Kevin wanted a sporty but comfortable bike, so he could ride the “bad Belgian roads” (no judgement on our part, we're quoting him directly!). It's true that some roads in the flat country aren't always flat and smooth.

Initially, Kevin had asked for a stainless steel frame, with Shimano and Enve equipments. However, as is always the case with a Victoire bike, we made a point of talking to him at length by telephone and during the traditional workshop visit during the postural study. This time allows us to fully understand our customers' desires, needs and aspirations, to ensure the perfect match between their riding and their machine. This has led to a number of changes in our specifications, which you will discover in the rest of this presentation.

We've designed a frame for Kevin that's sporty, but still comfortable to ride. Kevin is, by his own admission, rather inflexible, so we created a geometry perfectly adapted to his morphology and physical specificities. This is the key to a cyclist's ability to give his best, for many hours on the saddle, on all types of roads and at high speed.

Kevin heard about the availability of the latest series of Cento tubes, this exceptional series produced by our Italian colleagues at Colombus, entirely designed for road bikes and produced in limited numbers. Moreover, the particular aesthetics of these tubes had caught Kevin's eye, particularly the large diameter of the down tube. He took advantage of this unique opportunity and now owns the Victoire Cento 10/10, the last of this series to leave our workshops.

Quick note: since the creation of this Victoire, we've been able to get our hands on a few unused Cento series. If you'd like to purchase a Victoire from this legendary series, please don't hesitate to contact our team.

Columbus, already famous for the quality of its steel tubes, has recently ventured into the field of components... with success! The Italian manufacturer now offers the Trittico series of road-dedicated components, which allow brake hoses to be fully integrated, without the need for an oversized head tube and specific headset.

The result is an aesthetic more in harmony with steel tubing than other solutions on the market.

The series comprises cockpit parts (handlebars and stem), fork, seat tube and bottle cage.

The profile of the steering pivot has been designed to offer the perfect balance between lateral and frontal rigidity. Competing integrated solutions generally have an “I”-shaped pivot section (good resistance to front-end deformation, but weaker laterally) or a “D”-shaped pivot section (laterally resistant but weaker laterally). The Trittico's bushing section is a hybrid between an “I” and a “D”, offering superior resistance in each direction.

The streamlined handlebars and stem allow direct attachment of a GPS mount, creating an aggressive, uncluttered cockpit. The lightweight seat tube and bottle cage (200g and 18g respectively) complete this range of equipment, perfectly suited to Kevin's sporty usage.

When Kevin visited us for the postural study, he was able to admire the penultimate Victoire in the Cento series, ready for delivery. This one was fitted with a Campagnolo Super Record groupset, and inspired Kevin to change his initial choice (Shimano). The Trittico is compatible with all the top-of-the-range groupsets on the market (Shimano Di2 11 and 12 speeds, SRAM AXS), but what better groupset to complete this Italian machine than the latest generation of Campagnolo's Super Record, in Wireless version?

Once the decidedly transalpine orientation of the components had been chosen, the decision for the wheels was easy. Campagnolo's Bora Ultra WTO wheels are the ideal complement for this set-up. For width, the Trittico road fork allows tires up to 32mm. Kevin chose 30mm tires, a sporty width but more comfortable than the 25mm road bikes of yesteryear. The advantage of these few millimeters is that you can ride with a slightly lower pressure (between 4.5 and 6 bar). The irregularities of Belgian roads are more easily absorbed than when riding on “concrete” tires at 8 bar. Our friend Tadej learned to be wary of the quality of Belgian asphalt when he fractured his wrist during a race in 2023, some Ardennes roads can be a bit rough...

Even with a wireless transmission, the brake cable has to be routed to the rear wheel! While we wait for our manufacturers to invent wireless braking, at Victoire we've chosen an elegant solution for internal cable routing. By welding a small piece of thin tubing to the down tube and chainstays, we've added an aesthetic touch when we go around the bottom bracket and out of the chainstay.

It's worth noting that the bottom bracket of the Cento series complies with the BSA standard, and has a special shape with a spherical section in the center. This prevents the brake hose from passing through the inside of the bottom bracket, as would be the case with the T47 standard.

For this bike with a very Italian accent, the paintwork had to be elegant, with a touch of chic. With Kevin, we chose a gradient from burgundy to an Alfa Romeo-referenced metallic red, with gold accents around the rear axle above the stem.

Kevin picked up his Victoire at Cartel, where he was able to take a long look at the team's work, before returning to his favorite roads.