The Giro d’Italia is well underway and the Tour of California started yesterday, so naturally I have been checking the tech sections of VeloNews, CyclingNews, Road Bike Action, and other cycling sites to see which race bikes they are featuring. The majority of the featured bikes are pretty predictable, but the bright red Specialized Tarmac SL3s that the Saxo Bank riders are racing in the ToC immediately caught my attention. I mean…how often do you see pro team bikes these days with a single color frameset and understated graphics?
It turns out that the bikes have that paint and retro graphic scheme to commemorate the original Specialized Allez bikes used in the 1985 movie American Flyers. Road Bike Action’s tech feature explains that Bobby Julich, now a directeur sportif for Saxo Bank, came up with the idea of creating these commemorative edition American Flyers bikes for the team to ride in the race. See more pictures of the new and old Allez bikes at RBA. Personally, I really like the clean looks of these bikes. If Saxo Bank wants to get back to their regular team bikes immediately after the ToC, I would be happy to take one of these red bikes off their hands… I’d even pretend to be a fan of American Flyers if that is what it takes.
Leave a Reply