Lidl-Trek’s decision to go 1x for the classics was easy

Lidl-Trek’s decision to race SRAM’s 1x RED XPLR AXS drivetrain wasn’t even a sliver of a germ of an idea until team Technical Support Manager Glen Leven took his Trek Checkmate out on Luxembourg’s gravel roads last August. He didn’t set out to test the groupset’s road capability. He simply observed that the bumpy parcours closely simulated the cobbled roads of races like Paris-Roubaix, and that the bike shifted incredibly well, even under load.

Leven is not a professional bike racer, mind you, but he felt that his experience was worthy of further study. So he reached out to Lidl-Trek’s contacts at SRAM, who said that they, too, would love to know how their dedicated gravel drivetrain could serve hardened Classics riders like Mads Pedersen. Leven prepared a presentation for the riders, piqued Pedersen’s interest, and put the Dane on an XPLR-equipped Madone for testing last October.

“And the feedback was immediately unbelievably good,” Leven says. “How stable this rear derailleur is performing under loads, even on bad roads, and you can properly shift.

“Then at the end of January, we did three days testing with Mads and Alex Kirsch on the cobbles. They said we will never go back to 2x on the cobbles because this is insane how good it is.”

On Sunday, March 30, that experimentation was validated. Mads Pedersen went solo with 60 kilometers to go at Gent-Wevelgem and won the 91-year-old classic for the third time in his career. Teammate Jonathan Milan joined him on the podium with a sprint for third. Later, Elisa Balsamo took second in the women’s edition with a mean sprint of her own. Thus far, Lidl-Trek has taken four podiums this spring using the XPLR setup, with two cobbled Monuments still to come.

The biggest benefit of the 1x setup for Lidl-Trek is that it reduces risk. The menacing roads at races like Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders have ended many promising rides due to mechanicals. One less chainring to shift means one less thing that can go wrong. The XPLR rear derailleur is built to be simple, fast, and resistant to impacts or even a stick in the lower pulley. There is no weight penalty by going with the more durable XPLR groupset. And thanks to the 13-speed 10-46 cassette, the riders have access to the same gear range they have on a 2x setup.

The biggest downside of riding 1x is the lack of gear options: 13 down from 24. But in the fastest gears, where riders largely reside during the relatively flat cobbled Classics, there should be no issues racing at a comfortable cadence. With a 54- or 56-tooth chainring, they’ll have all the same gears available to them that they’d also use on, say, a Grand Tour sprint stage. Climbing, however, could be tricky.

Leven gives the Oude Kwaremont, the Tour of Flanders’ most notorious climb, as an example. The two-kilometer climb plateaus at 1.2k, forcing riders to quickly shift to their faster gears coming off of gradients of 9-plus percent, then shift back into their climbing gears for the 4-percent climb over the final 0.5k. Lidl-Trek’s riders don’t have the finer gears of a 2x setup that exist somewhere between the 38- and 46-tooth cogs that make up the low end of XPLR’s range. As a result, they may find themselves losing a few precious seconds as they muscle through their shifts relative to the competition. 

There again, however, XPLR gives riders some peace of mind.

“You stand still for two or three seconds to accelerate to the next jump. But Mads told me that in the past, he felt like he’d lose two-three seconds shifting from the small chainring to the front, just making sure that the chain is on before we accelerate again,” Leven says. “So now we maybe lose three seconds to accelerate again, but we don’t have to worry about our chain not making it.

“It’s just these few short, slow passages, where the riders have to manage this one big jump. But after that, as soon as they have speed again, the bike is the same as always.”

Pedersen’s comments to Leven proved prophetic: He launched his winning move Sunday on the ascent up the Kemmelberg, which features gradients up to 12.2 percent and, like Kwaremont, a tricky false flat before the finishing kick. 

The decision to ride 1x is entirely up to the riders. If any wanted to ride 2x for the cobbles, as they have in the past, Lidl-Trek staff would be more than happy to accommodate the preference. But to an athlete, Lidl-Trek has opted for XPLR this spring. After testing XPLR extensively, Mads and company determined that the benefits far outweigh any potential tradeoffs.

The riders are fortunate to have an option at all. The Trek Madone is one of the few bikes in the WorldTour peloton that is compatible with a Universal Derailleur Hanger, which is a standardized design that makes replacing and swapping components much easier for both athletes and consumers. SRAM parts are designed for UDH, which means that Trek race teams — which partner with SRAM in cross country and downhill mountain biking, cyclocross, gravel and triathlon, as well as road — are able to mix, match and experiment to their hearts’ content. 

“This is one super positive thing on SRAM. Everything is compatible. So you can use a mountain bike rear derailleur on the road. You can mix the parts as you want to an extent,” Leven says. “So you have way more options to think on what is possible. With SRAM, we are free. Whatever has the SRAM logo, we can use.”

Lidl-Trek is at the forefront of an innovative approach to Classics racing, as a result. It all started with a little curiosity and questioning of conventional racing wisdom. And it could lead to a revolution.

“We are the first ones who are using it,” Leven says. “And if anybody is doing the same next year, they’re just copying our idea.”