psi. The actual pressure values will vary depending on the temperature during the trials. The clock face is fitting for the motif and may look familiar to some, as Jens Voigt had Bontrager disc wheels on his Speed Concept Hour Record bike.

The front appears to have aftermarket custom extensions, which Trek manufactured in-house. Handlebars are the first point of contact with the air and play an important role in overall aerodynamics; thanks to UCI rules, they will be technically available, but probably either prohibitively expensive or with lead times approaching infinity. Or perhaps both.

Ceramic bearings are used throughout and, unusually, a Sram XX1 1x chain was chosen over a track-specific chain. The front chainring is a narrow wide SRAM one for road use, paired with a Quarq power meter.

The blue and white split-design paint, the colors of Trek Segafredo, appears inverted when viewed from a fixed camera, depending on which side of the velodrome she is on at the time. The design is understated but well executed, with a note at the base of the bar boldly evoking "hold the line."

The two-time world champion's clothing requirements are already taken to the extreme, with van Dijk wearing a combination of Santini's standard skinsuit and Giro's Aerohead helmet.

Trek will be live streaming the entirety of Ellen van Dijk's Hour Record Challenge on its YouTube channel starting at 4:00 pm (5:00 pm CST). Follow this link (opens in new tab) to watch the Hour Record live (opens in new tab).