Earlier this week we brought you news of the Specialized Tarmac SL6 – the latest update to the American firm’s lightweight race bike, being ridden by Dan Martin at the Criterium du Dauphine. Now it’s the turn of another US mega-brand, Trek, and the Emonda. This time Alberto Contador is piloting the new machine.

Trek launched the Emonda ahead of the 2014 Tour de France with a headline frame weight of just 690g for the flagship SRL frame. It was – and remains – one of the lightest road frames money can buy and, three years later, it looks like Trek are ready to introduce an updated chassis.

It’s a new addition to the UCI’s list of approved frames for starters, with the ‘EMONDA SLR MY2018 Caliper’ and ‘EMONDA SLR MY2018 Disc’ both included. Yep, the Emonda is getting disc brakes.

Of course, Contador is riding the rim brake version at the Dauphine – but whereas as new Specialized Tarmac is an obvious update to the existing model, bringing a new of aero features to the mix, the Emonda is a rather more subtle update. In fact, it looks almost identical in terms of the tube profiles.

The changes we can spot see the rear break cable entry point moved from the driveside of the toptube, to the non-driveside, which should make for a smoother line, while it looks like the Di2 cable routing on Contador’s Shimano Dura-Ace bike has been cleaned up. Otherwise, it looks like Trek have remodeled the rear dropouts, while seattube appears, in our photos at least, to be a little squarer than the round original.

It may be that Trek have primarily been working under the Emonda’s skin, whether to reduce the frame weight even further or, more likely, upping the stiffness-to-weight ratio.

But details are thin on the ground so we’ll have to wait for the official line from Trek when the new Emonda is launched. In the meantime, check out these photos of Contador’s Emonda from the Dauphine. We’ve included a picture of his rather pretty custom Madone at the bottom for good measure.