Specialized Bicycles have been supporting songo.info since the charity’s inception ten years ago. Since 2012 Specialized have produced two exceptionally distinctive bikes for the riders representing songo.info at the Absa Cape Epic. Upon the completion of the race the bikes are donated to the charity and auctioned off to raise funds for the education and sport programmes songo.info runs in the Kayamandi community.
A pair of two-of-a-kind custom Specialized S-Works Epic bicycles has been donated by Specialized Bicycles to go under the hammer, to raise funds, for songo.info. Photo by Etienne Schoeman.
In 2018 the bikes set to go under the hammer once more, from Monday the 26th of March at 12:00 CAT. They are arguably two of the most beautiful incarnations of the Investec-songo-Specialized custom design yet and boast the unique pedigree of having been piloted to Absa Cape Epic victory. For the first time, in 2018, the bikes were ridden to Epic glory in separate categories – by Specialized XCO Racing’s brightest stars Jaroslav Kulhavý and Annika Langvad.
Jaroslav Kulhavý’s Absa Cape Epic winning bike features a large frame size and the distinction of having spent more time at the front of the 2018 Epic field than any other machine. Photo by Michal Červený.
Kulhavý’s impressive palmarès includes the 2012 Olympic gold medal, silver from Rio 2016, 3 Marathon World Championship titles, a cross-country World Champions’ jersey, a Mountain Bike World Cup overall title and 3 Absa Cape Epic titles. Langvad, despite only taking to elite mountain biking in her mid-20’s has already notched up 3 Marathon World Championship titles, a cross-country World Champions’ jersey, numerous Mountain Bike World Cup race wins, an overall Mountain Bike World Cup Champion’s title and of course 4 Absa Cape Epic titles.
In total the bikes notched up 9 stage victories, out of a possible 16 in the UCI men’s and women’s categories. In addition to the Cape Epic success Langvad’s bike was also ridden to UCI Mountain Bike World Cup gold the weekend before the Cape Epic, making it a the most successful bike ever to be auctioned by songo.info – defeating programme founder Christoph Sauser’s 2013 Cape Epic machine from the Swiss legend’s most dominant victory at the world’s most famous mountain bike stage race.
Annika Langvad’s custom Specialized S-Works Epic boasts a medium frame size and the honour of winning every race it has been ridden in; including the Stellenbosch UCI MTB World Cup, the songo.info Champions’ Race and 7 stages of the 2018 Absa Cape Epic. Photo by Ewald Sadie/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS.
The two-of-a-kind bikes are 2018 Specialized S-Works Epic mountain bikes, with custom songo.info inspired livery. The primary white, black and world champion rainbow colours are drawn from the songo.info logo. With 2018 marking the 10th anniversary of the charity the design was updated to include the silhouettes of stylised children, holding hands, to symbolise the young people of Kayamandi whom the programme has already aided in its first decade. These silhouettes are displayed in the rainbow colours on the cuffs of the songo.info jerseys and bib shorts. They also appear in the S-Works decaling on the bike’s downtubes. The chain- and seat- stays feature icons denoting the sport and education functions of the charity, while the downtube also features a list of children in the songo.info programme. At the junction of the head-, top- and down- tubes the iconic Investec zebra and Specialized S logos are displayed in black, with the multi-coloured songo.info logo providing a flash of colour.
Both bikes have been meticulously maintained by Specialized XCO Racing team’s mechanic, Holger Friesen (pictured). Photo by Michal Červený.
The S-Works frames, in size medium and large, are built with top of the range components from Specialized XCO Racing’s co-sponsors SRAM, RockShox, Magura and Rotor. The wheels are supplied by Specialized’s Roval brand, while the tyres, bar, stem, saddle and seat post are all from Specialized’s ranges too.
