Tour Round-Up: Nibali, Martin on Specialized; Busche Finishes First Tour

Specialized bicycles played a huge role in the Tour de France that ended yesterday in Paris.

Specialized decorated Nibali's Tarmac.

Overall winner, Vincenzo Nibali won on his Specialized. Nibali, an Italian who rides for the Astana Team. 

Here is his specially-designed yellow jersey edition bike.

Nibali used this Venge to win a stage of the TdF

Nibali rode a S-Works Tarmac for most of the stages and a Shiv for the time trial. 



Tony Martin, a German who rides for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team, crushed the time trial on Saturday with his Specialized Shiv. Martin, who is the reigning world time trial champion, is called "The Bull" because of his sheer power on the bike. 

Specialized made his a special Shiv for the Tour time trial. It featured a 58-tooth front chain ring. Most mere mortals run a 53 in the front, sometimes a 55 for time trials. A 58-tooth ring takes an amazing amount of power to turn over.

In non-Specialized news, Wauwatosa-native Matt Busche of the Trek Factory Team, finished his first tour. Here is the story on cyclingnews.

Tom Boonen Wins Second Stage of Belgian Tour on Specialized Venge

Tom Boonen, the famed rider for the Omega Pharma-Quickstep team, won a second consecutive stage of the Tour of Belgium today as reported in cyclingnews.com 

Boonen was aboard his Specialized Venge, profiled here during the Tour of California.

Boonen, who has been world champion several times, has now won stages this year on three different Specialized bikes, the Roubaix, Tarmac, and the Venge.

Stop in at Ben's Cycles to test ride these incredible Specialized bikes, designed to give riders a huge advantage in aerodynamics and power efficiency.

Alberto Contador of the Saxo Tinkoff pro cycling team finished fourth at the Tour de France. Here's Cyclingnews.com profile of his S-Works SL4 Tarmac.

You can check out the bike at Ben's Cycles. Talk to us about a test ride, and you'll see why this is one of the fastest bikes in the pro peloton. And it can be yours!

Pro bike: Alberto Contador’s Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4

By: 

Sam Dansie

Race:

Tour de France

No one can deny Alberto Contador’s (Saxo-Tinkoff) attacking flair during the2013 Tour de France. First he fought Chris Froome (Team Sky) for the yellow jersey and then, in the Alps, tried for a spot on the podium.

The Spaniard eventually finished fourth in the final general classification, slipping down in the rankings in the last few stages after some determined riding by Froome, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).

The machine that saw him through the 2013 Tour was a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4. Contador rode a custom painted Tarmac SL4 at the start of the Tour, the simple three-colour design drawing on his status as winner of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España. Unfortunately, the bike was damaged in a crash on stage 16, and the 30-year-old swapped back to this identical – save for the paintwork – spare for the remainder of the mountain stages.

Contador has already secured one Grand Tour victory on a Specialized – the 2012 Vuelta a España.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/pro-bike-alberto-contadors-specialized-s-works-tarmac-sl4