£10,999 A modern race bike from a heritage brand
● New bike – Bianchi Specialissima RC
Weight 6.75kg (55cm with bottle cages and mount) Frame & Fork Carbon Gears Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 (52/36t, 11-30t) Brakes Shimano Dura-Ace Wheels Reparto Corse RC Carbon 33mm Finishing kit Reparto Corse integrated bar & stem, Specialissima full-carbon aero seatpost, Bianchi RC139 carbon saddle, Pirelli P Zero TT tyres 26c
The Specialissima RC pushes the boundaries of road bike innovation. The latest build balances a temptingly low weight with greater aero performance for more efficiencies in and around the hills.
Many of the frame’s tube shapes look like slimmed down versions of Bianchi’s dedicated aero bike, the Oltre RC, making it more of an all-rounder. Its angular looks may be divisive, though, with a top-tube that flows down then up, a head-tube that hangs awkwardly over the top of the fork and an odd combination of a matte frame with glossy, shallow-section wheels. The frameset is made, Bianchi says, from high modulus carbon fibre, but they don’t provide any more detail than that. There are now dropped seatstays while they’ve also worked on the down-tube and there’s subtle aero channelling on the upper part of the forks. Above this you’ll find that Bianchi has moved from FSA’s ACR headset system to Acros’ IS52 ICR design, and use their own Reparto Corse carbon integrated handlebar.
Illegally light
Bianchi claims that all this adds up to a UCI-illegal 6.6kg bike weight (with a +/-5% tolerance to account for the range of frame sizes). My 55cm test bike, complete with bottle cages, out-front mount but without pedals came in at 6.75kg.
While the weight is impressively low, the RC’s now also much more aerodynamic. The old model, according to Bianchi, had to be on a 9% gradient before it was faster than the aero Oltre RC, but with this version, the benefits kick in at much lower gradients.
For this size 55, the stack and reach figures are 536mm and 391mm respectively: longer and lower than before, for an aggressive racing stance. The effective top-tube is an elongated 550mm and the chainstays are short, at 410mm, helping to produce nimble handling. The 72.5 and 73.5° head- and seat-tube angles are on trend. The Specialissima’s still composed and predictable, though, instilling confidence even at high speeds. This is down to the 988mm wheelbase, which is identical to the old model.
For the money, I’d expect perfection when it comes to the build and this bike is a
