Remco Evenepoel romped to a third consecutive victory in the men’s elite time trial at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday, and here’s his weapon of choice.
As you’d expect, Evenepoel’s Specialized Shiv TT Disc time trial bike is fully kitted out with all of the latest kit, including a custom carbon fibre cockpit, a monster 1x carbon chainring and Roval's latest aero wheels.
This year also appears to be the first time Evenepoel has won the event using tubeless tyres, rather than clinchers.
Let’s dig into why that might be and take a closer look at the rest of the Belgian’s tech picks for riding against the clock.
3, 2, 1, go...
Evenepoel is one of cycling's most dominant riders against the clock, and he proved this by catching none other than Tadej Pogačar around 2km from the finish line – despite the Slovenian star starting 02:30 minutes ahead of him.
Launched in 2019, the Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Disc is getting somewhat long in the tooth now, but Evenepoel keeps proving that it remains a competitive frameset.
This year's hilly parcours in Rwanda saw Evenepoel on an all-black version of the bike, with excess paint presumably stripped away, in order to save weight.
As is de rigueur for top TT riders, Evenepoel has a set of custom aero extensions, which are moulded to fit his forearms and keep him locked into an aerodynamic position.
A touch of grip tape on the tips of the extensions and bull horns is all he needs – there's no bulky handlebar tape causing extra drag here.
The extensions feature minimalist padding for a close fit, while a bridge between the two extensions acts as a bike computer mount for Evenepoel to monitor and record his efforts.
Evenepoel's hand grips are tilted in to be almost touching, and there look to be shift buttons underneath so he can change gear while in his compact aero tuck.
In terms of wheels, Evenepoel was rolling on options from Specialized's in-house brand, Roval – with what looks like a carbon-spoked Rapide Sprint CLX up and a 321 full carbon disc out back.
The Rapide Sprint CLX wheel features a 63mm-deep rim, and is said to be the most aerodynamic front wheel the brand makes.
These are wrapped with Specialized's as-yet unreleased Turbo Cotton TLR tyres, which we saw on his gold-painted Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 at this year's Tour de France.
This represents a significant change for Evenepoel, who has used Specialized's Turbo Cotton clincher tyres for each of his previous TT victories at the UCI Road World Championships.
We're yet to receive detailed information on the new Turbo Cotton TLR tyres, but we can only assume they represent a decent improvement on the clincher model in terms of performance.
Zooming in shows Evenepoel was running an unusually wide 30mm tyre up front, though from our experience at the Tour, these tyres generally measure up slightly narrower than the printed width on Roval rims.
Regardless of how wide they are, given that both the tyres and wheels were developed in-house, it's likely Specialized will have optimised them to work together in harmony.
Finishing off the build is a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 groupset, with a single Digirit carbon chainring up front and what looks like a wide-ranging 11-34t cassette out back.
Evenepoel also has what looks like an Alugear bolt cover, which smooths the interface between the third-party chainring and his Shimano power meter crankset. As on his road bike, we expect Evenepoel was running relatively short, 165mm cranks.
A K-Edge chain guide replaces the front derailleur to ensure there are no untimely chain drops, and Evenepoel opted for a Tacx aero water bottle, instead of a classic round one, for a final aero gain.
Remco Evenepoel's custom Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Disc for the 2025 UCI Road World Championships individual time trial
- Frameset: Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Disc
- Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9200 with 1x Digirit carbon chainring
- Wheelset: Roval Rapide Sprint CLX front, Roval 321 Disc rear
- Power meter: Shimano Dura-Ace R9200, 165mm cranks
- Tyres: Unreleased Specialized S-Works Turbo Cotton, 700x30c
- Handlebar: Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Disc with custom carbon extensions
- Seatpost: Specialized S-Works Shiv TT Disc
- Saddle: Specialized Sitero
- Bottle cages: Tacx Aero
- Pedals: Shimano Dura-Ace
- Weight: Unknown
