Tour de Romandie champion Aleksandr Vlasov raced in Switzerland with a few custom details on his bike that allowed him to get into a race-winning position.
Like the rest of his Bora-Hansgrohe teammates, Vlasov races a Specialized S-Works Tarmac. Unlike his teammates, he doesn’t use the stock Tarmac stem that integrates cleanly with the bike’s unique spacers, the top one of which features a channel for the brake hoses. His use of a PRO stem also means that he doesn’t have the integrated computer mount on the stem’s faceplate.
So, his mechanic team improvised with a file.
Check out the gallery below for the details. And check out our Pro Bikes collection for other special bikes of the top riders.
Aleksandr Vlasov’s Tarmac looked to be a fairly straightforward, high-end affair.
Specialized’s Aerofly aero road handlebar has snap-in inserts to allow for a relatively easy routing and ideal aerodynamics. Here, Bora mechanics reshaped the right one to fit a K-Edge mount for Vlasov’s Wahoo Bolt. That was necessarily because Vlasov isn’t using the Tarmac stem, which has a faceplate-mounted Bolt mount.
Another look at the sculpting work.
Speaking of sculpting, check out the filed and Sharpie’d spacer. Like an increasing number of “integrated” bikes these days, the Tarmac has spacers that dovetail with the stock stem, but don’t align with other stems, like this PRO model.
“We used the spacer from the normal Tarmac frame and then put in a brown spacer underneath and filed it out,” a Bora mechanic told VeloNews. “Then we shaved it to look nice. He uses it for positioning, so he can get to the proper position. It’s nothing special.”
Vlasov is racing Shimano’s new 12-speed Dura-Ace.
And tubeless Roval wheels, which are not listed on Specialized’s website (Roval currently offers tubeless gravel and mountain bike wheels).
No setback on the post for Vlasov.
Like most of the Shimano-sponsored WorldTour peloton, Vlasov has an 11-speed power-meter crank with his 12-speed group.
Vlasov rode Roval tubeless wheels to Tour de Romandie success this past week.
A direct mount for the 9250 rear derailleur is another common WorldTour thing.
How does Vlasov’s Tour de Romandie overall win bode for the Tour de France? Pretty well, we’d say.