The rate of development in road bicycle design in the past decade, even just the past couple of years, has been outright staggering, and one of the key topics is that of aerodynamics.
Firstly, such aero developments were seen solely on time trial bikes, but recently road bikes have been getting more aero, with examples like Cervelo’s S3 or Felt’s AR showing a new direction for road frames.
Until this week Specialized hadn’t moved their top-end road frames in that design direction, but with the release of the new Venge that has all changed. When Specialized decided to pen the new road frame, they paid a visit to McLaren F1, and together the two companies worked on developing the latest frame.
It’s touted as the “world’s fastest UCI-legal road bike” and taps into the vast knowledge the F1 team has acquired through competing at the sharp end of the most high-tech motorsport on the planet.
Ushering in a striking new direction for the company, the Venge has been designed to cut through air as cleanly as possible, with every aspect of the frame coming under direct scrutiny. A lot of the lessons learnt in designing the Shiv, the company’s time trial frame, have clearly been employed.
The Venge will get its first outing in the 298km Milan-San Remo classic on Saturday, 19 March, where Mark Cavendish will be hoping to repeat his victory from two years ago. The Manx rider has already been out on the new Venge, giving an early prototype the thumbs up during secret testing towards the end of last year.
More on the new bike soon…
