We reported last month on the news that top sprinter Marcel Kittel had signed a two-year deal with Etixx-Quick Step for the 2016 season. This means a change of bike and equipment for the German, swapping from Giant to Specialized.
- Marcel Kittel signs for Etixx-Quick Step
And it looks like he has been getting familiar with a Specialized bike ahead of the 1st January when his contract properly starts. He posted a photo of a very brightly painted Crux cyclocross bike, with hydraulic disc brakes, on Instagram yesterday.
;
It’s not uncommon for professional road racing cyclists to take to cyclocross and mountain bikes through the winter. It provides a change from grinding out the miles on the road and is good for bike handling skills and a good all round workout.
The pink paint job doesn’t appear to belong to a current 2016 Crux, so we’ll presume it’s a custom painted bike specially prepared for Kittel. It looks well appointed, with Roval carbon fibre wheels, Dura-Ace Di2 and an FSA carbon fibre chainset.
- Review: Specialized Crux Elite X1
The choice of disc brakes over traditional cantilever brakes has been taken out of his hands though, Specialized only offers the Crux with disc brakes in 2016, deciding that is clearly the way the cyclocross market, and demand, is going.
We spotted Team Sky’s Ben Swift also taking to disc brakes earlier this week, using Pinarello’s new Dogma F8 Disc on his first training ride of the off-season.
- Ben Swift gets back to training, on a disc-equipped Pinarello
You don't like the Look of it then?
TBF I think their complaint was with the design as proposed. There would be a cycle path with cyclists moving in two directions with little buffer...
With apologies
I'd argue that nothing at all is wrong with the bans that you describe -- and they exist in some places....
In any rational world, there's no debate around this - drivers have not one fact that supports the notion that faster is in any way better for...
You seem to be forgetting the first article in our great constitution. A citizen has the right to store motor vehicles immediately outside their...
Yeah, the number of times I've had oncoming drivers overtake a stationary vehicle - parked car on their side for example - forcing me to hit the...
<pedant>...
I always think that the Pearson font is such a dreadful choice, it's almost impossible to read.
A bit of light rain is all it was on Friday ...