New cycling shoes from Bontrager have been spotted on the feet of Lidl-Trek riders around the Tour Down Under as well as at pre-season training camps in Spain.
The leaked shoes are nowhere to be seen on Trek's website, and early indications suggest the sub-brand of the American bike marque could be completely overhauling its road shoe line-up, which hasn't been updated since 2020.
It's been over three years since Bontrager released its last range-topping road shoes, in the form of the Bontrager XXX road shoe, so what is Bontrager releasing to bring its shoe line up to date?
Well, from the pictures we have seen, it looks as though the brand will be bringing out at least two new pairs of kicks in 2024.
The first seems to be a more traditional shoe, with a large upper layer and smaller tongue up top, while the second looks like a much more airy design, perhaps aimed at hot weather riding.
The ventilated shoes (pictured above and below) bear a strong resemblance to the Specialized S-works Ares Road Shoes. This design philosophy is better described as an inner sock or booty, with an exoskeleton on the outside that retains your foot in place. Specialized say this allows for better foot retention and improved ventilation.
Zooming in on the new shoes reveals a blurry logo on the tongue which seems to read 'RSL', most likely the name of the new shoes. This branding would bring Bontrager's shoes in line with its other products such as RSL handlebars, and RSL wheelsets.
As for the retention system, Bontrager appears to have stuck with the Boa system, more specifically the Dual Dial S3. These are the same micro-adjustable dials seen on the Specialized S-works Torch shoes, and pose an update over the Boa IP1 dials seen on the previous XXX Road Shoes.
We don't yet have any details on the cost and availability of the new shoes, but given that they have already been spotted out in the wild, we imagine that they will see a formal release in the spring of this year - most likely ahead of the big classics where the likes of Mads Pedersen could put them straight into the spotlight.
We don't think they'll come cheap either - Bontrager's XXX Road Shoes retail for $419.99/£349.99, so expect a similar or greater price tag.
