Earlier this year Olympic Gold Medalist Jaroslav Kulhavy suffered a devastating knee injury during training, which caused him to miss the first two races of the World Cup series.
While he’s suffered a string of bad luck in his current pursuit of the rainbow stripes this season, he did capture the Czech National title and is now the reigning UCI Marathon World Champion.
Head past the break for a closer look at his custom painted Specialized S-Works Epic.
Like many of the other bikes we’ve spot lighted this week, Kulhavy’s sports ESI Foam grips. These cushy grips are easily 50 g lighter than their lock on counterparts.
Specialized employs a talanted group of designers who frequently whip up custom paint schemes for their best athletes. In the past, many have even been made available to the public. For example, the Big S whipped up this beauty to celebrate Kulhavy’s win in 2012.
The RS1 has been touted as offering huge performance benefits, and Tyler’s first impressions seem to agree, but hidden inside this fork lie Specialized’s Brain internals – which use inertia valving to help distinguish between terrain and rider induced inputs.
The bike spins on Roval Control SL 29 wheels.
While every stock Epic comes equipped with Fast Trak tires, you have to win World Cups to deserve these custom rainbow decals.
A custom tuned Fox shock equipped with Autosag and a remote Mini Brain provide the cushion for the pushing.
The Meribel course might not have warranted a dropper, but the Epic does offer internal routing for one. Stock S-Works Epic bikes will be shipping with Specialized’s new short travel XCP Command Post, which has a carbon body and 35 mm of travel.
Like other Specialized/SRAM athletes like Curtis Keene, Kuhlavy’s bike was sporting the new Quarq XX1 Power Meter, which was officially launched this week at Eurobike.
