Specialized Bicycle Components is excited to move into the 2015 season working with the top teams in both the pro men and women’s peloton. Unlike many pro sponsors, Specialized not only provides top of the line bikes and equipment for the teams but also the support and expertise of Specialized Racing. The Specialized Racing program works with the teams and athletes to maximize each rider’s efficiency through Body Geometry Fits, velodrome data acquisition sessions and Wind Tunnel testing in their very own Wind Tunnel facility in Morgan Hill, CA.
“We’ve always strived to create innovative products that provide real performance benefits to the rider,” explained Specialized founder Mike Sinyard. “By teaming up with the best professional riders and teams in the world, we get to work directly with them to develop products and pass those benefits on to riders everywhere.”
Throughout the season the Etixx – Quick-Step, Tinkoff-Saxo, Astana, and Boels-Dolmans teams are equipped with an arsenal of Specialized products, many of which have been directly developed with the riders themselves. Throughout the season the riders will have their choice of riding the Rider-First Engineered S-Works Tarmac, Venge, Roubaix, or Shiv TT. The ladies of Boels-Dolmans will be riding on the S-Works Amira, the women’s specific race bike designed to provide the female rider with optimum race performance, as well as the Shiv TT. Helping to complete the performance package will be the option of utilizing either the Roval CLX 60 or CLX 40 wheels complete with S-Works Turbo tires for maximum aero efficiency and performance. Additionally, the riders will be wearing S-Works Road Shoes, taking full advantage of complete Body Geometry Fit sessions to ensure that comfort, power, and efficiency are all achieved. Keeping the riders safe are the S-Works Evade, Prevail and TT helmets allowing the perfect performance solution no mater the conditions.
To help establish quick team recognition the designers at Specialized worked closely with each team to create a unique identity for their bikes and equipment. The custom look can be seen throughout the Specialized bikes, helmets and shoes the teams are using.
Etixx – Quick-Step
“I’m not going to say that we can’t beat the 2014 number this year, but what I really like is the quality of the victories. Of course you cannot choose what kind of victories you will earn, but if we could add one quality win to the total, I would have to say Milano – San Remo,” said Etixx – Quick-Step CEO Patrick Lefevere.
Roster: Julian Alaphilippe, Tom Boonen, Maxime Bouet, Gianluca Mrambilla, Mark Cavendish, David De La Cruz, Michal Golas, Iljo Keisse, Michal Kwiatkowski, Yves Lampaert, Nikolas Maes, Tony Martin, Gianni Meersman, Mark Renshaw, Fabio Sabatini, Pieter Serry, Zdenek Stybar, Niki Terpstra, Matteo Trentin, Rigoberto Uran, Petr Vakoc, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Stijn Vandenbergh, Martin Velits, Julien Vermote, Carlos Verona, Lukasz Wisniowski.
Tinkoff – Saxo
Heading into the season with one of the strongest rosters in the peloton the team is looking for victories in the illustrious Spring Classics as well as defending new signing, Peter Sagan’s Green Jersey at the Tour de France.
Roster: Ivan Basso, Edward Beltran, Daniele Bennati, Manuele Boaro, Maciej Bodnar, Matti Breschel, Pavel Brutt, Alberto Contador, Jesper Hansen, Jesús, Hernández, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Robert Kiserlovski, Michael Kolar, Roman Kreuziger, Rafal Majka, Jay McCarthy, Michael Mørkøv, Sergio Paulinho, Evgeny Petrov, Bruno Da Silva Pires, Pawel Poljanski, Michael Rogers, Ivan Rovny, Juraj Sagan, Peter Sagan, Chris Anker Sørensen, Matteo, Tosatto, Nikolay Trusov, Michael Valgren, Oliver Zaugg.
Boels-Dolmans
Team Manager Danny Stam stated, “The focus lies on the European World Cup races and the World Championships in Richmond. Just like last year, we’re starting the season with the ambition to compete for victory in the European World Cup races with a major goal at the end of the season, to win the Team Time Trial World Championships in Richmond.”
Roster: Lizzie Armitstead, Chantal Blaak, Demi de Jong, Amalie Dideriksen, Megan Guarnier, Romy Kasper, Chrstine Majerus, Kasia Pawlowska, Evelyn Stevens, Ellen van Dijk.
Astana
Led by defending Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali, Team Astana will be looking to repeat that success in 2015 as well as going for Classics victories and Grand Tour podiums.
Roster: Valerio Agnoli, Fabio Aru, Maxat Ayazbayev, Lars Boom, Borut Bozic, Dario Cataldo, Laurens De Vreese, Alexandr Dyachenko, Daniil Forminykh, Jakob Fuglsang, Andriy Grivko, Dmitriy Gruzdev, Andrea Guardini, Arman Kamyshev, Tanel Kangert, Bkhtiyar Kozhatayev, Mikel Landa, Miguel Lopez, Alexey Lutsenko, Davide Malacarne, Vincenzo Nibali, Diego Rosa, Luis Sanchez, Michele Scarponi, Rein Taaramäe, Paolo Tiralongo, Ruslan Tleubayev, Alessandro Vanotti, Lieuwe Westra, Andrey Zeits.
Now we know why speznaz is so expensive