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[[{“value”:”The Tarmac SL8 is already the winningest bike in the WorldTour. So how do you make it faster?
In this episode, guest host Ben Edwards sits down with members of the Specialized engineering and product team at the global press launch for the new S-Works Tarmac SL9 on the Costa Brava.
Ben is joined by Lio Bardina, aero engineer; Denis Kürner, senior design engineer for road performance bikes and lead engineer on Tarmac; and Alex Jerome, category leader for road and gravel products.
Together, they go deep inside the development of the new S-Works Tarmac SL9, a bike engineered to be the fastest to the finish in the more aggressive road racing of today and the future.
The team explains why the goal was not simply to make the lightest bike or the most aero bike, but the fastest bike to the finish line. That meant using the equation of speed to optimize aerodynamics, weight, rolling resistance, ride quality, handling, stiffness, and real-world rider data to deliver the fastest time to finish and the Tarmac promise: ‘One Bike to Rule Them All’.
They discuss how racing has changed since the launch of the Tarmac SL8, with higher speeds, longer breakaways, and decisive race moments happening farther from the finish. Those changes shaped the design of the SL9, including its narrower Speed Sniffer head tube, reshaped Flow Fork with deeper, inwards twisted fork blades, dropped downtube, S-Works Rapide aero seatpost, Win Fin, and refined tube shapes.
The team explains why the Tarmac doesn’t need to look like a trending aero bike to be the fastest bike in the world. Rather than designing for appearance or optimizing for the fastest bike without a rider on it, Specialized modeled what actually determines time to finish: WorldTour courses, rider power files, real wind angles, rolling resistance, and data from the velodrome, road, and the WinTunnel, including testing with a moving-leg mannequin.
One example makes the impact clear: based on simulation of Demi Vollering’s 2024 Tour de France Femmes performance, the SL9 could have made her 14 seconds faster over the final 83 kilometers of the race. In a Tour decided by four seconds, that is the difference between losing and winning yellow.
The episode also goes inside the engineering challenge of improving aerodynamics while preserving the ride quality athletes already loved on the SL8. The S-Works SL9 delivers four watts of aero savings at 45 kilometers per hour, while the frame gains just two grams, coming in at 687 grams.
This is the story of how Specialized updated an icon: not by chasing a single number, but by building the fastest Tarmac ever for the moments that decide the biggest races in the world.
This episode covers:
– How modern road racing has become faster and more aggressive
– Why long-range attacks and solo breakaways influenced the SL9
– Why the goal was fastest to the finish, not simply lightest or most aero
– How the equation of speed shaped the development process
– Why real-world wind angles matter more than traditional aero assumptions
– How Specialized uses rider power files and race data in simulation
– Why the SL9 does not need to look like a traditional aero bike
– How the team achieved four watts of aero savings at 45 kilometers per hour
– How the new head tube, fork, seatpost, and Win Fin improve speed
– Why the moving-leg mannequin changed the way the bike was designed
– How athlete feedback shaped ride quality, handling, stiffness, and compliance
– What the SL9 simulation showed from Demi Vollering’s 2024 Tour de France Femmes
– Why small gains can decide the biggest races in the world
Guests:
Lio Bardina
Denis Kürner
Alex Jerome
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