With the 2020 road season kicking off in Adelaide this week, Specialized have launched their Tour Down Under Collection to mark the occasion; and also pledged a substantial financial contribution to the WIRES Australian Wildlife Rescue Organisation, as bushfires continue to burn through the country.
Review: Specialized S-Works Roubaix
The 2019 collection was inspired by the Aussie sunset with red and orange faded colours; while this year's gear is mostly blue and yellow to represent the Australian Budgie. The collection includes Prevail and Evade helmets, the S-Works 7 shoes, socks and a cap. A new Allez Sprint Disc (below) will also be used by the likes of Sam Bennett of Deceuninck Quick-Step and Jay McCarthy of Bora-Hansgrohe in the Schwalbe Classic, a 51km criterium that will serve as a curtain-raiser before stage 1 of the Tour Down Under proper on Tuesday 21st.
Specialized are donating $100,000 to WIRES, who are working round the clock to rescue and care for wildlife affected by the fires; it's estimated up to a billion animals could have been killed or injured.
Recently the mayor of the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia has said that the Tour Down Under "will help the area in its recovery from the recent bushfires", with two stages of both the men's and women's races passing through an area heavily affected - Jan-Claire Wisdom insists the route will be safe, with felled trees cleared and road repairs made in time for the race.
You can find out more about what WIRES do here and shop Specialized' Tour Down Under Collection on their website.
After cobbling together a few hundred quid during his student days off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story), Jack bought his first road bike at the age of 20 and has been hooked ever since. He was Staff Writer at 220 Triathlon magazine for two years before joining road.cc in 2017, and reports on all things tech as well as editing the road.cc live blog. He is also the news editor of our electric-powered sister site eBikeTips. Jack's preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking (the latter being another long story), and on Sunday afternoons he can often be found on an M5 service station indulging in his favourite post-race meal of 20 chicken nuggets, a sausage roll, caramel shortbread and a large strawberry milkshake.