Trek launched its current-generation Madone three years ago with the idea that it could be a true all-in-one road racing platform: light enough for the biggest mountain stages, aero enough to spend all day out front in the wind, and comfortable enough to ride all day. Trek itself has since muddied that philosophy with the ultralight Emonda and the remarkably comfortable Domane family, however, so with a new Madone presumably on the horizon, the most logical pathway at this point is to transform the storied nameplate into a more relevant dedicated aero road bike.
Why do we expect that the Madone will go full-blown aero this time around, you ask? Because countless analyses have suggested that save for the most demanding climbs, aerodynamic drag is much more important than weight when it comes to going faster – and given that the Madone will likely continue to be Trek's premier professional race bike, going faster will be the primary goal above all else. Third-party wind tunnel tests have shown, too, that while the current Madone is better than a round-tubed bike in terms of drag, there's still a sizeable gap to dedicated aero machines.
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The current Madone already uses nominally aero tube profiles but we'd like to see the more aggressive shapes of the Speed Concept carried over to the road
Trek also already has plenty of applicable technology to pump into such a design with years of research on wind-cheating Kamm-tail shapes under its belt. We expect that a proper aero Madone would continue with the distinctively squared-off tube profiles but with much deeper cross-sections derived from the time trial/triathlon-focused Speed Concept. These would likely be tempered somewhat for general road racing use, though, if for no other reason than to make the bike more manageable in the strong crosswinds that so often strike big stage races.
Such an aero-focused Madone would probably feature a considerable amount of component integration as well. Fully internal and convertible routing is a given, possibly with the option of smoothly capped-off ports for use with SRAM's upcoming wireless electronic group. We wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of matching one-piece, aero-shaped carbon bar and stem, either, although Trek would need to produce it in enough sizes to accommodate both the general population and ultra-flexible pro riders.
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