The Venge killer
We no longer have to make a choice between having the fastest bike or the lightest bike, says Specialized. We can now have both.
‘Our sponsored pros used to have to choose on race day whether to ride the aero race bike [Venge] or the lighter climber’s bike [Tarmac], but with the new Tarmac SL7 it is now possible to deliver the fastest bike in the peloton right at the UCI minimum weight limit,’ says road product manager Cameron Piper.
Die hard with a Venge
The Tarmac began life in 2002 and in the 18 years that followed it has been first across the finish line in multiple World Championships, one-day Classics, Grand Tour stages and even Olympic road races, making it the ‘winningest’ road bike of the modern era. Meanwhile the Specialized Venge appeared in 2011, with the focus on aerodynamics above all else.
At that time, the two bikes had distinctly different personas, with the Venge claiming to be two minutes faster than the Tarmac over 40km on the flat. But over time, the Tarmac became more aero and the Venge became lighter, until by 2018 these two racing thoroughbreds were beginning to look strangely similar.
And so we reach the
