Soudal Quick-Step’s Tim Merlier sprinted to win stage 3 of the Tour de France yesterday onboard his custom Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8.
The day’s racing was fraught, with points classification leader Jasper Philipsen crashing before the intermediate sprint and abandoning the Tour de France, and riders went down in the closing moments of the stage. Yet Merlier survived the chaos, outsprinting the other favourite, Jonathan Milan, in the process.
The Belgian’s bike is decked out in his European champion colours. But away from the paintjob are some intriguing choices, including a shallower rear and deeper front wheel, wrapped in narrow tyres.
That paintjob…
Merlier won the 30th European Championship in 2024 with help from fellow Belgian and yesterday’s crashed-out Philipsen.
His 2025 Tour de France bike is painted up to honour his victory, with the blue and yellow of the European Union flag wrapping around a white base coat.
The Specialized Tarmac’s head tube with its ‘Speed Sniffer’ nose, is painted in black.
New wheels
The lead-up to the Tour de France always sees a host of product releases, and Merlier’s bike is equipped with new Roval Rapide CLX Sprint wheels, which launched two weeks ago.
Specialized says the wheels are optimised for “every phase of the sprint”, from leadout to bike throw. Yet they are optimised in what might strike some as quite an unusual way.
Whereas we’re familiar with road bike wheelsets that have a deep rear wheel, the Roval Rapide CLX Sprints have a deeper front wheel. At 63mm, the front is 5mm deeper than the rear.
Specialized says it settled on having a deeper front wheel after R&D aero engineer Lionello Bardina paired a shallower rear wheel with the brand’s previous 64mm-deep CLX wheel.
Wind-tunnel testing revealed the combination offered 90 per cent of the aerodynamic baseline of two 64mm wheels, while providing a big weight saving.
And, at 1,395g, the new Roval Rapide CLX Sprint weighs roughly 200g less than its predecessor.
Weight-saving also comes from Roval’s new Aero Composite spokes, which are said to be 2.3g lighter per spoke than steel and 20 per cent stronger.
This helps keep Merlier’s bike to 7.355kg on our scales.
Old-school tyres
While Merlier has new wheels, his tyres look old-school compared to his fellow Tour de France riders.
Many pros are now running 28mm tyres or wider, which plump up to over 30mm when fitted. However, Merlier’s bike has a 26mm tyre in the front, which comes up to 28.5mm, and a 28mm tyre in the rear, which measures 28.6mm.
Merlier doesn’t have the narrowest tyres we’ve clocked at the Tour de France, though. Geraint Thomas is using a 25mm front tyre on his Pinarello Dogma F.
The tyres are Specialized’s Turbo RapidAir TLR. Specialized says these are the fastest tyres it has ever made. They are said to be 33 seconds faster than their predecessor, while reducing aero drag by 2 watts and rolling resistance by 3 watts.
Part of this is due to the aero tread pattern, which promises “all-condition traction”.
Big gears and other details
Merlier has a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset on his bike, which is optimised for sprinting, albeit he isn’t using sprint shifters, presumably because he prefers to select a gear to push and stick with it.
The European champion has a mighty 56/44-tooth crankset with an 11-30 tooth cassette.
Hiding behind the crankset is a K-Edge chain catcher, which has Soudal Quick-Step’s ‘Wolfpack’ logo.
Merlier is another rider who will find himself flirting with the UCI’s proposed handlebar rules, set to come into effect next year. His cockpit appears to be right on the limit, measuring 39cm centre-to-centre and the space between the hoods measuring just over 32cm.
Elsewhere, Merlier is using a Specialized Phenom Comp Mimic saddle, Shimano Dura-Ace pedals and Tacx bottle cages.
