Golly where did Christmas Eve go? And that bottle of egg nog… and the other one? Luckily there’s still time to announce our Christmas Schwag Grab winner and give someone an extra and unexpected Christmas pressie, and that someone is…

timmers

The fickle finger pointed his way and Santa says he’s been good too so the shiny red, and nearly new Speicialized Allez will be heading North West just as soon as we get back to the road.cc offices. Treat it well timmers we’ve grown very attached to that Allez shaped box which has been an integral part of the road.cc these last few months. While you’re enjoying your new bike some of us will be looking for new places to balance our mugs of tea while fettling bikes. Ah well, them’s the breaks.

timmers wins the Specialized Allez Double we tested back in the summer when described it as a "Benchmark setting entry level road bike that’ll help you rack up the miles in comfort".

The Allez Double normally sells for £499.99… let’s call it £500 then, and for that you get an A1 Specialized aluminium frame with the same distinctively curbed top tube as the higher end Tarmac models. It’s all really well finished and there are even eyelets for attaching a rack if you wanted to try some fast touring or commuting. Upfront is a carbon fork which along with some skinny chainstays does a lot to kill road buzz and makes for a comfy ride. Geometry is racy but not ridiculously so. Drivetrain is an eight speed Shimano 2300 12-25 set up on a 53-39 chainset. It handles well, it’s plenty upgradeable and most importunely of all that red paint job makes it look fast and Christmasey too which is apt cos postie permitting one lucky road.cc user will be riding it this Christmas. Okay it’ll probably be closer to the 12th day of Christmas than the big day itself but it’ll be something special to look forward to and certainly an improvement on 12 drummers drumming.

We’ll have another schwag grab… soon.