It's clear that Trek has been busy in the design room over the past few months. Following Trek-Segafredo riders competing in the Criterium du Dauphiné on their new Trek time trial bikes, it appears that Trek has also unveiled a new bike.
Trek-Segafredo's former junior world champion Quinn Simmons, one of the favorites to win, took to the start line of the Unbound Gravel, apparently riding Trek's new gravel bike.
This image, taken by Will Matthews for Cycling News, shows that the bike Simmons rode was not a model from Trek's existing lineup.
Neither Trek nor representatives of the Trek-Segafredo team have been able to confirm any details about the bike, so at this stage we can only speculate that this is a new Trek Checkpoint.
The head tube mimics the Trek Emonda, and the seat tube junction is similar to the second place Domane SL.
At the front, the Emonda-inspired head tube follows the recent road bike trend of integrated cabling. Like Trek's lightweight racers, the brake hoses can be seen entering the front of the headtube. The hoses then exit the fork legs and chainstays not on the drive side, at the same location as the current checkpoints.
The seatpost itself is similar to the seatmast design used by the existing Checkpoint, but the Isospeed design is slightly different in shape and most closely resembles the existing Domane SL. The top tube shape also mimics the Domane and is more curved than the existing Checkpoint.
The fork still appears to have fender mounts, suggesting that Trek is keeping it fender compatible. However, in the photos posted here, no mounts can be found on the rear seatstays, suggesting that Trek has likely adopted the hidden mount design found on the Domane series models.
Finally, Trek appears to have done away with the stranglehold sliding dropouts in favor of a simpler fixed through-axle.
Of course, no word on a release date for this bike as details have yet to be finalized, but as always, we will be the first to report news as it comes in.
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