This weekend, that venerable stalwart of the cobbles Tom Boonen will line up for the first hint of northern Spring Classics in his final season. Fifteen years ago he began his professional career aboard a white bike, so when Specialized approached him about a custom bike for his farewell season, he knew exactly what color to start with. Click past the break to explore what makes this disc brake bike custom for Tom…
While Boonen’s new whip is quickly identifiable as an S-Works Venge ViAS Disc, his bike eschews the extensive stealth internal routing characteristic of other Venges. Boonen runs what appears to be a blacked out Zipp Sprint SL stem with a Di2 junction box mounted to the underside. The bike’s custom white and gold livery has a lot of symbolism ingrained, with the 4-feathered wings said to represent his 4 Roubaix wins. The wings themselves refer to his guardian angel, whom he hopes will guide him to a 5th victory.
Mounted to that Zipp stem are a set of FSA shallow drop bars, wrapped in sticky black Supacaz tape. Tom is running hydraulic disc brakes and Di2, which means his hands will rest on a pair of the RS-785 hydro/electronic brake/shift levers until the newer Dura-Ace is more readily available. It appears he will be perched atop an S-works Romin saddle.
The drivetrain on the bike is made up of all Dura-Ace 9000/9070 pieces. With the limited global availability of the new R9100 Dura-Ace, many riders are still using the outgoing 9000 based groups, especially riders using disc brakes. Boonen’s gearset is a standard 53/39 chainring combo mated with an 11-28 cassette. The drivetrain is all Shimano, right down to the pedals and chain. Interestingly, Tom like most pros are opting for a 160mm rotor on both the front and rear, while most other road disc bikes are using 140mm versions.
The bike is clearly identifiable as Tom’s, with his name appearing on the seatstay, in addition to the many custom touches. For Omloop het Nieuwsblad, the bike is shod in Roval 64 disc tubulars with S-works Turbo tires glued on. No word on width, but likely towards the larger end of the spectrum given the course. A pair of Tacx carbon cages finish off the accessories on the bike.
The seat tube is emblazoned with the stirring words, “Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.” Tom Boonen is certainly a legend of the current peloton, and one of the winningest riders ever. Given his impressive career, a custom bike is fitting. Specialized will be offering this paint scheme in very limited numbers to select dealers, similar to the Nibali edition bikes and the Sagan edition bikes. Look for this one to debut on the starting grid at Omloop this weekend, then maybe on the podium? Given some of the recent incidents involving disc brakes in the pro peloton, a custom bike is probably safer than a custom pair of shoes, hehe…
