{"id":682057,"date":"2026-07-09T09:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682057\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T09:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:46:14","slug":"torstein-traeen-is-riding-a-custom-noah-fast-3-0-hand-painted-by-the-ridley-ceo-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/682057\/","title":{"rendered":"Torstein Tr\u00e6en, is riding a custom Noah Fast 3.0 hand-painted by the Ridley CEO himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wearing the yellow jersey after riding into the lead of the Tour de France<\/a> is a career highlight for any cyclist. In addition to donning the iconic maillot jaune, they usually get to ride a specially painted bike equipped with as many matching components as their mechanics can find. <\/p>\n

We saw a similar exercise carried out last year, when Cannondale worked around the clock to paint a Lab71 SuperSix for Ben Healy before escorting it in a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet to ensure it arrived in time for him to defend the jersey in Toulouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Torstein\n<\/p>\n

To the Tour! Upon completion, the frameset was escorted to Brussels Airport for an express flight to the Hautes-Pyr\u00e9n\u00e9es <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)<\/p>\n

The current race leader, Torstein Tr\u00e6en, has this honour and his Uno-X Mobility <\/a>team has pulled out all the stops to commemorate his remarkable route to yellow. From its factory in Belgium, Uno-X<\/a>‘s bike sponsor Ridley delivered a yellow Noah Fast 3.0 to southern France within 30 hours of Tr\u00e6en pulling on the leader’s jersey.<\/p>\n

In May 2022, Tr\u00e6en discovered he had returned an abnormal doping test result. His team doctor interpreted this as a sign he could be ill, and urged his rider to see his GP. As pain in his testicles increased, an ultrasound scan revealed he had testicular cancer<\/a>. When his left testicle was removed just 41 days on from his doping alert, a 15mm cancerous tumour was found inside. But it hadn’t spread, enabling him to make a full recovery and restart racing in August 2022.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From<\/p>\n

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\"Torstein\n<\/p>\n

The raw carbon frameset offsets the yellow-painted headtube quite exquisitely. A series of diagonal lines accentuates the bike’s need for speed<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)<\/p>\n

At last year’s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a,<\/a> Tr\u00e6en, now 30, wore the red leader’s jersey for four stages on the way to finishing ninth on GC. On stage four of the 2026 Tour de France, he joined a strong breakaway powered by Mads Pedersen<\/a>‘s Lidl-Trek<\/a> teammates, who succeeded in setting up Tr\u00e6en’s fellow Norwegian for stage victory in Foix. <\/p>\n

Tr\u00e6en now leads EF Education-EasyPost’s Sean Quinn by 28 seconds in the general classification, and more importantly, he is ahead of race favourite Tadej Poga\u010dar by nearly eight minutes. Being a good climber, this buffer could help him retain yellow through the mountainous second week.<\/p>\n

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\"Torstein\n<\/p>\n

Ridley founder Jochim Aerts personally spraying the Noah Fast frame<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)<\/p>\n

Now let’s take a close look at his custom Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, which was sprayed by the brand’s CEO, Jochim Aerts, in a return to his frame-spraying roots. The third-generation bike is considered one of the peloton’s best aero bikes<\/a>, thanks to a combination of minimal frontal area and deep tubes designed to take advantage of the ‘sailing effect’.<\/p>\n

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\"Torstein\n<\/p>\n

The raw carbon frame is essentially the same stock Ridley Noah frameset but the red accents have been ditched for yellow<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)<\/p>\n

The byproduct of this chunky tubing is weight. At the Opening Weekend<\/a>, we weighed one of Tr\u00e6en’s teammates’ bikes at 8kg, which is on the heavy side for a WorldTour bike. In light of that, Ridley hasn’t gone all out on the yellow paint \u2013 just spraying parts of the head tube and top half of the fork saves 100g over a full coat.<\/p>\n

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\"Torstein\n<\/p>\n

A man on a mission – Jochim Aerts in the spray booth<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)<\/p>\n

His Noah Fast will be built with a full SRAM Red AXS <\/a>groupset, including a power meter \u2013 the complete bike is estimated to weigh 7.9-8kg, according to Ridley. As for the yellow details, expect to see yellow handlebar tape, wheel decals, and SRAM stickers on the levers and cranks.<\/p>\n

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Whether the Norwegian uses his custom Ridley Noah Fast for the first mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France between Pau and Gavarnie-G\u00e8dre, we’ll have to wait and see \u2013 we suspect he’ll be on the unreleased Falcon RS lightweight bike<\/a> to ensure he stays in yellow for the coming stages.<\/p>\n

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\nTour de France
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