If we were to rewind only six months, it would appear that there was a consensus developing that one race bike might be all you need. That’s not to say that dedicated aero or climbing models no longer existed, but the merging of the two bikes into one had gained significant support.
The result saw that a portion of the WorldTour teams were doing all their racing, bar time trials, on a single bike. Think the Specialized Tarmac SL8 which, like its predecessor the SL7, made the US brand’s aero machine, the Venge, obsolete. Or Trek’s latest Madone, which used developments in frame technology to slim down, yet still remain aerodynamically efficient, thus rendering its lightweight Émonda superfluous.
