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TECH NEWS
Peter Sagan’s World Championship winning Specialized Tarmac bike
Peter Sagan stormed to victory in the UCI World Championship road race in Richmond, Virginia at the weekend, and here’s a look at the Specialized Tarmac he rode in the 261km race.
- Peter Sagan wins the UCI Road World Championship
The bike is finished in the unmistakable camouflage that has been a feature of his race bikes this season. He’s going to need a new paint job to match the rainbow jersey, though. Sagan has a good track record of striking custom painted bikes, so we’re sure there is another in the works.
Rather than the newer Venge VIAS aero road bike, Sagan opted for the Tarmac, the all-round model in the US bike company’s range. Other than the opening stage of the Tour de France, Sagan has chosen the Tarmac for most races this year.
The latest generation Tarmac was introduced last summer and is an evolution of the previous model rather than a radical overhaul. The clearest visual difference is the new integrated seat clamp, but there’s a host of refinements as well.
Shimano is dominant in the professional peloton and Peter Sagan’s bike is decked out with Dura-Ace Di2 groupset. He’s got the additional sprint shifters fitted to the inside of the drops. The Di2 junction box is attached to the stem.
- Review: Specialized Tarmac Comp road bike
The Specialized sponsorship extends to the Roval CLX 60 carbon fibre tubular wheels. Roval is Specialized's in-house wheel brand, and these are the deepest section wheels in its range. They’re constructed entirely from carbon fibre and have a 60mm deep rim, and 24.4mm external width. Tyres are Specialized’s own Turbo Cotton 24mm tubular tyres.
The Tinkoff-Saxo team do go with a full Shimano groupset however, FSA supplies the chainsets. Sagan’s bike was fitted with the top-of-the-range K-Force Light 386 chainset with a 53/39t chainring combination. He has a K-Edge chain catcher to ensure the chain doesn’t drop off the chainring.
FSA also supplies the team with seat posts, handlebars and stems. Sagan, however, opts to use a Zipp SL Sprint carbon fibre stem, with the logos removed. Our guess is he found the FSA stems lacking in stiffness. His stem isn’t quite slammed, there is one slender spacer below the stem, but it’s still an aggressive setup.
The aluminium FSA Energy handlebar has a traditional bend, with deep drops, and wrapped in Supacaz bar tape.
His pedal preference is Look KEO Blade 2 Pro Team Edition Ti pedals. His Prologo Nago saddle has a customised finish to match the frame paint job.
- 2015 WorldTour bikes: Peter Sagan’s Specialized Venge
His bike has certainly picked up some road grime during the 261km race, with oil deposited along the drive side chainstay and plenty of muck covering the head tube and front brake caliper.
The bike is furnished with CeramicSpeed bearings throughout, from the headset to the hub bearings and the bottom bracket.
That's the bracket for the GPS transponder that all bikes were fitted with for the race.
“Specialized has personalized my bike and I am proud of it. I really like the colors and the fact that my official trademark has been included. I hope that this bike will bring me luck,” said Peter Sagan when he first received a camo Venge back in March. While his season hasn’t been as stellar as previous years, he has certainly finished on a high.
Thanks to Specialized UK for the photos.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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23 comments
Sagan wont win a grand tour, they are too biased towards mountain climbers. He could win plenty of stages and the Classics, shorter tours when the course isn't so hilly.
You cannot deny the bloke is an exceptional talent. He can climb, timetrial and sprint. The world championship course suited Sagan perfectly. He used his power to break free on the penultimate climb, out cornered the chasers and held off on home straight.
That is one awesome bike, I can think of no better advert for specialized that the fact Sagan rides one. I considered the Tarmac to be a bit boring previously, but now I want one in camo colours!
Bit of a rock/hard place one for Spesh though. The Tarmac proves it's credentials in the World's, Vuelta and Giro but then Sagan would have been thought as an ideal candidate for 'winning' on the new Venge.
It's a tight spot but not necessarily a hard one, the Tarmac won plenty this year as you point out.
But yeah, all the talk about aero this and front area that and wind tunnels and watts saved and the world championships was won on the downhill and the flat with a solo 55km/h+ effort on a "normal" road bike with spacers.
I could not give a monkeys what bar tape/bearings/saddle/stem etc. he has on his bike.
It's about the bloke/girl on it.
So they had GPS transponders attached? How come they weren't able to show us time gaps on TV then?
Given the recent history of pro cycling, winning a grand tour is not really the way to become a legend.
Bike of a living legend
Steady now, let him win a grand tour, then we'll bust out the "L" word.
So Roger de Vlaemink is not a legend then?
Depends on how you define legend. My father doesn't remember much about the Borg-Connors duels he witnessed, but he fondly remembers Vitas Gerulaitis. Sagan is IMHO the most popular cyclist since Cipollini. Of the fans who were at the Champs Elysees a couple months' ago, some will remember Greipel, some will remember Froome, others of them will remember the rain or the falls or van der Breggen. Similarly as they left the Alpe some of the fans will have dwelt on Froome's coronation, others on Pinot's win or Quintana's ride. But I'd think most of those who stood there in Richmond on Sunday will fondly remember the way Peter Sagan won decades later.
And let's not forget,
Winners of four or more green jerseys: Zabel, Kelly, Sagan
Winners of three or more green jerseys and a rainbow jersey: Merckx, Maertens, Janssen, Sagan
That's some high company.
He'll never win a grand tour.
However, I agree legend is overkill. At the moment he's a star, he needs to win more of his targets (classics, maybe some more one-week races) and build a distinguished career.
His ride up the mountain to defend his Tour of California lead earlier this year was the best ride I've seen all year.
I think my point is less that it takes winning a grand tour to earn "legend" status and more that it's premature to start calling him a legend when he's not done yet. I think he has plenty more to do, and plenty more to win... And I don't think it's beyond him to win a grand tour someday, perhaps given some of the people who have won them recently! If he got lucky he could make it in a tour where there weren't that many other big entrants or where people got knocked out with injuries or whatever, or perhaps he'll make it on his own strengths in due course.
Will he get a new one in rainbow cammo? Matching rainbow cammo training kit?
A bit sad to on my part to spot the differance but those pedals are not "Look’s Keo 2 Max Blade pedals" they are in fact Look KEO Blade 2 Pro Team Edition Ti axle with the 20Nm carbon spring. RRP £250.
The Max is a similar but cheaper pedal. RRP £100.
Nice bike.
Not a great advert?
For the pedals that won the world champs?
Unclipping is down to the rider much more than the pedal.
I was wondering what pedals he used, this isn't a great advert for Look:
https://instagram.com/p/8JVPhuKRSF/
Yes there is. We are waiting for pictures, we didn't have any.
Is there a reason you haven't done a feature on Lizzy's bike? Quite interested to see the differences as is she not on the same frame?
Specialized hater!
?