New paint-job celebrates imminent points classification victory
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Peter Sagan Specialized Tarmac SL7(Image credit: Veloimages / Bora-Hansgrohe)
The front end of the bike(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Sagan on his new Tarmac SL7(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Sagan at the start of stage 19(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Purple socks to go with the jersey(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Sagan at the start of stage 19(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Sagan is also wearing a purple helmet(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The purple bar tape can be seen as Sagan chats to Alberto Bettiol(Image credit: Getty Images)
Sagan with the new bike on the start line of stage 19(Image credit: Getty Images)
After all-but sealing overall victory in the points classification at the 2021 Giro d'Italia, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) is celebrating with a new-look Specialized Tarmac SL7.
The bike is painted in a cyclamen colour, to reflect the colour of the maglia cicliamino, the jersey worn by the leader of the points classification.
In the past week, Sagan has worn a purple helmet, with further nods to the jersey on his glasses and socks. Now, he has a full paint job on his bike for the final three stages.
Sagan is riding Specialized's Tarmac SL7, which was launched this year and billed as 'one bike to rule them all', incorporating aero features from the old Venge.
We have also featured this bike in ourPeter Sagan's bike archive in an overview of all the Slovak's race machines over the years.
The bike features an integrated cockpit, with Sagan using a 140mm stem on his S-Works Aerofly II handlebars, which are wrapped with cyclamen-tinted bar tape. The groupset is Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, while Sagan is using Roval's Rapide CLX wheels and Specialized's Turbo Cotton tyres.
Sagan took the maglia ciclamino at the end of the first week and has worn it every day since stage 11. After Thursday's stage 18 went to the breakaway, he currently leads the classification with 135 points, 22 ahead of second-placed Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-Up Nation) and 25 ahead of Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
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With two mountain-top finishes and an individual time trial to come, neither Sagan nor his rivals are likely to be among the points at the stage finishes. It is mathematically possible that he could be overhauled by way of the intermediate sprints, but highly unlikely his rivals would be in a position to take points while he wouldn't.
Sagan, therefore, is poised to seal his first points classification victory outside the Tour de France, where he has won the famous green jersey a record seven times. He was second behind Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) on his Giro d'Italia debut last year, while he has also placed runner-up at the Vuelta a España, in 2018.
Peter Sagan's Specialized Tarmac SL7: Specifications
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