Specialized builds battery powered bike for Fabian Cancellara for the Tour de France

Who says the boys at Specialized don't have a sense of humor?
Not us!
At a recent presentation in Keystone, Colorado Resort, Specialized made light of recent cheating allegations against their sponsored rider Fabian Cancellara, and unveiled a new Specialized Roubaix 2011 complete with 430 watt Duracell battery.
For those that don’t know, rumors that professional riders had used an electric motor to help them turn the pedals and so save  energy, first appeared in the Italian press during the Giro d’Italia.
The Il Giornale newspaper said that a small motor and battery that helps turn the cranks could be hidden in the seat tube of a frame, giving a boost of 50 watts of power.
Then , a carefully edited video appeared on YouTube noting unusual hand movements by Cancellara before he attacked and won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in April, fueling  the conspiracy theories.

You can watch that video HERE.
However, the UCI (professional cycling sanctioning body) seems to be taking the allegations seriously enough and is checking all bikes ahead of the Tour de France.


Retired Belgian rider Johan Museeuw, who won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders three times each, has seen such a bike.
"The system does exist, I saw it at the Las Vegas show last year," said Museeuw, in an interview with Eurosport "It would be impossible to keep the secret. A company like Specialized (suppliers of Saxo Bank Cancellara's bikes) would not take such a risk."

If you believe it or not , thanks  to Specialized for making us laugh!

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