eBay Finds: Colnago C50 Krono Rabobank time trial bike

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This rare, mid-2000s Colnago C50 Krono time trial bike – as provided to the Dutch Rabobank squad – has been shown the light of day on eBay, and is the latest 'find' here at Cyclingnews to make us prick up our ears and rattle our piggybank.

These days, UCI rules stipulate that bike manufacturers have to make the machines they provide to the pro teams available to the public to buy, so those days of 'special' bikes like this – save for the occasional custom paint-job – are all but gone.

And this C50 Krono is certainly pretty special. Colnago has always been most well-known for its impeccably made road bikes but when supplying Rabobank with bikes – from 1996-2008 – the company needed to make some time trial frames available, too, and the Krono is one of them.

At first glance, mainly thanks to those lugs, it looks a little like a 'standard' Colnago road bike, built up for racing against the clock – until you notice the subtle rear-wheel cut-out and conservatively shaped down tube. Later, in 2012, came the far-more-aero K.Zero TT frame.

This Krono comes built with a 10-speed Shimano Dura-Ace groupset and a Pro 'cockpit' to keep things aero, and looks to be completed with a modern rear disc wheel and deep-section Mavic Cosmic front wheel.

The seller accompanies their listing with an uncaptioned image of Rabobank's Thomas Dekker in full flight on his C50 Krono at what we believe – after a little Cyclingnews sleuthing – must be the 2005 Critérium International, where Dekker took the leader's yellow jersey into the final time trial, but ultimately lost out to American rider Bobby Julich by just eight seconds.

We've accompanied this article with our own, Getty Images-sourced picture of Dutch time trial champion Dekker at the 2005 Giro d'Italia on his Krono on stage 8 from Lamporecchio to Florence, where the then 20-year-old finished eighth, and went on to take 75th place overall in Milan that year.

This is a larger, 60cm frame, so it would only suit a taller rouleur, but the seller says that it was ridden by a Rabobank rider at the 2005 Tour de France, but doesn't give any details as to who that was. It wasn't Dekker; he, for the record, rode the Tour only once, in 2007, finishing 35th overall, and was later caught for – and admitted to – doping. He returned from a two-year ban in 2011, and retired in 2015 after an unsuccessful attempt on the Hour Record.

At US$2,749 (£2,210), you're buying something a little special here, and the Netherlands-based seller can ship worldwide for a very reasonable US$75.

We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line