Julian Alaphilippe's new rainbow-themed Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7

Image 1 of 15

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) has kicked off his second successive stint as world champion with a fresh new rainbow-themed paint-job on his Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7, considered by many as one of the best road bikes.

Alaphilippe has spoken of how his status weighted heavily at times this year, along with his intention to make changes in mentality for his second stint as world champion, and the new bike is a big departure. 

Whereas the previous version was was largely white with a section of rainbow bands, the new look is darker, with blue starting at the headtube and turning to red, yellow, and green as it progresses along the downtube. 

The major colour feature, however, is a mottled silver that dominates the bottom bracket area, chainstays and seat stays, as well as taking up large parts of the top tube and forks. This is said to be inspired by "the swirling storm of competition", and is accompanied by a blurry print of the words 'World Champ' on the top tube. 

"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," explained Specialized's senior graphic concept designer, Tom Briggs.

"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."

The colourscheme is not exclusive to Alaphilippe, but is instead part of a new range of world champion's bikes rolled out by Specialized. Christopher Blevins and Sina Frei have very similar versions of their mountain bikes. 

The Tarmac SL7 is billed as 'one bike to rule them all' and equips Specialized's flagship race bike with the aerodynamic features of the Venge model, which is now out of production. Alaphilippe rode the bike to the world title in Imola in 2020 and again in Leuven last month.

The paint appears to be the only change, with Alaphilippe running Shimano's Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Roval Rapide CLX wheels, Turbo Cotton clincher tyres, and an S-Works Romin Evo saddle.

Alaphilippe will ride his new bike for the first time on Wednesday at Milano-Torino, and again on Saturday in the season's final Monument, Il Lombardia.

Click or swipe through the gallery above for a closer look at the bike, and to get up-close and personal with the bike on which Alaphilippe won Worlds, click here.