Pushed back late into the fall by the Rio Olympics, Danish cyclists Amalie Dideriksen led her small three-woman team at the start of World’s in Doha back in October. Even after crashing earlier in the race, Dideriksen came back to win the sprint at the line and become the 2016 Elite Women’s Road Champion aboard her Specialized S-Works Amira. Now finally recovering from a long season of racing (and enough track racing and 6-days since that put her in the Danish National Champion’s jersey there as well for the next year, in 5 events no less) she has just finished a training camp in Calpe, Spain with her Boels-Dolmans team and has a nice new World Champ’s bike to take home as an early Christmas present…
Even winter training in Spain doesn’t always guarantee good weather for a World Champ. While out breaking in the new bike out in the rain, Dideriksen had a chance to test some new wet weather kit as well.
Velofocus joined the Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team at their last camp of the season and captured these close ups of her custom painted Amira, and Specialized gave us a little behind the scenes.
Still studying at university, the 20 year old is still pretty humble for a World Champ. Even after having been a Junior Road World champ two year’s in a row just back in 2013 & 2104, it’s still the small things that keep her excited about her newest custom bike. “I like that my name is painted directly on it”, said Dideriksen “and that the World Champion stripes are painted around the S-works logo on the frame. I love the glitter effects and the golden ‘S’ on the head tube.”
The bike was customized for Dideriksen by Specialized’s lead designer for Women’s products Lauren Parenti. She really wanted to make the design personal for Dideriksen – classic and understated from afar, but flashy and a bit wild close up. It’s all of those tiny, shiny flakes in the paint that disappear when out of focus from far away, but really pop and reflect back rainbows when you get up close and the sun glints off of them.
And without having to resort to a lot of rainbow stripes (there will be plenty of those on her kit, so she’ll still be easy to pick out of the peloton), the World Champ’s colors do come out in a subtle fade outline around the downtube S-Works logo.
It’s kinda crazy to thing that even after two Jr Worlds titles and two elite Danish championships, this is Dideriksen’s first custom painted bike. In fact it seems that each of those big wins has been while riding an Amira. Setup with SRAM eTap and Zipp wheels & cockpit, hopefully this new bike will treat her well in 2017.
