{"id":465875,"date":"2026-03-09T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465875\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:07:12","slug":"when-rim-brakes-and-mechanical-shifting-ruled-strade-bianche-the-trek-domane-that-fabian-cancellara-rode-to-victory-in-2016-cycling-news-bike-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/465875\/","title":{"rendered":"When rim brakes and mechanical shifting ruled Strade Bianche \u2014 the Trek Domane that Fabian Cancellara rode to victory in 2016 – Cycling News | Bike Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With Strade Bianche <\/a>now behind us for another year, let\u2019s take a look back at the second-generation Trek Domane that Fabian Cancellara piloted to his third \u2013 and final \u2013 Strade Bianche victory in 2016. The Swiss legend\u2019s ride was unreleased at the time of the race, and featured Trek\u2019s updated IsoSpeed Decoupler system, rim brakes and mechanical shifting.<\/p>\n

\"TrekTrek Domane 2016 – drive side- \u00a9Paolo Ciaberta (Image Credit: Paolo Ciaberta)<\/p>\n

The Trek Domane<\/a> made its debut in the spring of 2012, developed in collaboration with Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara to tackle the cobbled roads of the Spring Classics. Designed as an endurance bike<\/a>, the Domane featured (and still features) space for wider tyres, a more relaxed geometry than a standard race bike, and enhanced stability.<\/p>\n

One of its standout innovations is the IsoSpeed system<\/a>, a \u201croad-smoothing technology\u201d that has been a defining feature of the Domane since its inception.<\/p>\n

Although IsoSpeed has developed over the years, Trek says that it has always challenged other vibration-damping tech by maintaining the same diamond-shaped frame as traditional bikes but decoupling the seat tube from the rest of the frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis allows the bike to respond and manoeuvre just like a standard race bike, while the decoupled seat tube enables enough vertical flex to elevate comfort for every rider,\u201d Trek explains.<\/p>\n

\"FabianFabian Cancellara riding a Trek Domane\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fabian Cancellara of Team Trek\u2013Segafredo nearly always rode the Domane, whether he was on asphalt roads or the rougher stuff associated with Strade Bianche and the cobbled classics, while other riders on the team spent most of their time on Trek\u2019s Madone or Emonda.<\/p>\n

He also had electronic shifting at his disposal, but chose to stick with mechanical (cable-operated) shifting on his drop bar bikes regardless of the road surface. By 2016, he was just about the only rider at the very top level of professional cycling still using mechanical shifting, apparently because he preferred the \u2018feel\u2019 of mechanical. When you\u2019re Spartacus \u2013 among the best one-day\/classics\/time trial riders ever \u2013 you don\u2019t really have to justify yourself, though.<\/p>\n

\"TrekTrek Domane 2016 – Fabian Cancellara Strade Bianche winning bike – \u00a9Paolo Ciaberta (Image Credit: Paolo Ciaberta)<\/p>\n

As mentioned above, stock Domane bikes\u00a0come with what Trek calls its \u201cendurance geometry\u201d, which is designed to be performance-focused and\u00a0less aggressive and more stable\u00a0than the brand\u2019s race-oriented geometry.<\/p>\n

However, the geometry of Cancellara\u2019s 2016 Domane wasn\u2019t the same as you or I could get if we walked into a Trek dealer. His bike was built with a long reach (the horizontal distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube) and a low stack height (the vertical distance between those two points) courtesy of a lengthy top tube and a short head tube. The result is a lower and more stretched riding position, which was supposedly more efficient.<\/p>\n

\"TrekTrek Domane 2016 top tube detail – \u00a9Paolo Ciaberta (Image Credit: Paolo Ciaberta)<\/p>\n

The wheels used were Bontrager\u2019s<\/a> Aelous 5s (Bontrager being a Trek-owned brand) with 50mm-deep carbon rims, and the groupset was Shimano\u2019s top-level Dura-Ace 9000<\/a> \u2013 the mechanical version, as mentioned above. Trek-sponsored WorldTour team Lidl-Trek continues to rely on Bontrager components, including the Aeolus wheel range.<\/p>\n

Like the majority of the WorldTour peloton in 2016, Cancellara used rim brakes. The UCI (cycling\u2019s world governing body) allowed disc brakes on a trial basis in late 2015, but the trial was temporarily suspended in April 2016 after safety concerns. The brakes on Cancellara\u2019s Domane were direct mount with each arm attached directly on to the frame\/fork rather than via a central bolt. No Domane available to the public at the time took direct mount brakes, so this was a notable new feature.<\/p>\n

The rim brake version of the Domane SLR had room for 28mm tyres, while a disc brake version was also available with clearance for tyres up to 32mm \u2013 positively roomy for bikes at the time. These days, even aero road bikes<\/a> often come with this amount of clearance.<\/p>\n

\"TrekTrek Domane 2016 de-coupler close up – \u00a9Paolo Ciaberta (Image Credit: Paolo Ciaberta)<\/p>\n

The IsoSpeed Decoupler was updated with the addition of a front IsoSpeed decoupler to reduce vibrations further. A slider had also been introduced on Domane SLR models that allowed riders to adjust the level of damping offered by the rear IsoSpeed.<\/p>\n

We reviewed the Trek Domane SLR 6<\/a>, and David Arthur said at the time:\u00a0\u201cThe Domane just got even better. It\u2019s smoother and more comfortable than the original, and fast and fun as well\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TrekTrek Domane SLR 6 – riding 1 (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)<\/p>\n

The Domane still exists in Trek\u2019s range \u2013 it\u2019s described as an all-road bike these days \u2013 but we now see Lidl Trek\u00a0opting for the Trek Madone<\/a> at these spring classics.<\/p>\n

Check out loads more Bikes at Bedtime here\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Strade Bianche now behind us for another year, let\u2019s take a look back at the second-generation Trek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-465875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}