Feeling Specialized

The lovely Specialized ladies: Laura Wilson and Emily Smith

I'm still pinching myself! Yesterday I became the proud owner of an amazing bike. For the next 4 months I will be gracing the road on 001/200 Specialized Edition, S-Works Amira, SL4. Um frieneme with the bike...what, me say that?...haha never! We're totally best friends now ;)

This is an incredibly generous offer from Laura Wilson and the team from Specialized and I can't wait to get on the gorgeous machine.

Coming from a second hand Trek 1000, thanks Ildiko, I’m really going from one end of the spectrum to the extreme other. Don't get me wrong the Trek monster and I have had a great time over the last 12 months. I have gone from being a complete newbie on the road, to a competent rider, having only ever fallen over twice from a stationary position. (Classy I know!) I've built up my confidence on the road, along with a growing stamina for the longer hauls, with greater hauls ahead!

Handmade, this is the first female specific road bike created from the ground up. Could is be any sexier! 

Coming into the phase of longer rides, I'm actually jumping out of my skin to be on a bike of this calibre. The sheer weightlessness of it blew me away, not mentioning the floral print on the back frame. Irrelevant to some, crucial to me!

Adam doing a few final tweaks.

I’m looking forward to discovering the brilliance of this bike as the weeks go by. Adam, I’m going to call him the Specialized bike GURU, sat me down for a crash course of what creates and in particular, defines a bike like this apart of the rest. I commend him for successfully conveying extremely in-depth, technical and meticulous information, in other words total gibberish, to a complete bike nuff!  For all those tech heads out there, here are all the juice facts!

Now that I comprehend what I’m riding and the engineering behind it, I can already feel my appreciation for the ride component move to another level. I’m excited to share my learnings with you as I go :)

So let the fun begin! Tomorrow the coach has got the Trispecify Crew hitting the road for a 4-hour session. Perfect timing. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning… right?! We are setting out for a 3-hour ride, followed by an hour run. This will be the longest ride/run set I would have done to date.

I’m interested to see how the body transitions into the run from a long ride.  I’m sure having my new wheels (Rovals, for those playing) to take me along for the ride, will make all the difference!

Maddy xx