Nibali's Specialized Tarmac gets new paint job - Gallery

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Vincenzo Nibali's bike has been given a makeover part-way through the Giro d'Italia, with a new paint job designed around his nickname of il Squalo di Messina - 'the Shark of Messina'. 

The Italian has sported such personalisations on his Specialized Tarmac in the past, but this new version, which he will ride for the remainder of the 2016 season, is said to be more "organic", taking inspiration from "Mother Nature." The main feature on the predominantly black frame are the flashes of bright blue designed to look like flowing water. 

"The design direction for the 2016 Nibali Shark Bike was to do something a little more organic. Taking cues from Mother Nature, I wanted to bring in the power and the energy of the ocean combined with traditional core race elements that is S-Works," explained Joe Lynch, senior graphic Designer at Specialized.

"We decided early on that adding more black to the bike would keep it aggressive. The design at its core needed to look fast, clean & ultimately reflect the athlete."

The bike retains Nibali's personal logo, with his surname written within the figure of a shark, whose dorsal fin is coloured pink, yellow, and red in a nod to the colours of the leader's jerseys of the Giro, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España, all of which he has won. Only six riders have won all three Grand Tours, and the achievement is celebrated further on this new design through the maps of each country pictured on the top tube. 

"It reminds me the sea of my region and gives me a sense of rapidly moving water," said Nibali of his new bike. "I also like the three stylized icons representing my three main successes. I am really happy about the final design. I'll be happy to ride it for the rest of the season."

Flick through the gallery above to have a closer look.