Welcome to Escape Collective. Please select your language.
Please note that this is an automated translation and it will not be perfect. All articles have been written in English and if anything appears to not make sense, please double check in English.
The Specialized Shiv, mostly under Remco Evenepoel, has proved one of the most successful time trial bikes of recent times. Last updated in 2019, it wasn't exactly showing its age or much need of an update, as it carried Evenepoel to multiple time trial world championships and many more time trial wins in recent years.
Nevertheless, many were hoping a new Shiv might be on the horizon and Specialized have answered those prayers, debuting a new Shiv TT under Evenepoel in the Barcelona team time trial that kicked off this year's Tour de France.
We got a closer look at that new Shiv TT ahead of the TTT. Here's what we found.
Red Bull - Bora Hansgrohe had their warm-up area practically locked down by team trucks, gazebos, and a bus, mostly to maximise shade from the scorching sun but also to keep pesky outsiders out. That made getting close-ups with Remco's race bike impossible; luckily, his spare new Shiv was brought out and mounted on the roof of the team car, giving us the opportunity to take a closer look. And there's a lot to see across the new platform, with the forks, frame, and seat post all updated, despite the new bike retaining the Shiv identity overall. One wholly unsurprising update is the inclusion of a UDH rear end. There isn't necessarily anything new in the individual elements of the rear triangle, but together, the horizontal seat stays and stepped chain stays make for a striking design. While similar in concept to the stays Specialized had already adopted with the previous Shiv, the new design sits much closer to the design Colnago adopted in its TT1 time-trial frame (and recently dropped for its new TT2 frame; there's a gallery to follow on that bike as well), the new Shiv design sits much wider but is not quite as deeply profiled.
