Stuff I'm Riding, Part 1

With the new year comes a new team, new sponsors, and most importantly, new gear. Well, maybe not most importantly, but new gear is pretty cool.
So I thought I'd start a little periodical running down all the cool stuff I'm riding this year. Naturally, this first installment will detail the most important piece of equipment I ride - my bike.
Here it is, the Trek Madone Pro, known as the Madone 6.9 if you try to find it in a bike shop.
Draped in a full SRAM Red component group, with Bontrager wheels, bars, stem and saddle, and Speedplay pedals, this thing weighs in at about 17 Lbs. Now I hate playing the weight game, and considering I way almost 150 lbs. myself, a pound or so here and there will only change my total weight by less than 1%. But, this bike is freakin' light. That 17 Lbs. may not sound so amazing, but consider that weight includes a PowerTap Power meter, heavy-ish 'training' wheels, training pedals, and alloy bars and stem. When we get our race bikes in a couple of weeks here, with carbon wheels, bars, and stem, and race pedals, I think our mechanic may have to get creative to keep this bike over the 15 Lb. UCI weight limit.
All that being said, weight isn't everything, right? Of course, a bike must also be judged by its stiffness, ride quality, and aesthetics (otherwise known as 'lust factor'). To start with the stiffness, which I personally consider to be the most important aspect of bike performance, I need say no more than this is the stiffest bike I have ever ridden, period. I have ridden several ProTour bikes in the past and this one smashes them all in the stiffness category, and just may be the stiffest out there right now. Now for those of you wondering why one would be so concerned about a bike being stiff, consider this: when I'm sprinting up a hill on my bike, producing around 1500 watts and hundreds of Nm worth of torque, I want all of that power to go into pushing me down the road, instead of into flexing the frame around. Now when I look down at the bottom bracket of this frame (the part where the crank attaches), I see an industry-first 90mm wide bracket, which is at least 20mm wider than any other bikes out there. And wider means more material which means stiffer. It also has a unique integrated seatpost system that allows the frame to be solid at the seat tube, with no opening for a seatpost. Again, more material equals more stiffness. Any one can take a look at this baby and know it isn't going to give much.
Now I think I can be pretty short about the ride quality. Considering this bike is carbon fiber, just like every other Pro race bike out there, it has a 'carbon' feel to it, like most other race bikes. It soaks up small road vibrations and sort of bounces you over the big ones, like riding on the wide side of a two-by-four. The small difference with this bike is the tubes are actually a bit narrower in the horizontal direction than on most bikes (because they are massively wide in the other direction), which gives the bike a bit more vertical give, which means a happier hindside for me after a five-hour ride.
As for the 'lust factor' of this bike, I'll let you decide. Everyone has different tastes I suppose, but take one look at this bike just screaming "race me!" at you and we both know you hope your other bike won't find out about the way you feel.