The team, headed by sports director Peter Kennaugh, took to the UK streets on a line-up of freshly minted Tarmac SL8s finished in a paint scheme that's either strikingly artistic or overly garish, depending on your sensibilities. Underneath the bold brush strokes is Specialized's remodelled race bike built using its highest-grade 12r FACT carbon. It's a silhouette we'll be seeing plenty of, given its prevalence in the professional peloton.
Luke Lamperti's SL8 is equipped with SRAM's recently updated wireless groupset, Force AXS. Here, the 20-year-old American opts for a 54/41 chainset paired with a 10-33t cassette. Unlike Tom Pidcock and his penchant for 'old tech', Lamperti's use of a second-tier groupset (Force sits behind Red in SRAM's groupset hierarchy) is likely a result of Trinity's Continental team status. However, given his 2023 form that's seen him score a hat-trick of stage wins at the Tour of Japan, it's clearly not holding him back -notch one up for the quality of trickle-down technology.
This story is from the September 14, 2023 edition of Cycling Weekly.
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This story is from the September 14, 2023 edition of Cycling Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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