Allez Sprint: Specialized presents "the world's first aluminium superbike"

High weight, sluggish acceleration, bulging weld seams or low comfort: aluminium racing bikes don't exactly have the best reputation. If you talk about top performance, it's almost exclusively carbon fibre racing bikes that come to mind. But with the new Allez Sprint, Specialized wants to disprove this antiquated image and confidently sends the "world's first aluminium superbike" into the race.

At first glance, the Specialized innovation for 2022 resembles a copy of the Competition bike Tarmac - and it should. After all, the US Americans adapted the the lightning-fast carbon frame of the Tarmac SL7which still has the best grade ever awarded by TOUR (1.4) for Competition racing bikes to the aluminium frame of the Allez Sprint. This is most evident on the concave head tube, which is pressed from a single piece of aluminium into an aerodynamic shape and requires fewer weld seams. The art of cold forging can also be seen on the bottom bracket shell and down tube. In addition to aero optimisation, this so-called Smartweld technology is intended to reduce the frame weight and increase power transmission.

Allez Sprint: Two models for 3,330 and 7,500 euros

The aero performance of the new Specialized Allez Sprint is said to be 41 seconds faster on a 40-kilometre course. For the € 7,500 LTD version with SRAM Force eTap (1x12, 10-36 teeth) and high-profile wheels from Roval, Specialized quotes a total weight of 7.9 kilograms. The Comp version of the aluminium road bike costs €3,300 and comes with a mechanical Shimano 105 (2x11, 52/36, 11-28 teeth) and a flat wheelset from DT Swiss. The frameset of the new Allez Sprint costs 1,800 euros.