Trek's ever-expanding Madone family covers both race and sportive use. The smooth comfort and ultra relaxed steering of the 4.7 means it's slow to respond in sprinting terms, but the payback in plush comfort is massive and it's a pamperingly relaxed long-haul machine.||Ride & handling: Outstandingly smooth ride but steering may be too slow for some||It’s obvious that relaxed, long- haul comfort is the primary mission of the Madone as soon as you get on board. For a start, while the angles suggest a very responsive ride, the fork sweep and cockpit dimensions make the steering super-steady. It’s so stable we actually wandered off the road a couple of times when we weren’t concentrating.|||Once you get the hang of the laconically lazy feel and put more weight behind it, the Madone is an outstandingly surefooted and con?dent descender. It swung round normally nerve-racking switchbacks without any hint of the hives, and dropped like a hawk on straightline plummets, however grim and gusty the weather.||Its smoothness and calm, un?ustered ride quality is equally outstanding. It comes as close to you’ll get to making smooth roads feel like carpet and rough roads a lot less taxing than normal. You still get clouted through the brake hoods by the biggest potholes, but over the usual frost-damaged asphalt acne it spins along as though there’s 10psi less in the tyres than there actually is.||The ride position of the Trek is roomy enough to relax and breathe easily on too. Add the comfy saddle, steady hands-free steering, plus the smooth gliding ride and this is a very natural and happy place to be on a long ride.