Jai Hindley has been taking this year’s Tour de France by storm so far. He surprised many by taking victory on stage five with a stunning solo breakaway which also catapulted him up the general classification and into the yellow jersey. Naturally, with the yellow jersey also comes some yellow upgrades to the rest of the Bora-Hansgrohe rider’s kit – it’s a little too early to go full banana with a completely yellow bike, but Hindley’s Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7 still had a few special touches for the current race leader.
American brand Specialized argues that the Tarmac SL7 is one bike that can do it all, and all of its sponsored riders use this model across all races. Previously, the Specialized S-Works Venge was an aero-focused bike that some used, until the most recent upgrade to the Tarmac proved it aerodynamic and light enough to be used on the flat and in the mountains. Specialized says it has used its ‘FreeFoil Shape Library’ on a ‘Rider-First Engineered’ frame to deliver a race bike that means neither aerodynamics or weight needs to be sacrificed. If the rumour mill is to believed, a new SL8 could be on the way soon, but Specialized are yet to lift the lid on this at the Tour this year.
Hindley’s bike has been kept relatively classic and simple, with all all-black paint job and white logos. The only touch of yellow is in the handlebar tape, with Bora-Hansgrohe placing its logo underneath the seat post as the only other branding on the frame outside of Specialized logos. On the rear of the saddle is an NTT device, used for capturing rider data to provide real-time updates in partnership with Tour de France organisers, ASO.
The Australian rider’s bike was dressed with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset with a 54T and 40T chainring combination and a power meter integrated in the crankset. He was running a 160mm rotor up front and a 140mm out back. Hindley’s hoods were parallel rather than turned in as some riders prefer. He was using a Specialized Phenom Expert with Mimic saddle.
At the front of the bike, Hindley had a Roval Rapide handlebar with an integrated Tarmac stem, interestingly opting not to go for the newly-released one-piece Roval Rapide Cockpit. A Specialized stem mount goes into the stem faceplate for Hindley’s Wahoo Elemnt Roam computer which is also specially wrapped in yellow. His handlebar tape is the Supacaz Super Sticky Kush, wrapped extremely neatly by Bora-Hansgrohe mechanics. Hindley’s stem notes ahead of stage six were pretty simple, just including a profile of the stage and the key climbs and the Retul logo is an representation of the bike-fitting platform also owned by Specialized.
The hoops that Hindley opted for are the Roval Alpinist CLX II wheels with Specialized S-Works Turbo tubeless tyres. His forks have a rubber sleeve on them to cover the transponder on the bike, while Hindley also had a 3D-printed number mount for the back of his seat post.
