Rebecca Richardson's Specialized Tarmac hillclimb special

A stripped-down Spesh tipping the scales at 5.5kg

Rebecca Richardson is proving to be a dominant force in hill climbing, with a string of wins over the last two seasons. Fresh off the back of her victory at the Longstone Edge hill-climb, we took a look at the Team brother UK-LDN racer’s customised Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL4.

Richardson opts to run a Shimano Dura-Ace R9000 groupset not only for its light weight, but also its impeccable reliability, important for racing that can be won and lost in a few seconds. To reduce weight, the shifters have the rubber hoods removed and she opts to run a single 38-tooth chainring mated to a 11-28 cassette. As the season progresses, Richardson experiments with different front rings to suit the courses, as well as removing gears on the cassette to lower weight and optimise chain line.