Hands up, who had the privilege of watched Sunday's final stage of Paris-Nice? If you missed it, well, you missed out on an absolute belter of a stage. Then again, you very well may have the excuse of being glued to stage five of the Tirreno-Adriatico, which was equally nail-biting. All in all, it was a classy weekend of racing. Paris-Nice threw up a winner in a breathtaking final stage; it also delivered us the first back to back general classment victory since 2002. The winner, Bora-Hansgrohe's Maximilian Schachmann, Max to his mates.
Two days before the Schachmann departed to defend his title, I managed to catch up with him, yes we spoke a bit about the upcoming race, but like all these videos in the My Bike series, we stuck to what he's riding. IN this case, his team issue Specialized Tarmac SL7.
Halfway through the 2020 season, all of Specialized's sponsored teams, including Boels–Dolmans, Dequnick- Quick-Step and Bora-Hansgrohe got their grubby mitts on the new updated model of the now all-round race bike. And by the sound of things from what Max is saying, not just the old tarmac SL6's were put out to pastures new but the fleet of Specialized Venge's too, the pure aero bike. The reason, well as you may be aware, the SL7 gained a big dollop of aero gains, so much so that it kind of made the Venge redundant.
Max talks me through his bike, and as always, I got the freshly crowed double Paris-Nice champion to shoot his own bike, and I've got to say he's pretty handy with the camera-a damn sight better than Toms Skijs (sorry Toms it's true).
Even though last season interrupted a stellar season for Schachmann winning Paris-Nice and amongst other notable results coming in a stellar third place at a stifling hot Strade Bianche he also used the "home time" that the pandemic to lean a few skills that he otherwise wouldn't have had time to. Yep, with a new bike, no mechanics or bike shops on hand Max turned to Youtube and learnt how to bleed a disc brake.
Schachmann's Tramac is kitted out with a full Dura-Ace Di2 groupset; gear ratios differ on his training bike and racing bike because, as we find out, he's a fan of his knees! Wheels are from Roval and with a wide choice of tires on offer from Specialized Schackmann opts for his preferred Turbo Cottons in 26mm. To find out if he uses tubular, clincers or tubs well I'm going to force you to watch the vid, you may be able to work it out as Max isn't quite sure himself.
One major change for the team and one that seems quite a surprise is that bars and stem this season are from Shimano's in house brand Pro. This is a big change from seasons past when the team have used Specialized's own and, in the most part, proprietary components.
But the team still stick with Specialized Saddles. For Max, well, he clearly has expensive taste opting for the Power Mirror saddle, a $450 perch that is 3D printed. It's lucky he doesn't have to pay for it. I've got to admit, though, that I can quite understand why the saddle, as I mention in my recent review it's quite possibly the comfiest place I've put my derriere while riding.
Chatting with Max in the lead up to him defending his title at Paris-Nice was a privilege. I'm sure he could have used his time more constructively. So, I'd like to say a big thanks to the now double race to-the-sun winner for his time.
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