Well, sometimes a 4W is a big difference between 2 sprinters on the finish line on a bike throw.....
Professionally yes. When you optimized every other aspect of performance it is natural to squeeze every few watts here and there to have an edge on the competitors.
On the amateur side, it's not so clear. There are tons of parameters that will limit you performance before the bike itself (better training, better nutrition on and out of the bike, better recovery, etc). And the 4w are at 45km/h. Let's be honest, not so many peeps here ride that pace on a daily basis. And let's also remember, 4w in lab test environment, very specific, very much not applicable to real world conditions.
What I'm the most amazed at, is the power of a good marketing, or here, I will call it marketing gymnastic.
Let's take the statements here and analyze them.
Specialized is openly saying :
This bike is also not the lightest. (even sl8 is lighter).
This bike is not the most aero. (even by spec own numbers, they admit to be behind in term of aero compared to the competitors).
All this wrapped up in their new "time to finish" metric which is a proprietary method to estimate the speed of a bike based on their methodology, with their data, on their own wind tunnel, comparing to competitors they picked, on courses they picked (in which there is this story of the Women TDF lost to 4s, what a great story telling example, nothing to say here, except bravo to the marketing team, they are good I have to admit).
So basically: not the lightest (not even vs their own last model), not the best in aero either, but somehow the "fastest bike ever made" according to a metric they invented, tested with their own gear, using their own data. That's about as textbook conflict of interest as it gets in the scientific community, and yet it'll probably sell like crazy.
What do you think ?
