While Mark Cavendish can celebrate his World Championship triumph year-round by wearing the rainbow jersey for 12 months, there’s no jersey on offer for the sport’s Olympic champion to honour in the four-year period between Games’.

So Samuel Sanchez’s Euskaltel-Euskadi team and bike sponsors Orbea took matters into their own hands by producing a custom Orbea Orca decked out in gold to honour the Spaniard’s win in the 2008 Beijing Olympic road race.

The bike, pictured at the Criterium du Dauphiné stage race currently taking place in France, gets a black and white paintjob, with the rest of the team riding machines in Euskaltel-Euskadi’s traditional black and orange livery.

The number ‘8’ features heavily on the toptube, downtube, headtube and seatstays, paying tribute to the year in which Sanchez, who beat Fabian Cancellara and Alexandr Kolobnev to victory, won gold. The full date of Sanchez’s win is also printed above the rear brake.

More striking, however, is the gold finish. Sanchez gets a gold SRM computer, gold handlebar tape, gold Selle Italia SLR saddle, gold seatpost collar, gold KMC chain, gold cable outers, gold quick release skewers and gold rear mech pulleys. You get the picture. Oh, and he wears gold shoes and a gold helmet.

The ultimate bike bling? Discuss on the forum