CyclistPro bike: Remco Evenepoels Euro/gold Specialized Tarmac SL9How do you design a paint job befitting a European, Olympic and former World Champion like Remco Evenepoel? It sounds like a tough task, but his team got the job done ahead of Il Lombardia at the weekend.This was the first outing for Evenepoel since winning the European Champions jersey in Slovenia by a whisker. Specialized rushed to get a special paintjob done for the Belgian to honour that victory, making this its second European Champs bike of the year behind that of Demi Vollering. The unique task with this one, however, was to keep the gold earned at the 2024 Paris Olympics.Photographer Xavier Pereyron managed to get a peek at the bike ahead of Il Lombardia, where Evenepoel raced to fourth.Remco Evenepoels Il Lombardia 2026 Specialized Tarmac SL9 Xavier PereyronRemco Evenepoel has been riding the latest generation Tarmac since its launch in the summer.For Il Lombardia though, the Belgian was riding a 1x SRAM Red setup with a 52-tooth chainring. That might be an aero-conscious choice he was riding a similar setup during flatter stages of this years Tour de France.Xavier PereyronEvenepoel was using an XPLR rear derailleur instead of the road option. Mads Pedersen did the same during the spring Classics. Thats backed up with what looks like an XPLR cassette too.More SRAM-backed riders seem to have been up to similar tricks in 2026. Anna van der Breggen used a massive SRAM Eagle cassette to tackle the Angliru back in April.Xavier PereyronThe Olympic champion keeps the gold K-Edge chain catcher and crankset decals from his pre-Euro rig. The golden saddle shell remains as well, although the gold chain and cassette seem to have been dropped since we snapped his bike at the Tour de France maybe itll come back next year.Xavier PereyronThe European stripes stretch to the forks, and they are shared with the gold from that Olympic win two years ago. The post Pro bike: Remco Evenepoels Euro/gold Specialized Tarmac SL9 appeared first on Cyclist.