Tour Down Under racing is set to kick off this week, and Annemiek van Vleuten’s Mitchelton-Scott is looking for a fifth consecutive women’s win. But back in Europe the Dutch rider and winner of the 2019 Road World Championship is scouting roads & getting in shape for her race debut on a new custom rainbow-painted Addict RC celebrating her big 105km solo win in Yorkshire last fall.
World Champ Scott Addict RC of Annemiek van Vleuten
Every bike maker these days jumps at the chance to paint up a rainbow-themes bike for their world champs to stand out in the peloton.
And Annemiek van Vleuten’s custom Addict RC is the latest to take a relatively subdued approach to the rainbow stripes.
Well, at least it’s subdued until the light hits it. Van Vleuten’s Addict is essentially painted black with some simple rainbow stripes around the fork legs & seattube, and silver logos. But the bike is really anything but black, covered with rainbow sparkle that pops the second the sun hits it. And that prismatic silver downtube logo, quickly brings out a rainbow of highlights to match.
More than just some shiny paint, Scott adds in details that call back to 37-year-old van Vleuten’s heritage and impressive 2019 race season where she won not only worlds, but “one-day monuments like Liège–Bastogne–Liège to multi-day stage races like the Giro Rosa”. According to her team, she’s been riding around Mt. Etna in Italy with some of their men’s squad this past week, eyeing the roads in hopes of more 2020 Giro Rosa success.
Those call backs come out in her Addict RC’s graphics, from the 105km Solo downtube detail to the Dutch windmill, tulip & wooden clog behind her headset.
“I really love the bike SCOTT made special for me. The thing I like the most is that it says 105km solo, that’s the amount of kilometers I did solo at the World Championships, so it makes the bike really personal to me.”
Mitchelton-Scott Addict RC pro bike spec
Van Vleuten’s Mitchelton-Scott team Scott Addict RC race bike gets a pro bike build befitting a world champion. The bike itself is a size XXS of the 2020 aero carbon Addict RC, updated last summer with a completely integrated cockpit setup, improved stiffness, and more slippery aerodynamics (likely in the hi-mod, but not lightest HMX carbon spec level that the pros typically race). Now a disc brake only frameset (the first season for the women’s team to race on discs), it’s said to be lighter than ever so van Vleuten’s bike is probably close to the UCI 6.8kg weight limit. (Claimed weight is just 7.12kg for a medium bike with a similar stock setup sold to consumers.)
Her bike is built with a complete Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9170 electronic drivetrain & hydraulic brakeset.
It’s been 3.5 years since we saw that groupset debuted, and we anticipate that Shimano will likely have a replacement for it this coming road season. A Dura-Ace powermeter crankset with 53/39T rings collects data as she puts the power down through Dura-Ace pedals.
Scott’s Syncros brand handles the sleekly integrated cockpit, with an out-front mount for the Garmin Edge 1030. No wires or hoses to be seen, as everything is inside the one-piece Syncros Creston IC SL carbon 380mm bar & 80mm stem, then wrapped with Syncros Super Light tape. The bike features a proprietary D-shaped Syncros Duncan Aero SL seatpost, topped by a carbon-railed Belcarra saddle.
Shimano also delivers wheels, here what appear to be carbon Dura-Ace C40 clinchers wrapped in Pirelli P Zero tires. But the dark photos seem to show the soft compound yellow-label Pirelli P Zero Velo Tub tubulars that the team will actually race, and which are now available to consumers, too. The other small details include some Tacx Ciro composite bottle cages and the Addicts stock bolt-on thru-axles with removable lever.
Annemiek van Vleuten is set to debut her new bike, racing the 2020 season in the rainbow jersey at the end of February at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
