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Julian Alaphilippe to debut new custom World Championship Specialized Tarmac SL7 at Milano-Torino

Check out the Frenchman’s new beautiful custom paintjob with a blurred design that’s inspired by the “swirling storm of competition”... but minus Shimano's latest groupset

Julian Alaphilippe is not only debuting his 2021 edition rainbow stripes at Milano-Torino today, he is also aboard a new custom World Championship Edition Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7.

2022 Julian Alaphillipe World Championship Edition Specialized Tarmac SL7 13

At the end of last month, the Frenchman defended his title in pure style in Leuven, Belgium, launching three blistering attacks with around 17km to go.

> Review: Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 Dura-Ace Di2

The current World Champion proved once again that he is one of cycling’s biggest showmen, and his bike of choice is this beautiful-looking custom S-Works Tarmac SL7 with a new design that’s inspired by the “swirling storm of competition”.

2022 Julian Alaphillipe World Championship Edition Specialized Tarmac SL7 10

Specialized’s Senior Graphic Concept Designer Tom Briggs explains that the top tube graphics depict “that moment when all of the riders effort is being put into the pedals, their vision starts to blur and their eyes cross."

2022 Julian Alaphillipe World Championship Edition Specialized Tarmac SL7 5

He adds: “If you look at the World Champ top tube logo it’s offset as though their vision was starting to see double and the world champion rainbow stripes are starting to blur on the downtube and headtube.

“The silver granite represents the swirling of thoughts, emotions, training and everything else that goes into that one singular moment of glory as they become the world champion.”

Alaphilippe and his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates race aboard the S-Works Tarmac SL7, which Specialized launched back in 2020.

Marketing it as “one bike to rule them all”,  it certainly has ruled the elite world championships since it landed, having claimed three victories across the men’s and women’s events, with Anna van der Breggen’s triumph last year alongside Alaphilippe’s back-to-back wins.

> 25 of the best and fastest 2021 aero road bikes: wind-cheating bikes with an extra turn of speed

Specialized claims the Tarmac SL7 is almost as aerodynamically efficient as its previous aero road bike, the Venge, while being at the UCI's minimum 6.8kg weight limit for racing.

2022 Julian Alaphillipe World Championship Edition Specialized Tarmac SL7 1

"By targeting the tubes that truly impact the aero performance of the frame, whether it's the seat tube, the seatstays, the head tube or the fork blades, all with shapes from our FreeFoil Shape Library [the collection of airfoil shapes that Specialized has developed], and then mating them with the fastest components that we have at our disposal and integrating the cabling, we created a package that is 45secs faster over 40km than the Tarmac SL6," said Specialized at the launch.

The World Champion can’t even get hold of the new Shimano Dura Ace Di2 groupset though, as you can see the bike is built up with the previous version.

> When will Britain’s bike shortage end?

2022 Julian Alaphillipe World Championship Edition Specialized Tarmac SL7 2

Wheels are from Roval and Alaphilippe goes between the lightweight Alpinist CLX for the hilly days and the Rapide CLX for flatter stage profiles - both of these are clincher wheelsets.

Saddle-wise it’s an S-Works Romin Evo, the pedals are Shimano Dura-Ace and bottle cages are supplied by Tacx.

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8 comments

Avatar
Miller | 2 years ago
0 likes

Amazing that even the new world champion's bike doesn't get D-A 12 speed.

Avatar
Simon E replied to Miller | 2 years ago
0 likes

Miller wrote:

Amazing that even the new world champion's bike doesn't get D-A 12 speed.

I'm sure his 2022 bike will have the 12 speed stuff.

I doubt that absence of an extra sprocket over the 11-speed version would be a huge disadvantage on Sunday but he won't miss the 35g weight penalty the new groupset brings.

Avatar
Rapha Nadal | 2 years ago
4 likes

“The silver granite represents the swirling of thoughts, emotions, training and everything else that goes into that one singular moment of glory as they become the world champion.”

Why can't they just say "did it because it looks fucking cool"?

Avatar
Dicklexic | 2 years ago
1 like

I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does. Once again the folk in Specialized have released a custom painted frame in the WC colours, but not replicated the actual colour sequence of the bands. To be fair, at least this time around they have got a lot closer than they did with Alaphilippe's previous Tarmac SL7, or indeed Ann Van der Breggen's helmet.

Avatar
Awavey replied to Dicklexic | 2 years ago
1 like

might that be UCI rules on usage of the rainbow bands though ? they are pretty strict on the rainbow bands on team kit placement, as well of sizes of logos on bikes etc. Wouldnt surprise me at all that you cant custom paint a bike in the actual sequence of the bands like that, its probably only allowed to be the size of that little sticker you get on Boardman bikes.

Avatar
Dicklexic replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
0 likes

Yeah I did wonder if that was a factor, although if that's the case it didn't stop Cannondale putting the (correct!) rainbow bands on Elisa Balsamo's bike, and plenty of other brands have done the same in the past.

Avatar
Awavey replied to Dicklexic | 2 years ago
1 like

found an old inrng article https://inrng.com/2011/06/rainbow-jersey-uci-trademark/  which might explain it, the UCI copyrighted the banding, so you have to pay to licence it from them to put them on your bike, helmet, so I guess Specialized dont like paying for it, but Cannondale did  1

Avatar
Rapha Nadal replied to Dicklexic | 2 years ago
2 likes

Yeah but the UCI couldn't give a shit about women's cycling so probably haven't even noticed. 

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