New Specialized Shiv spotted at Giro d'Italia
Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-QuickStep) raced the opening Giro d’Italia time trial aboard what looks to be a new Specialized Shiv time trial frameset. Jungels placed 13th on the stage, 46-seconds behind stage winner Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).
Specialized launched a radical triathlon-specific Shiv system last autumn ahead of the Kona Ironman Triathlon, which wasn’t UCI legal, and Jungels appeared to be racing on a similar, road-specific version of the bike on Saturday.
The UCI’s list of approved frames and forks list a Specialized Shiv TT model registered on 22.03.2019 and available in four sizes – XS through to L.
The bike was equipped with disc brakes and sticks, with Deceuninck-QuickStep and Bora-Hansgrohe’s commitment to disc brakes for the 2019 season. The front end of the Shiv raced on by Jungels also appears to have a new fork compared to the triathlon version, losing the unusual high bladed, triple-crown design and closely replicating the forks seen on the most recent Specialized Venge aero road bike.
To the rear of the bike, super-low, dog-legged seat stays should contribute to aerodynamics and, like the forks, the seat post shares a resemblance to the most recent Specialized Venge frameset.
The triathlon Shiv also featured a number of ‘fuel cells’, which accommodated food, tools and hydration but for the short, 8.1-kilometer time trial, no additional storage was seen on Jungels’ bike.
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