Posted on March 22, 2022 by Jordan Villella

Specialized has just released the second generation of the Allez Sprint, calling it “the fastest alloy road bike in history.” It comes with some impressive claims, and since the geometry, fork, and seat post are identical to the Specialized Tarmac SL7 — they may be onto something.

The Specialized Allez has gone through many changes over the years. Most recently (as of 2015), it has been the go-to bike for niche builds, crit monsters, and everyone in-between. The bike (or should I say frame) gained popularity with its Smartweld technology, limited edition paint schemes, and affordable forward-thinking geometry.

The new Specialized Allez Sprint takes knowledge from the past and concentrates it into a very inventive and fast-looking (we haven’t ridden one yet) updated Allez model for modern racing. Frames shapes and models have changed over at Specialized from 2015, and so has the idea of what constitutes fast. We’ve seen the Venge, Venge VIAS, Tarmac SL, Aethos, while the Allez Sprint remained unchanged — until now.

There are a lot of changes to the Specialized Allez Sprint frame for 2022. They didn’t flip the table and start over, but there are small incremental changes that add up to significant gains. The new Specialized Allez Sprint claims to be 41 seconds faster over 40km than the previous Allez Sprint Disc.

Let’s start at the head tube, one that Specialized is calling the “The most complex alloy head tube we’ve ever made.” The headtube shape is a big deal, and if you have an in-house Windtunnel like Specialized, you make sure to have the most aero shape possible. There’s more to it than “aero is everything” though… stiffness and responsiveness are a big deal when it comes to a bike’s ride.

This notion of added stiffness nudged the engineers at Specialized to update the headtube’s creation process, stamping the headtube from one piece of alloy and then welding it farther away from the headtube, giving it a better connection to the other tubes and upgrading the front end stiffness.

Specialized looked to add stiffness to the new Allez, but in the right places, and one of those places is the bottom bracket. This pursuit led to another first for Specialised and the industry possibly; the one-piece downtube and bottom bracket. This new one-piece tube removes welds, inconsistencies and makes the whole junction stiffer, giving better feedback to the rider overall on real-time efforts — from the bars to the pedals.

Another reason for keeping the tubes streamlined and open is for internal cable routing with zero mess. The new Allez runs all brake cable and wires through the headset top cap and down the frame.

Looking closely at the seat tube, you’ll notice the removable front derailleur and a threaded BSA bottom bracket. All Allez Sprint models have a 68mm BSA threaded bottom bracket, 142x12mm and 100x12mm thru-axles and are compatible with 160mm or 140mm rotors.

The geometry is the same as the Specialized Tarmac SL7, and that includes the 32mm tire clearance. The Allez Sprint receives the same fork and seat post as the Tarmac SL7. This identical geometry from carbon race to alloy is something we saw on the Specialized Epic HT and alloy Chisel mountain bike — It makes a ton of sense.

As for builds and frames, Specialized is dosing them out in two build options and six frameset colorways. The Sprint LTD; for the maximum amount of aero gains, and the Sprint Comp is practical and race-ready.

This build takes everything you ever wanted to put on an alloy bike to make it as fast as your friend’s carbon race-day build. The build includes a full SRAM Force Etap setup with Roval Rapide CL wheels and S-Works Aerofly II bars — enough to make any racer a bit jealous.

The Specialized Allez Sprint Comp build has the same frame, fork, and seat post as the LTD version. The Shimano 105 mechanical 11- speed groupset and DT Swiss R470 tubeless wheels are different. The build is solid and comes with a full Shimano 105 groupset with no substitutions except for a KMC X11 Extra lightweight chain.

Yes, the Allez Sprint will come in a frameset–you can count on that. Right now Specialized is offering six different colorways

For more information check out Specialized.com

Jordan Villella is a staff writer for BikeRumor.com, specializing in cross country mountain, gravel, road, and race tech. He has been writing about the bicycles and bike culture for over ten years with no signs of stopping.

Prior to BikeRumor, Jordan raced at the professional level and wrote for MTBR and now-defunct Dirt Rag Magazine. He’s covered races, including World Championships and World Cups — where he loves to report what the pros are riding.

Based in Pittsburgh, PA — Jordan spends his time coaching cyclists of all abilities with Cycle-Smart, racing bikes around North America, and adventuring with his family.

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Really like how they show the construction side of things. Although I’m a bit concerned about the BB not being aligned.

How would there be misalignment? The one piece seat tube and bb removes one axis of possible misalignment.

The BB shell isn’t a single piece tube, but are just 2 flanges in the wall of the downtube. I see possibilities for misalignment in all axis.

the head tube welds are pretty rough… ngl

They welding is purposely done that way. They did it on the last allez sprint as well, increases stiffness

$6,800 for an alloy road bike? I don’t see it. One can get a whole lotta’ Canyon (Or Focus, or Giant, or…) for that kind of cash.

Gotta pay those lawyer fees.

But, but, but… it says Specialized… so it must be worth the asking price.

Specialized bikes, to me, are way overpriced, mass produced, nothing special bikes that some believe as the best bikes ever. There are so many better made and equipped bikes out there…for less.

“mass produced” funny, they don’t seem to be producing anything but e-bikes and angry LBSs these days.

Technically you can’t get a whole lot of Canyon…or even a little. So many of the models are out of stock and have been that way for a while.

But yeah, this might be the most expensive production Alu bike ever. Will probably be selling for $7300 on the used market in a few months given the way people (over) price their used Allez Sprints

They’ve been using this technique for a decade already. Nothing new here except for the renewed marketing effort.

Not an industry 1st. Cannondale did 1pc forged seat tube / bb / main pivot in 2007-2009 on the series of Rize bikes. Credit where credit is due..

Don’t get Cannondale sued bro.

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