I mean im just now 18…….So Im still a little wet behind the ears. I dont wanna call myself a Covid Baby cause thats not what got me into cycling. But I have not been doing this as long as some.
That’s awesome. Nowhere to go but up!! 
I guess it depends which gravel worlds Neil is referring to in that article. The Lauf Gravel worlds or the UCI Gravel World Championships. In the 2024 edition of UCI Gravel Worlds Marianne Vos won with in a sprint finish on a Cervelo Caledonia with 33mm Dugast tires. For 2025 Vos switched to a 45mm front and 42mm rear on a Cervelo Aspero. She was outsprinted by Lorena Wiebe’s who was riding a Crux and using 40mm Specialized Pathfinder Pro’s.
Tom Pidcock ran 35mm Terreno Pro’s at UCI World’s last year. Finished 6th. Race was won by Florian Vermeersch who was on 40mm Continental Terra Speed
But in general 9 years later from that article I would say those tire recs would be 5-7mm wider these days now that more bikes have wider clearance and there are more good options 35mm and greater
Just to be clear, I was sharing a reply to the question “what do the different gravel categories mean?” not “I think you should use these old tire sizes” 
Hey Folks - I did a little spring classic race on my Crux with 303 firecrests / GP5000 32mm and it went really well! Gearing up for gravel season now and threw on my Schwalbe RX 50/45mm combo and was reminded how good this bike really. It got me thinking - especially with the release of the Conti Dubnitals in 50mm - do I even need the new Crux This is such a capable bike - it really can’t be much slower than other modern gravel bikes.
Anyway just a ramble but curious what everyone’s set up is currently for those still on the old frame? My setup:
Are those 50mm Schwalbe’s…what do they measure on those wide Zipp rims?
Yup. 50mm front and 45mm on back end up being 52mm and 47mm. No issues but that’s largest I’d comfortably go.
If I was guessing.. 
- 55 max tire size
- 15 watts savings over previous
- looks exactly like a tarmac now (aka drop stays)
- udh (duh)
- roval integrated cockpit
- no frame storage
- 1x only
- a bazillion dollars.
It’s not. People just like new things. Upgraditis is real
Interesting looking rear derailleur 
Looks like spot on except for one little fix.
With this little innovation compared to ex Epic 9 I hope they actually drop the price 
If that’s real, I love the look. The SL7 was so much better looking than the SL8 so I’m glad they didn’t put a speed sniffer on it. I might actually be interested in it now. 1x only is kind of a bummer though and I wish they had added frame storage. Seems like a weird choice these days.
Its AI, the rear derailleur is a clue, has 3 pulleys.
The Brembo brakes are only for downhill bikes also, right?
Theres only two jockey wheels on the picture I’m seeing 
These too? Looks like a typical leak.
Top pic in that link is a non-sworks frame with SRAM Red on it. Pretty sure Specialized never (or at least very rarely) offers that combo. Would be weird for that to be a leak, but I suppose it could just be a rendering they messed up on
looks like a legit spec to me tbh
Perhaps, but it doesn’t match up with what Specialized currently offers. At least on the US Specialized the only way you can get a bike with SRAM Red is with the S-Works frames for all the bikes they offer SRAM Red builds on. So it would be atypical of how Specialized has done it in the past. But given a lot of marketing pics are just computer generated it could be they dropped the wrong groupset on the wrong frame accidentally. Or it could be a fake. But I doubt we would see them release this combo
Tarmac
Roubaix
Aethos
Crux