Along with most of the World’s top cyclists, Trek Factory Racing’s Anton Cooper was in Scotland last weekend, preparing for the 2023 UCI XC World Championships taking place at Glentress Forest. The 28 year old is no stranger to the rainbow jersey, having claimed the Junior World Champion title in 2012, and the U23 Marathon World Champion title in 2015, but he is yet to see quite as much success during his Elite career.
The Kiwi has consistently posted top 20 finishes this season, building gradually off the back of a winter plagued by injury and illness. In Scotland, Anton showed his strength and depth with consistent results, placing 10th in both the XCC Short Track and the XCO. While he rode the all-new Trek Supercaliber at the main event, Anton chose the Trek Procaliber for his Short Track assault.
Anton Cooper’s Trek Procaliber
- Rider: Anton Cooper
- Nationality: New Zealand
- Age: 28
- Height: 167 cm
- 2023 Season Best Result: 8th XC World Cup, Leogang
At 167 cm tall (~5ft 7″), Anton Cooper rode the Trek Procaliber in a size medium (17.5″). It rolls on a Bontrager Kovee RSL wheelset with shallow 22mm carbon rims with a 29mm internal width. Home to Kogel bearings is the DT240 Center Lock hubset, laced to the carbon rims via 24 bladed straight-pull spokes.
On race day, those rims were home to 2.35″ Bontrager Vallnord RSL tires, that are seemingly not in production. The tread pattern is very similar to that of the XR1 Team Issue tires, but less cluttered with a more distinct gap between the center tread and edge knobs.
That said, Anton also had some Pirelli tires at his disposal, should he have wished for something with a little more grip for the slick conditions on the hill. Those are the Pirelli Scorpion XC RC tires in the Lite casing, preferred by team mate Evie Richards. Either way, Anton runs around 20 PSI in the front and 21.5 PSI in the rear, with no tire inserts.
In the cockpit, we have a flat, carbon handlebar with a 5° sweep from Bontrager. It has a 31.8mm clamp diameter and is cut to Anton’s preferred width of 690mm. The Darimo stem has a 75mm reach and a -40° offset, bringing the ride height down significantly. For speed control, Anton runs the SRAM Level Ultimate Stealth brakes with the carbon lever blade. His calipers are the more powerful 4-piston option, set up with a 160mm rotor front and rear.
Anton is running a 100mm travel RockShox SID fork with the new Charger Race Day 2 damper. While that damper is now available with a 3-Position adjustment for Open, Pedal and Lock modes, Anton is running the 2-Position version for Open and Lock modes only. The air spring gets 110 PSI with no tokens.
Anton runs a 38T chainring on his SRAM XX SL AXS Eagle Transmission, with 170mm cranks. For racing, he went without the power meter to keep weight to a minimum.
To the same end, Anton goes without a dropper seat post on his Procaliber, and the Supercaliber that he rode for the XCO event. He runs a dropper only on the extra challenging track at Val di Sole. Here in Glentress, his Procaliber is seen with a Bontrager RSL Carbon seat post, topped with a Bontrager Aeolus Pro saddle with carbon rails.
