Specialized present world champion with a new custom-painted rainbow Tarmac SL7
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Composite bottle cages, in white, from Tacx (Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
White Supacaz Super Sticky Kush bar tape complements the top and down tube side graphics(Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
Reinforcement of his Imola achievement, atop the top tube(Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
This is Deceuninck–Quick-Step's interpretation of the UCI rainbow colours (Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
Interesting to see Dura Ace rotors, instead of XTR, on the bike(Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
The rear triangle contains all the colour (Image credit: Deceuninck–Quick-Step )
Julian Alaphilippe seems to like his new rainbow-coloured race bike(Image credit: Deceuninck-QuickStep)
Even for a seasoned professional and world champion, a new bike day remains emotional and Specialized exceeded expectations with Julian Alaphilippe’s new Tarmac SL7, giving the Frenchman a rainbow-coloured bike to match his new rainbow jersey and celebrate and symbolise his world champion status.
Alaphilippe will use the unique bike at the 2020 Liège–Bastogne–Liège on Sunday and took it for a ride on Friday morning as he also revealed his classic-looking rainbow jersey paired with black shorts.
“It’s really special, I love all those personal touches, and I want to thank Specialized for this, they did an amazing job,” Alaphilippe said of his new bike.
Specialized and Deceuninck–QuickStep have redesigned the graphic elements and paint finish of Alaphilippe’s Tarmac SL7, with a UCI rainbow-striped theme.
Although the Frenchman’s new Tarmac SL7 is broadly similar to the bike he used last month’s Tour de France and his Imola UCI World Championship win, it features a much bolder colourway. Its top tube is black, with gold ‘2020 world champion’ graphics and the iconic Deceuninck-QuickStep wolfpack logo.
White bar tape and bottle cages contrast with the black top tube, head tube and upper fork legs, whilst the rainbow colours start on the down tube and spill over the bottom bracket and stays.
The only notable mechanical change between Alaphilippe’s Tour de France Tarmac SL7 and his new bike is its brake rotors. Having used Shimano’s XTR mountain bike rotors at the Tour, Alaphilippe’s will be actuating the latest Dura-Ace SM-RT900 rotors at the Liège–Bastogne–Liège event.
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Alaphilippe will be racing in his new Tarmac SL7 colourway for the next 12 months.
Julian Alaphilippe's new Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 full bike specifications
Frameset: Specialized Tarmac SL7
Front brake: Shimano Dura-Ace R9170 Hydraulic Disc calliper
Lance Branquinho is a Namibian born media professional, with 15-years of experience in technology and engineering journalism covering anything with wheels. Being from Namibia, he knows a good gravel road when he sees one, and he has raced some of Africa’s best-known mountain bike stage races, such as Wines2Wales and Berg&Bush.
