A new Specialized Crux has been raced at the Gralloch gravel event in Scotland over the weekend, with overhauled aerodynamics and beefed up tyre clearance. The gravel bike, which was ridden to victory in the womens UCI race by Geerike Schreurs of the Specialized Off Road Team, bears more than a passing resemblance to the Specialized Tarmac SL7 road race bike, but with space for far wider rubber. You may like: Specialized Tarmac SL9 leaked here's what we know about the unreleased race bike so far The new Crux looks heavily inspired by the Tarmac SL7 race bike. Its impossible to tell from the official event images how wide the tyre clearance is, but its reasonable to expect an upper max in the region of 55mm given this is where most of the latest gravel race bike designs are heading. As my colleague Simon von Bromley pointed out after his visit to this years Traka gravel event, aero gravel bikes with wide tyre clearances are the next big thing, with recent examples from Canyon, Ridley (which weve since sampled), Factor and Argon18. Much like Canyons unreleased Grail CFR, though, the new Crux looks to take the same general approach of basing its design around a fast road bike and widening tyre clearance. The wide fork shoulders and wide tyres hint at the bike's tyre clearance potential. The Gralloch The fork shoulders are rounded to accommodate knobbly gravel tyres, although Schreurs opted for a Specialized Pathfinder tyre with a relatively fine tread for the Gralloch. With a jump in tyre width (the old Crux had space for 47mm tyres), this will likely impact geometry, although its unclear by how much given no figures are available. Despite the clear visual similarity with the Tarmac SL7, its almost certain that the new Crux has an increased fork offset to cater for the wider tyres, and to help modify the handling for the demands of gravel racing. Renders of the bike have also surfaced on social media - top tube bento box mount is present and correct. X The aerodynamics at the front are clearly influenced by the SL7, with the lack of obvious speed sniffer that featured on the Tarmac SL8, and a similar seat tube design to the older race bike. The bike also features an aero seatpost, which looks similar to the one used on the Tarmac SL8, and an integrated Roval cockpit. The cockpit looks new. Its a one-piece setup, with notably compact drops compared to the one currently specced with the Tarmac SL8. The drops also feature a significant flare, which is typically employed to make transitions from the hoods easier while offering more stable steering. The new Crux also sports an aero one-piece cockpit. The compact, flared drops hint that this is new. The Gralloch Bear in mind that even the Specialized Roubaix endurance bike doesnt come with an integrated cockpit yet. But that bike also sports the FutureShock dampening system, while the new Crux does not. Well be sure to bring more news on the new gravel bike as and when we hear about it.

Lukas Pstlberger takes men's win while Geerike Schreurs makes history with her second victory

Whilst UAE Team Emirates - XRG is chasing stage wins at the Giro d'Italia, their Tour de France block is at Sierra Nevada training at altitude in order to reach their best level in July. Tadej Pogacar will be facing none other than Paul Seixas, who will be the youngest rider in the race and an absol...

Spring finally showed up at the end of last week:Only for summer to immediately elbow it out of the way, inspiring me to head over to the other side of the river on Saturday for a good old-fashioned road ride:I chose the right day, too, because had I waited until Sunday I would have run right into the GFNY, which as always I completely forgot about:Wait, does this mean River Road is open again?Either way, this is already one of the Fredliest cycling corridors in North America if not the world, and on the day before a Gran Fondo the Fred Factor was frothy to say the least, with teams forming pacelines and the air resonant with the raspy sound of overly loud cheap freehubs laced into $3,000+ wheelsets. (The current business model for wheels seems to be a cheap hub, a plastic rim, and a four-digit price tag because ceramic bearings, which in practice are pretty much the same skateboard wheel bearings as every other wheel, only they can charge you a lot more money for them. I really dont know how people can stand the horrible sound of todays freehubs, though I guess it drowns out the ticking sound of their press-fit bottom brackets.)As always on this corridor there were also plenty of triathletes, armed to the teeth (or technically the perineum) with their trademark butt rockets:It may look like simple hydration, but quick tap of the electronic blip on the handlebar releases the CO2, which in turn launches the incendiary water bottle projectile. The tip-off that this is a high-tech weapons delivery system and not simply a hydration-and-flat-fix solution is that there is no such thing as a triathlete who can repair a flat. Fortunately, its extremely unusual to see one of these actually go off, since 99% of the time the triathlete will crash while attempting to press the launch button.As for me, I was the hairy-legged guy on the old road bike with a triple and mountain bike pedals that everyone else was passing:The bike is now running beautifully, all thanks to Bens Cycle, who had exactly the spare part I needed to rehabilitate the wheels:As a middle-aged guy with all the bikes I could possibly dream of and more youd think it would take more to excite me than a fix for my cheap Craigslist bike, but youd be absolutely wrong, and the utter joy I felt when I threaded them on and confirmed they fit was all out of proportion to their diminutive size and cost. Of course, in purchasing these I did violate my oath to not spend any money on this bike; however, when you consider the alternativethat being wasting an otherwise perfectly good set of wheelsI maintain doing so was ethically sound.What amazes me even more than how easily pleased I am is how utterly stupid I was to be riding around on the wheels in the first place. Not only were both original plastic preload adjuster thingies cracked, but when I went to grease the front hub the front one fell apart immediately:Keep in mind the axle of this hub basically works like a headset, and without the preload thingy the effect is the same as removing a threadless stem. So if this had come apart while I was riding the wheel would have easily shifted far enough over to lock it up, throwing me over the bars and to my fate.Wasnt it only January when I was analyzing a similar crash and taking inventory of all the things I could have done to avoid it? Some people never learn.

Stages set to start or finish in Reims, Charleville Mziers, pernay, Verdun, Metz and Thionville in Grand Est

Sunnies, helmets, saddles, bikes and e-bike tech are all currently out for testing, here are the previews

The decision for host city of the 2028 Tour de France was made official this Monday. The city of Reims will bring the Grand Boucle back for a French start, as the Grand-Est region will be hosting the first days of the competition. Reims is not too far from Lille, but is part of a separate region wh...

Radical new design blueprint places the Specialized Crux squarely in the aero gravel camp

Official routes and profiles for the 2026 UEC European Championships have been confirmed - including the men's and women elite road races and individual time trials. Slovenia plays host to the championships, and Tadej Pogacar will certainly be licking his lips at the announcement as he seeks to defe...