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TECH NEWS
Cav Specialized McLaren VengeCavendish talks about being back on a Specialized McLaren Venge + video
When Omega Pharma–Quick-Step’s Mark Cavendish won his first race of the season yesterday, Stage 1 of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina, he did it aboard a Specialized Venge, a bike with which he’s well acquainted having ridden one when he was with HTC-High Road. Here’s a quick video of Cav’s thoughts on the bike…
Cav spent last year riding Pinarellos with Team Sky but he was on a Venge when he became World Champion and won the Tour de France green jersey in 2011.
“It’s a bike that I believe is the fastest bike in the world,” says Cav. Of course, he would say that, wouldn’t he? You’ve got to keep the sponsors happy.
“It’s the aerodynamics more than anything,” he continues. “It really is incredibly fast like nothing else you can ever imagine.”
Cav has also switched from Nike to Specialized shoes this season and he reckons his new footwear – which looks like Specialized’s S-Works road shoe – has been made stiffer and more fitted for him to sprint in.
On his ambitions for the season, Cavendish says he wants to do well in the Tour de France – both personally and the team – and to win the green jersey again.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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17 comments
Good on him. If Specialized were paying me to ride their bikes I'd tell everyone they were brilliant, too.
Cav is obviously a switched-on businessman and knows how to work his brand as a rider, I remember the scene well when he went over the finish line in an HTC jersey making a phone symbol with his hands. These sort of things will sell products for the sponsors and probably let Cav name his price when he renegotiates contracts. Very clever stuff if you ask me.
Do these sort of things really sell products? Would a person undecided on whether to buy a Specialized or a Pinarello really have their opinion swayed by Cavendish saying it's the best in the world?
Nope, but they might have asked for opinions on a well known cycling website - gulp!
Id love to know how they have made stiff shoes even stiffer. best bet is to send me a Venge, some shoes and a fancy langster please.
I think he said he missed spesh while with sky once.
That was a messy sprint with Tommeke
bradley wiggins once said to the question 'what is the best bike in the peleton?'
his answer 'whatever bike i am sponsored to ride'
I think he might have been quoting Sean Kelly when he said it though!
Don't worry Gizmo_, some of us got it. (Also, does anyone know what Cav said about Pinarellos when he was with Sky?)
Yeah, he said exactly what the sponsors wanted him to say! Humour aside, there is a reason Cav sounds very positive most of the time. The sponsors love him. His words are reported in positive media stories, which associate the team/sponsors nicely with 1. a winner, 2. a family man with a clean-cut image. Sure, he pulls no punches if he thinks the team haven't pulled their weight, but that's purely on the sporting side. He's always said nice things about HTC, Sky (companies I mean, rather than teams), Pina, Spesh, Nike, Oakley etc. That's why he's worth the fat paycheck - from a corporate perspective, I think winning races is just the bit that highlights all those companies as winning brands.
Good to hear that Cav, is on a winning streak again (well done) but that's one UGLY bike he's riding! But it's what he likes; and rides well on it.
Oh, **** off Cav, seriously **** off if you're blathering about this bike again. Can you shut him up please. Please shut this guy up. He just wants to talk about his Venge, **** off.
wow, insightful stuff. personally i'd rather hear cav blathering about his venge. ymmv.
Oh come on, I was paraphrasing his press conference the other day...
Dude could ride a slammed Tesco Special and still hammer everyone.
Were all of the OPQ guys riding some kind of new Langster that's not announced yet?
The Langster Pro I think: http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/road/langster/langsterpro
Very tasty indeed