Bike Profile: Katie Compton’s 2019 Trek Boone Cyclocross Bike

Katie Compton first rode a Trek cyclocross bike in the fall of 2012 as a sponsored athlete, and since then, she has been a regular on the Wisconsin company's bikes for the last 7 of her 15-straight national championships.

During that time, she has ridden an alloy prototype and the alloy Crockett, and since 2014, she's ridden the flagship carbon Boone. As one might expect, profiles of Compton's Nationals-winning bikes have been a regular part of our publication, with a healthy stable of bike profiles accumulating in our archives.

Our profiles of Compton's bikes show the evolution of Trek's cyclocross bikes, and specifically the Boone. In recent years, Trek has settled into a modern design with the front and rear IsoSpeed decouplers, flat mount disc brakes, 12mm thru-axles and a race-oriented design.

With Boone sporting the same design for the past several years, Compton spiced things up earlier this cyclocross season when she added some four-wheeled horsepower to her two-wheeled speed and drove her 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4 from Colorado to the U.S. for the World Cups. While most of us were left gawking at the horsepower machine, our Dave Mable got the opportunity to ride shotgun with Compton through the cornfields outside Waterloo.

We also found some time to gawk at the latest incarnation of Compton's Trek Boone while it was Porsche-adjacent.

For our second of two incumbent National Champ's bike profiles, we first take a Trek down memory lane and then take a closer look at Compton's 2019 Boone.

A Trek Back in Time

Katie Compton made her first connection with Trek when she signed with the Wisconsin-based company for the 2012/13 cyclocross season. At the time, the company featured the Cronos and Ion cyclocross bikes, but when she raced to her 9th-straight national championship at the 2013 Verona Nationals, she was aboard an alloy prototype.

That prototype bike foreshadowed Trek's revamp of its cyclocross lineup. In 2013, it released the alloy Crockett Compton rode that fall.

Trek completed its ’cross lineup with the carbon Boone Compton helped debut on January 1 of 2014. She, of course, won Boulder Nationals on her new Boone.

Austin Nationals in 2015 brought a new Boone and a red, white and blue color scheme befitting the then 10-time champ. The bike also represented Compton's first full season on disc brakes.

The 2015/16 season? Yeah, there was a Boone for that year too. Compton also added Knight Composites as her wheel sponsor for that 12th-title season.

A big change came to the Trek Boone in 2017, when Compton rode an appropriately colored white Boone with the new front IsoSpeed decoupler to her 13th title in the snow at Hartford.

For some inexplicable reason, we did not profile Compton's winning bike at Reno Nationals, even if we did photograph it after her 14th national championship.

We did, however, get a do-over, as she rode that bike to her 15th-straight title in Louisville.

All of that history brings us to today and a profile of the bike she rode at the U.S. World Cups earlier this year.

Katie Compton's 2019 Trek Boone

At this point, the flagship cyclocross bike of the Wisconsin-based company likely needs no introduction.

We've profiled like a million iterations of Compton's Nationals-winning Boones, we have reviewed the new Boone with the front and rear IsoSpeed decouplers, gawked at the Telenet Fidea Lions bright yellow Boones, inspected Toon Aerts and Evie Richards' 2018/19 Boones, profiled Jolanda Neff's World Cup Waterloo Boone and done more gawking at Thibau Nys' high-flying take on the carbon bike. Whew.

Trek builds the Boone with 600 series OCLV carbon (700 is the highest level) and the frame features the IsoSpeed decouplers front and rear for compliance and ride comfort.

As with any champ's bike, it is always fun to check out the unique touches the bike painters put on the framesets. Compton typically keeps two bikes here in the U.S. and two in Europe, and she travels back and forth with a fifth bike.

The bike she showed us earlier this season was painted to honor her 14th Nationals win earned in Reno with 14 stars on the chainstay. With the frame and colorway returning for an encore season, Legg fixed the star issue that by adding a 15th. Easy, peasy.

Folks who have met Compton at domestic races or follow her on social media likely knew the important role her rottweiler Pixie played in her life. Pixie passed away earlier this year, and Compton carries Pixie's three-legged spirit with her every race with a graphic on her head tube.

It is not a flourish on the bike, per se, but Compton's Porsche and regular KFC Racing p/b Trek Knight kit we will likely see in Lakewood on Sunday feature the topographical contour lines of Pikes Peak, a favorite climb of Compton's near her Colorado Springs home.

With Compton and Legg's famous attention to detail, unique touches to Compton's Boone are not limited to just the paint scheme.

Compton's steerer cap stands out thanks to its gold color and embedded gems. Made by Deleware's Anemoni Jewelers, the gold cap features 15 total stones, because reasons, with diamonds, rubies and sapphires ringing the red bolt.

Below the cap, purple titanium bolts hold Compton's Bontrager stem in place. Legg admitted he has become a bit obsessed with adding the purple in recent years as a way of paying homage to 1990s mountain biking.

Legg also likes to use heat shrink wrapping around cables, and he bundles the rear brake and Di2 cables together using custom-printed Katie fn Compton shrink wrap sourced from a Canadian company.

Compton does not have a component sponsor, so she chooses what she runs. Along those lines, Legg and her frequently reuse parts and try to get several years' use out of them. This year's bike was equipped primarily with top-level Shimano Dura-Ace Compton and Legg first installed last year.

Compton ran an R9100 Dura-Ace crank with the 175mm crank arms she has become known for. Compton chooses to run a double with 42/34t WickWerks chain rings and an R9150 Di2 Dura-Ace front derailleur. According to Legg, she likes the double because it reduces the jump between gears and the corresponding strain on her legs.

Last season, Compton embraced then-new clutch-based Ultegra RX805 Di2 rear derailleur, and the non-series component returned again in 2019. She paired the derailleur with an 11-30t R9100 Dura-Ace cassette.

Compton runs Enduro bearings and pulley wheels, and she achieves an extra measure of bling with a gold KMC X11SL chain.

Compton controlled her shifting and braking with Dura-Ace R9170 dual control levers set with the hoods tilted up. She adds bondic and sandpaper to the shift paddles for additional grip.  Perhaps inspired by her rival, we saw Courtenay McFadden use a similar approach with her Pivot Vault when we checked it out earlier this year.

The 2019/20 season represents Compton's 5th with Boulder-based Knight Composites as a wheel sponsor. Compton ran 35 Tubular Disc carbon wheels built with DT Swiss 240s hubs again this season. [Knight is currently offering a trade-in program that will donate exchanged wheels to charity.]

Challenge returned as Compton's tire sponsor this season, and she ran Team Edition S3 tubulars for racing. Compton's favorite from Challenge's line is the Baby Limus, and she had that favorite mounted when we saw her bike.

Compton's cockpit included a 100mm alloy Bontrager Pro Blendr stem and 42cm carbon Bontrager IsoCore Pro handlebar. In another small personal preference, Compton wraps her bar all the way to the stem.

In the back, the proprietary seat mast cap held Compton's Bontrager Montrose saddle in a forward position. For pedals, Compton continued to choose Shimano Deore XT M8000 SPD models, even though a majority of Shimano riders are on the new XTR M9100s this season. Legg maintains the M8000 has better mud clearance than the XTR models.

Compton now gets ready to head to the Pacific Northwest where she hopes her Nationals winning streak will turn old enough to drive that Porsche this Sunday afternoon.

For a closer look at Compton's bike, see the photo gallery and specs below.

Photo Gallery: Katie Compton's 2019 Trek Boone