Mathieu van der Poel brought his aerial show to the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City and put on a show the fans at the 2017 Jingle Cross World Cup fans will not soon forget. Getting air and powering up the slopes of Mt. Krumpit requires a machine up to the task, and as he has for years now, Van der Poel counted on his Stevens Super Prestige.
We last profiled Van der Poel’s Super Prestige in 2015 after his Worlds-winning ride at Tabor. Van der Poel has changed up his bike a bit since then. His camo color scheme has been replaced with a more muted black with blue highlights, and whereas in 2015 he used some components that were not the latest and greatest, in 2017 he is riding with Shimano’s new Dura-Ace Di2 R9100 series. The rear quick release on the Super Prestige has also been modernized to a 12mm thru-axle.
Stevens bikes are no stranger to elite-level cyclocross. Before her move to Trek, Katie Compton rode a Stevens as part of the Planet Bike team in 2009 and 2010. Van der Poel’s Beobank-Corendon teammate Sanne Cant also rides a Stevens Super Prestige. Stay tuned for a profile of Cant’s new world championship bike.
Sadly for U.S. ’crossers, Stevens Bikes are currently not available in the States. We would say the best they can do is try to emulate Van der Poel’s aerial antics, but that may be a challenge as well.
The 2018 Stevens Super Prestige has a redesigned geometry with respect to earlier models, and at a list weight of 8.2 kg with the stock DT Swiss R24 wheels, the company claims a 20% weight reduction over previous models.
Van der Poel’s Super Prestige we saw at Jingle Cross features a classy black color scheme with blue highlights and red, white and blue decals. Van der Poel’s 2015 Worlds bike had a rear quick release; Stevens went to front and rear thru-axles for the 2017 models, and thus Van der Poel’s bike now fully embraces the modern 12mm thru-axle front and rear approach. The fork is full-carbon disc with a 12mm thru-axle for absorbing the impact of all of Van der Poel’s aerial antics.
In our 2015 profile, we observed that Van der Poel did not always opt for the latest components. That approach has changed, and Van der Poel’s 2017 Super Prestige is equipped with the latest Dura-Ace Di2 R9100 groupset.
Van der Poel’s crankset features a 172.5mm, four-bolt Dura-Ace crank with custom, unmarked chainrings. Van der Poel has run a 46/39t setup in the past, and there is no reason to believe he has changed his choice up front. His front and rear derailleurs are Dura-Ace Di2 and he is running a Shimano HG901 chain.
The brake levers and hydraulic disc brakes are also from the new Dura-Ace Di2 product line. The brake levers are Dura-Ace dual control levers with 2×11-speed shifting and the brakes are flat-mount with Ice Tech rotors.
For wheels, Van der Poel is also keeping it in the Dura-Ace family. He is running the Shimano Dura-Ace WH-R9170-C40-TU carbon tubular disc wheelset. The name provides a lot to digest. The rims are 37mm deep and 28mm wide. The wheels are 12x142mm thru-axle with 24 spokes front and rear.
With a steady rain passing through Iowa City on Saturday night, it was uncertain how muddy the course would get. The dust disappeared, but the course was still mostly dry for the World Cup race. Van der Poel ran Dugast Typhoon all-around tires front and rear, although when we saw his bike pre-race, he had FMB “Elite Prototype” file tread tubulars mounted to the wheels.
The rest of Van der Poel’s bike displays a more customized approach. As he did in 2015, he is still running Pro Stealth carbon handlebars.
He is still using a Pro Vibe Di2 carbon seatpost, but he has swapped in a Selle Italia Flite series saddle. At Jingle Cross, we observed Van der Poel and several other European riders using a very forward saddle position.
The pedals are a Shimano SPD prototype. We saw prototype pedals on Sven Nys’ bike at the 2015 CrossVegas, but these are a newer “Prototype 00” version shaved down to deliver better mud performance and save a few grams.
Temperatures soared into the 90s during Saturday’s pre-ride and still reached the 80s on race day, so staying hydrated was very important. Van der Poel had his bike equipped with a Tacx Deva water bottle cage for his pre-ride and used it again on race day. The extra 21g from the cage and 500 or so grams of water weight did not really seem to slow him down going up Mt. Krumpit or ground his iconic air show.
He raced with a bottle cage on? Did the course not require shouldering?
The only time he needed to get off was for the stairs on the 2nd flyover. Rode the rest!