The titanic battle between former under 23 world champion, Sam Gaze and Nino Schurter at Coetzenburg Stadium on Saturday had us enthralled. Nino is the reigning world champion, and remained nearly unchallenged in 2017, so to see a close and ferociously fought battle unfolding was an unexpected surprise.
Here we take a look at the Specialized S-Works Epic Gaze rode to victory.
The Specialized team appear to favour the dual suspension S-Works Epic over the hardtail Epic and Sam Gaze is no exception. His Epic is tricked out with all the top of the range goodies from the S-Works stable, right down to the carbon bottle cage.
The ROTOR 2INpower crankset measure power readings from each crankarm independently giving the rider an accurate reading from every down stroke. Sam paired the crankset with a ROTOR oval Q-Ring sized at 36 teeth.
The suspension features Specialized’s Brain technology in a custom adapted RockShox shock and SID fork.
The fastest number on the day. Despite starting a few rows back, Sam managed to get himself to the front of the race right from the get-go.
The team uses Specialized’s in-house Roval brand for wheels. In this case, the Control SL wheelset with carbon rims, DT Swiss spokes, and Roval hubs featuring DT Swiss engagement internals on the back hub. Sam races on Specialized’s fast rolling Renegade tyres.
Sam appears to like his bike slammed with no spacers in sight. The 130 mm long Specialized stem with a negative 24-degree angle to the S-Works carbon 720 mm handlebars.
The Specialized team are riding Magura brakes this year. The brand’s MT8 Raceline with carbon lever and yellow calipers shine brightly on Sam’s bike.
By popular demand, the weight. While holding a scale in a field is probably not the most accurate means of weighing the bike, we have few alternatives when under pressure to get a bike back to the mechanics but in Sam’s case the scale read around the 10.4 kilogram mark.
Full specifications:
- FrameSpecialized S-Works Epic
- ForkRockShox SID Brain
- ShockRockShox/Specialized Brain
- RimsRoval Control SL
- HubsRoval Control SL, rear with DT Swiss Star Ratchet
- SpokesDT Swiss
- TyresSpecialized Renegade 2.1
- HandlebarS-Works carbon 720mm
- GripsSpecialized XC Race
- StemS-Works 130mm, -24 degree
- HeadsetFSA
- SeatpostS-Works carbon
- SaddleS-Works Phenom
- BrakesMagura MT8 Raceline
- Brake RotorsMagura 160mm
- ShiftersSRAM XX1 Eagle
- Rear DerailleurSRAM XX1 Eagle
- CassetteSRAM XX1 Eagle 10-50t
- CranksRotor 2INpower
- ChainringRotor Q-Ring 36 tooth
- ChainSRAM XX1 Eagle
- Bottom BracketRotor
- PedalsLook X Track Race Carbon
- Bottle CagesSpecialized carbon
- Weight10.4 kg
