Wearing the yellow jersey after riding into the lead of the Tour de France is a career highlight for any cyclist. In addition to donning the iconic maillot jaune, they usually get to ride a specially painted bike equipped with as many matching components as their mechanics can find.
We saw a similar exercise carried out last year, where Cannondale worked around the clock to paint a Lab71 SuperSix before escorting it in a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet to ensure it arrived in time for him to defend the jersey in Toulouse.
A tricolour national championship-winning livery carried out by Unlimited Colors from the Netherlands
(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)
The current race leader, Torstein Træen, has this honour and his Uno-X Mobility team has pulled out all the stops to commemorate his remarkable route to yellow. From its factory in Belgium, Uno-X‘s bike sponsor Ridley delivered a yellow Noah Fast 3.0 to southern France within 30 hours of Træen pulling on the leader’s jersey.
In May 2022, Træen discovered he had returned an abnormal doping test result. His team doctor interpreted this as a sign he could be ill, and urged his rider to see his GP. As pain in his testicles increased, an ultrasound scan revealed he had testicular cancer. When his left testicle was removed just 41 days on from his doping alert, a 15mm cancerous tumour was found inside. But it hadn’t spread, enabling him to make a full recovery and restart racing in August 2022.
(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)
At last year’s Vuelta a España, Træen, now 30, wore the red leader’s jersey for four stages on the way to finishing ninth on GC. On stage four of the 2026 Tour de France, he joined a strong breakaway powered by Mads Pedersen‘s Lidl-Trek teammates, who succeeded in setting up Træen’s fellow Norwegian for stage victory in Foix. Træen now leads EF Education-EasyPost‘s Sean Quinn by 28 seconds in the general classification, and more importantly, he is ahead of race favourite Tadej Pogačar by nearly eight minutes. Being a good climber, this buffer could help him retain yellow through the mountainous second week.
(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)
Now let’s take a close look at his custom Ridley Noah Fast 3.0, which was sprayed by the brand’s CEO, Jochim Aerts, in a return to his frame-spraying roots. The third-generation bike is considered one of the peloton’s best aero bikes, thanks to a combination of minimal frontal area and deep tubes designed to take advantage of the ‘sailing effect’.
(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)
The byproduct of this chunky tubing is weight. At the Opening Weekend, we weighed one of Træen’s teammates’ bikes at 8kg, which is on the heavy side for a WorldTour bike. In light of that, Ridley hasn’t gone all out on the yellow paint – just spraying parts of the head tube and top half of the fork saves 100g over a full coat.
(Image credit: Ridley Bikes)
His Noah Fast will be built with a full SRAM Red AXS groupset, including a power meter. Whether the Norwegian opts to go one- or two-by for the first mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France – the former will not only cull unneeded grams but also offer enough gearing to effectively manage the climbs.
After being built up in time for stage six between Pau and Gavarnie-Gèdre, Træen’s complete bike will weigh 7.9-8kg, according to Ridley. As for the yellow details, expect to see yellow handlebar tape, wheel decals, and SRAM stickers on the levers and cranks.
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