Ellen van Dijk is headed toward her hour of power on the Grenchen velodrome in Switzerland.
Van Dijk and her Trek-Segafredo team unveiled the Trek Speed Concept that the 35-year-old would ride in her effort to topple the world hour record Monday.
Per UCI regulation, all official world hour attempts have to be conducted on a regulation track frame. Van Dijk and Trek opted to modify the road time trial frame that won the Dutchwoman the 2021 world title rather than gambling on a track-ready rig.
The outcome?
An ultra-aero adapted frame looks likely to go fast.
“Today we had a little exam. We put it all together and we checked the CdA, and it was even better than before,” Trek-Segafredo head of performance said in a recent team release. “If everything is right, we think we can put the record over 49 kilometers.”
Van Dijk will be looking to go better than the 48.405km set by Joss Lowden in the same Swiss velodrome last fall.
“This has been a dream of mine for a very long time. The hour record is something that I have always said I wanted to do one day and now that day is finally here,” van Dijk said when she confirmed her effort earlier this spring.
“I get butterflies in my stomach when I think about doing it, a mix of excitement and nerves which is normal. You are always just on the edge with big challenges, and this is a huge challenge, so it is going to be exciting and frightening at the same time.”
You can tune in on the Trek team website at 5 p.m. CEST/11 a.m. ET to watch Van Dijk’s effort.
Get up-close with her Speed Concept track bike in the gallery below.
Van Dijk will run Pirelli Tubular 23mm tires on her Zipp Sub 9 Track wheels Monday. The running pressure will depend on the temperature at the time of her effort.
Van Dijk and her team opted for 58×14 gearing.
Lowden rode 64×15 on her Argon 18 Electron when she set the record last fall.
No rainbow flashes for the road world TT champion, whose 50-50 split frame reflects the blue and white of Team Trek-Segafredo.
“Hold the line” sits front of view on Van Dijk’s Bontrager Race Space bars. The Dutchwoman has a 40mm stack.
No hiding how long Van Dijk will have to hold her leg-burning effort.
“How many hours, Ellen?”