Giro d'Italia

Pro Bike Gallery: Vincenzo Nibali’s Specialized Tarmac SL4

Caley Fretz has a peek at the maglia rosa's bike (and no, it's not pink).

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Vincenzo Nibali, nicknamed the “Shark of Messina” after his island birthplace, gets one of only a few unique paint jobs from Specialized at this year’s Giro —€” but not a pink one. Astana’s PR man Chris Baldwin says he won’t jinx the pink jersey, and will only pull a special bike out for the final day, should he still be in the maglia rosa there.

The shark theme and more nautical color scheme extends from a small badge on the top tube to a subtle logo on fork to the choice of color for the bottom of the down tube.

Nibali is 5’11” and rides a 56cm SL4, with a saddle height of 76cm and a reach from saddle tip to bars of 60cm. As with all the Astana machines, his bike is decked out in Campagnolo and FSA components and Corima wheels. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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The Shark of Messina gets a special badge on his top tube. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali rides with an SRM power meter and Specialized S-Works cranks, 172.5mm long, on road stages. He ditched the SRM for the team time trial, and mechanics said he likely would again for the individual time trial this weekend. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali comes into this Giro as the undisputed leader of his Astana squad. He’ll have a tough fight fending off Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), among others, but Wiggins himself has called out the Shark as the race’s top favorite, and his time trial on Saturday proved he has the form to take pink to Breschia. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali uses Corima’s carbon Aero+ wheels for flat and rolling stages, and switches the company’s all-carbon (including spokes and hub shell), lower profile Winium series wheels for the big mountains. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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The blue highlights are unique to Nibali’s ride. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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A 120mm stem on Nibali’s SL4 frame. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali’s SRM head unit. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Record 11-speed mechanical on Nibali’s machine. He runs mechanical on both his road and TT bikes, though many of his teammates use Campagnolo’s EPS system. Team representatives said that the decision to run mechanical was to “rule out as many points of failure as possible.” Though it is extremely unlikely that EPS would simply stop working, mechanical is virtually guaranteed to never fail on its own, without a crash or other external influence. Nibali had some Campagnolo 80th Anniversary special edition parts on his spare bike. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali is on a 56cm Tarmac SL4. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Tacx bottle cages and bottles for Astana. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali switched from Speedplay Zero pedals to Look Keo Blades for the 2013 season, following his move from Cannondale to Astana. Look sponsors the latter. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Nibali is one of the few riders in the pro peloton to use carbon handlebars. He rides on FSA’s K-Force NanoK bars. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com
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Subtle graphics on the fork. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

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