SPECIALIZED DIVERGE BIKE CHECK
Over my career, I’ve been lucky enough to ride some of the best bikes in the world…and some..well not the best in the world.
From the early days, at Drapac-Porsche where I started my career, we cruised around first on Bianche’s 928 before moving onto Giants TCR, then to the classic Koga’s of Skil-Shimano that took me over cobblestones and up bergs when I first moved over to Europe. The Scott Addicts and Foils I raced for years with Greenedge, to the Cannondale’s of EF that saw me through the end of my career and into retirement. When I decided to retire from pro racing, one of the things I thought was “Shit…I’m going to have to start buying my own bikes soon!”
Soon. But not yet!
Since the start of 2023, I’ve been lucky enough to be supported by the good people at Specialized Australia with a whole stable of bikes to keep me riding, exploring, and even a little bit of racing here and there - even though my pro career is well behind me.
Over the last few years, the ‘Big S’ have graced my garage with heaps of wicked bikes. I’m under no illusion that this is an incredible privilege - and one I don’t take for granted. When I first started to talk to them about a partnership, one thing I was really keen to do was connect with the brand and really understand what they’re all about across all different types of cycling; not just road. They’ve been incredible in supporting any and every sort of riding I want to do with whatever material I need, and I’ve honestly never loved riding more than I do now - largely thanks to their support.
I’ve got my S Works Tarmac SL8 for the fast bunchies. Man, what a rocket. It’s a proper modern-day race bike, but it’s bloody comfy too! I actually christened mine with a 1200km bikepacking trip from Ballarat to Adelaide between the Aussie nationals and the Tour Down Under last year.
I’ve got my super comfy Roubaix for the Belgie ride that goes over all sorts of different terrains. Oh man, I remember breaking that thing in at a sweet event across Melbourne, “Hell Below. Heaven Above.” What a fun day out that was. I’ll always have a soft spot for the Roubaix - being named after my favourite race, and where I called time on my racing career. When I ride this bike, I feel like I’m Tom Boonen.
I’d never tried much mountain biking before retirement, and now one of most favourites to ride is a full suspension cross country mountain which is bike parked up there too - and is that wicked Epic that saw me limp around the Cape Epic a few years back with my man Boz, and even a big travel Stumpy for when I thought I’d give Enduro a bash at the NZ MTB Rally!
They even lent me a Crux gravel / cyclocross bike so I could have a rip between the tapes at the Dirty Pig & Whistle.
However, of all the bikes Specialized have let me ride, my favourite has to be my gravel bike. I’ve loved exploring gravel now my racing days are done, and the Specialized Diverge STR is the perfect rig for the job.
Even better than that, they’ve done a custom Life In The Peloton paint job. This is the bike I’ve ridden the most for the last 18 months and, with a new release on the way from Specialized (...I wonder if you can guess what that’s going to be…) I thought it fitting to do a proper bike check to this beautiful steed before she gets hung up on the wall and - like me - put into retirement.
Check it out.
Isn’t she a beauty? A 54cm frame with 20mm adjustable travel at the front through the Diverge’s ‘Future Shock 3.0’ and 30mm fully adjustable travel at the back with their rear Future Shock design. I can switch a dial and convert this bike from a stiff, fat-tired road platform into basically a mountain bike!
I’m running a 1x12 Shimano GRX 820 groupset with a 42t chainring at the front and a monster 10-45t cassette out back. I’ve got some 42mm Specialized Pathfinder tyres on a set of nice wide Roval Terra wheels at the moment; these babies are slick enough to roll fast on the asphalt but have enough tread to go pretty much anywhere on the trails. Honestly? This bike is so fast, so smooth, and so versatile: I love it.
That’s the technical side out of the way, can we just take a minute to appreciate that absolutely stunning custom paint job.
I mean…wow. This is totally unique. 1 of 1.
The paintjob was designed by VELOCRAFT and painted up by Steve Gardner. It’s a glossy, pearlescent white finish with paint speckling, adorned in blocks of Life In The Peloton colours and complete with LITP logos. Designed by David Foira out of Specialized.
This bike’s probably my most-used.
It’s covered some ground, and accompanied me on some amazing adventures. I broke her in back at the start of 2024 on a little jaunt from the MAAP lab in Melbourne over to Radelaide ahead of the TDU with my old mate Pat Drapac.
That ride was a sort of ‘choose your own adventure’ route. I didn’t want to spend hours and hours sweating over every K we had to cover, and wanted to really sink into the adventure and enjoy tackling the terrain that lay ahead as it came. The Diverge was the absolute perfect machine for the job. Floating along on the tarmac without feeling like you’re bobbing along pissing away watts, whilst being able to chuck it down basically any road you came across.
After that came my FKT in the Victorian High Country. Linking together 272kms of trails in one big go.
Man, that was a real challenge, but I was super motivated to crush that challenge as it stood for something bigger. You see, the idea was to connect together the whole of the Great Forests National Park in Victoria - right in my backyard - to raise awareness and share MAAP’s mission to protect Mother Nature whilst we still can.
Again, the Diverge absolutely ate this up. I was an absolute mess by the end of that effort, but at least my hands and arse were in pretty good shape - even if my brain had turned to mush!
Then, of course, we had the inaugural Dirty Docker. What a blast that was - a whole weekend of bikes, beers, and bloody good laughs, all hanging off of my favourite gravel trails out of LanVegas.
I also gave a little sneak peak of the at-the-time unreleased LITP X MAAP Kit, and it was so sick showing that off on the custom bike; it really completed the set and felt like this whole ‘Life In The Peloton’ brand really might go somewhere…..
Back in January this year, the bike came with me to the Tour Down Under for heaps of fun group rides, the annual bikes and beers trek, and, of course, my mission to conquer the whole roster of Cooper’s beers. It’s a real head turner, and I genuinely love showing it off in person.
Really, a bike is just a collection of parts. I trashed enough over my racing career to detach myself from any sort of emotional connection, seeing them more as just tools than anything sentimental. But this one is a little bit different. I wasn’t ever a big enough rider with outstanding results to warrant a custom frame when I was a rider…maybe if I’d have rolled Jurgen Van De Walle we’d have got to see a special edition ‘Champion of Halle-Ingooigem edition’ Koga for the rest of the 2009 season…but alas.
This is my first custom bike, and it really does feel like I’ve got a special connection with this bike. Bikes have given me my whole life; basically every penny I’ve ever earned has been, in some way, connected to bikes. When I look down at this frame and see the colours and logos of the brand I’ve built, every pedal stroke just feels like it has a little bit more meaning than normal. Not to get too soppy about it all, but it really does make me think about my whole life so far, and all the amazing adventures bikes have taken me on.
Here’s to many more bike rides.
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