Cavendish’s Specialized Venge ready to race San Remo

Mark Cavendish's Specialized Venge for Milan-San Remo

The new Specialized Venge aero road frame is turning heads in Milan, and is set to debut under Milan-San Remo favorite Mark Cavendish, among others, on Saturday.VeloNews’ Brian Holcombe caught up with Cavendish’s Venge and Specialized marketing manager Nic Sims Friday morning in Milan.

As reported yesterday, the regular S-Works Venge will be available in late may, while the S-Works+McLaren version will not be available until late fall. Sims explained that the McLaren version, which is still being worked on, should be about 150 to 200 grams lighter and up to 15 percent stiffer than the regular S-Works version. The difference between the two models “comes down to layup and manufacturing processes,” said Sims, adding that “one of the big stipulations was that we had to be able to make it in the same factory that we make all the other ones. We’re not going to use any different material, we’re going to use the same high-modulus material.”

Without the collaboration with McLaren, the ligher, stiffer S-Works+McLaren version would have been impossible, said Sims. “We gave them all the files for the completed S-Works bike, and then set these goals that, honestly, our design guys said ‘there’s no way.’ We wanted to take 150 grams out of the already pretty light frame, we wanted to increase stiffness by double figures, which we couldn’t do. We didn’t have the technology, we don’t have the computer software or the analysis stuff to do it.”

HTC-Highroad’s Cavendish, Matt Goss, and Bernhard Eisel should all be on the Venge this weekend, along with Saxo-Banks’s JJ Haedo, Matteo Tosatto, and Baden Cooke and Astana’s Allan Davis and Tomas Vaitkus. Both Mark Renshaw (HTC-Highroad) and Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) received the bike only recently, so will not ride them this weekend.

FILED UNDER: Bikes and Tech / Gallery / Pro Bikes TAGS: Bernhard Eisel / Mark Cavendish / Matthew Goss / Milan-San Remo / specialized

Caley Fretz

Caley came on board with the VN tech department in September 2010. Beyond his journalistic pursuits, Caley is a category 1 road, 'cross and track racer, and pro mountain biker.

• Follow @caleyfretz
• All articles by Caley