The world and Olympic time trial champion needs a bike that reflects his achievements, and with its polished gold paintjob Remco Evenepoel’s S-Works Shiv TT does exactly that. The rainbow bands adorning the kammtailed rear of the seat tube seal the deal.
The 25-year-old Belgian has a physiology that’s perfect for time trialling – he’s compact at 1m 71cm and can produce a huge amount of power in an aerodynamic position. His custom carbon bars are designed to wrap around his arms and precisely place them so that they punch a neat hole in the air in front of him, particularly when he moves his head closer to his forearms. Evenepoel had confused commentators by using a visor with the centre cut out, apparently wrecking the smooth airflow, but watching him ride in his TT position on these bars, it’s clear the cutaway allows him to put his head closer to his hands, actually improving his CdA or drag coefficient.
The bars themselves will have been exhaustively wind tunnel tested, and Evenepoel uses low-profile grip tape rather than bar tape so as not to introduce random, unvalidated shapes that could lose him a fraction of a watt at 55kph. The base bar has a small S-Works logo at the rear.
Soudal-Quick Step are a Shimano team, but in place of the standard Dura-Ace rings is a huge dinner plate of a carbon 1x chainring with 64 teeth from Taiwanese brand Digirit. Perhaps not as well known as Carbon-Ti, whose aftermarket chainrings are used by Tadej Pogačar, Digirit made the chainring for Vittoria Bussi’s Hour Record in 2023. It’s never a good idea to use a big single ring in a time trial without some sort of chain catcher (just ask David Millar) so Evenepeol has a matching gold chain guide from K-Edge. His top gear of 64x11 is an enormous 157 inches – but the idea is not to actually use it: instead he goes very fast with sprockets in the middle of the cassette, which are bigger for better chain efficiency and also give a straighter chainline.
The disc wheel has a slightly different carbon weave from the consumer Roval 321, so it could be a prototype, but the front is the new Roval Rapide Sprint CLX with the 63mm depth. The tyre label is blacked out, but we’re probably looking at a prototype S-Works Turbo Cotton, likely in a 28mm width.
Finally, Evenepoel uses Specialized’s Sitero TT-specific saddle, which is wide with a chopped-off, or at least downward-pointing, nose. Meanwhile, after a stuttering start, the Belgian’s Tour de France is definitely upward-looking after today’s masterful performance.
