I’ve been riding S-Works bikes for most of my career and I alternate between three models during the race season. Depending on the type of course, I’ll pick from the Tarmac and Venge Vias road bikes or the Shiv triathlon bike. I love these three models, but all three have different specs that make them suit different race courses. For training, I’ll swap bikes depending on my next race.
I use my Shiv TT bike for non-drafting races on flatter courses [pictured above at Ironman 70.3 Dubai in January, which Gomez won after clocking a 2:03:52 90km bike split and a 1:10:44 half-marathon run], and I also used it at the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in 2014. I use the Tarmac for drafting races with hilly and technical courses, while the Venge Vias with Roval CLX 64 wheels perfectly suits a flat and speedy drafting race.
I work in the wind tunnel and have my bike fitting at Morgan Hill in California with the Specialized engineers. I then always do some adjustments while riding to find the balance between aero position and comfort
1. I choose my race wheels depending on each race course, whether I’m training or racing, the wind conditions, etc. Pictured here are the Roval CLX64 on the front and a Zipp disc wheel at the rear.
2. I use three different S-Works frames as each one of them gives me different features.
3. I normally opt for 52 x 39t and 11 x 23t gearing for the road bike, and 52t x 42t and 11 x 21t for my triathlon bike. I use a SRAM Red groupset with a S-Works crank.
4. I haven’t really made any special modifications to the bike, just adjusting the positions to my feelings and the wind tunnel data.
5. I use a Specialized Sitero saddle and I’ve been in the Morgan Hill wind tunnel that’s owned by Specialized three times to work on my aero position, the length of my cranks, etc.
The Spanish superstar has a record five ITU world titles, an Olympic Games silver medal, and Ironman 70.3 and Xterra world titles.