Trek

Trek is a bicycle manufacturer based in Wisconsin, USA. The company produces a range of bikes, as well as clothing, equipment and tools.

History

Dick Burke and Bevil Hogg founded Trek in 1976 with the goal of creating a brand that made high-end bikes in the United States. The company produced over 800 custom steel touring frames in the first year of operation.

Trek was a victim of its early success during the late 1970s, unable to keep up with demand from its converted barn factory. It was only after a move to a new corporate headquarters on the outskirts of Waterloo, Wisconsin, that the company could fully function as a money-making business. It launched its first full bikes soon after, with steel road racing models and mountain bikes released to the public in 1981 and 1983 respectively.

In the years that followed, Trek released a clothing range, expanded its headquarters yet again and launched offices in Europe. The 1990s marked a key point in the company’s history with its first two full-carbon framed bikes being released, the 5500 and 5200. The 5500 was the world’s lightest production road frame at the time, weighing in at just 1.11kg.

After its groundbreaking work in the road bike sector, Trek followed suit in the off-road world. Its first full-suspension mountain bike was released in 1992, with the lightest MTB frame on the market, the 9900, released a year later. In 1997, John Burke, son of co-founder Dick, took over as CEO.

By the turn of the century, the Trek-sponsored pro team US Postal Service had won the Tour de France with American Lance Armstrong. The Texan would go on to win another six Tours in a row, all aboard a Trek bike. However, it would come to light in 2012 that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career. Following an investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency, he was stripped of all of his wins.

During the 2010s, alongside major expansion into growing cycling markets such as e-bikes and gravel, Trek increased its influence within pro cycling. Sponsoring ProTour team Trek Factory Racing from 2014. This team would ultimately launch a women’s squad in 2018, and the squads both now race as Lidl-Trek. The company’s support for women’s cycling was also highlighted by its equal prize money for winners of the Cyclo-cross World Cup event held at its Wisconsin headquarters in 2017.

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Pro cycling

Current sponsorships: Lidl-Trek, Baloise Trek Lions

Highlights:

• Roberto Heras won stage 20’s ITT and the overall classification at the 2003 Vuelta a España for US Postal Service whilst riding Trek’s 5900 road bike.
• Paolo Savoldelli then delivered the newly-branded Discovery Channel team a maglia rosa at the Giro d’Italia in 2005, Trek’s first Giro d’Italia GC victory.
• Between 2007 and 2009, Alberto Contador used Trek bikes to win two editions of the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España.
• In 2011, Leopard Trek saw instant success thanks to new signing Fabian Cancellara. The Swiss Classics and TT specialist won E3 and podiumed three Monuments in the spring. Andy and Fränk Schleck then finished second and third respectively at the 2011 Tour de France. The season concluded with Oliver Zaugg triumphing at Il Lombardia.
• Over the next four years, Cancellara won the opening stage of the 2012 Tour de France, two editions of Ronde van Vlaanderen, the 2013 Paris-Roubaix, the 2016 Strade Bianche and the Rio 2016 Olympic ITT on the final race day of his career.
• Mads Pedersen rode the Trek Madone SL6 to a surprise World Championship Road Race title in 2019.
• Pedersen would secure stage wins at all three Grand Tours by the time the 2022 season concluded - he currently has six stages to his name (2x Tour de France, 3x Vuelta a España and 1x Giro d'Italia).