Mark Cavendish started the 2014 Tour de France in Leeds on this custom Specialized S-Works Venge and the Manx Missile’s race ended just 190km later in Harrogate.
Cavendish arrived in Yorkshire with the weight of a nation on his shoulders, with the prospect of pulling on the yellow jersey in his mother’s home town, but instead ended the day in hospital with a separated shoulder and out of the race.
We spied Cavendish’s Venge in the team hotel prior to the start of the race and while the 25-time stage winner’s participation may be over, there’s no harm in us – and you – admiring the custom paintjob put together for the 2014 edition of the Tour.
The CVNDSH (that’s Cavendish’s brand, with the vowel-less logo designed, ironically, by the Harrogate-based Lift Agency last year) edition of the Venge features the former world champion’s lime green logo on the seattube and his signature on the fork. The fork, seattube, chainstays and underside of the downtube are in British racing green with a subtle glitter finish, while lime green stripes feature on the bottom of the fork legs, downtube and seatstays.
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One-off
Specialized produced this one-off CVNDSH S-Works Venge for Mark Cavendish ahead of the Tour de France but the Manx Missile's race ended after just 190km.
CVNDSH
The former world champion launched his CVNDSH brand last year and the logo - designed by the Harrogate-based Lift Agency - features on the seattube. The '25' on Cavendish's race number signifies the 29-year-old's tally of stage wins at the Tour.
Glitter finish
Cavendish has made the colour green his own since winning the Tour's points jersey in 2011. Look closely at Cav's Venge for the Tour and it features a subtle glitter finish on the fork, toptube, seattube, chainstays and underside of the downtube.
Old friends
Paint finish aside, Cavendish's frame is (or should that be was?) an off-the-shelf S-Works Venge. Specialized's aero road bike was first launched in 2011 - and Cavendish won the Tour de France green jersey and World Championship title on the bike.
An OPQS sticker marks Cavendish's 68cm saddle height. The Brit may stand 5'9" tall but rides a decidedly undersized 49cm frame.
The green theme continues with Cavendish's custom tape, wrapped on a Zipp Service Course SL-88 handlebar, which has a classic round shape and allows the rider to achieve a low and long position.
Oversized
Zipp also provide the 140mm SL Sprint stem. The oversized, carbon fibre stem is claimed to have the best stiffness-to-weight ratio of any on the market. Oversized stems are often preferred by sprinters (stage one winner rides a similar PRO stem) as they're designed to handle the huge force generated when pulling on the 'bar during a full-gas sprint.
Cav
Cavendish's Zipp 404 Firecrest wheels are marked 'Cav' and stickered with the British flag so they don't get mixed up in the mechanics truck. We don't know what sets Cavendish's wheels out from the rest of the team but it's not unheard of for sprinters to have ultra-stiff wheels specifically built for the job in hand.
Feel the power
Omega Pharma-QuickStep are sponsored by Quarq, who provide the team's power meters, fitted on Cavendish's bike to a 53-39t SRAM chainset and 170mm S-Works carbon cranks. Cavendish uses LOOK Keo Blade 2 pedals.
SRAM Red 22
SRAM's top-of-the-range Red 22 groupset handles shifting and braking duties. Cavendish opted for an 11-28t cassette for the opening stage of the Tour, which featured three categorised climbs before the sprint finish which ended the OPQS rider's Tour in Harrogate.
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