Simon dug his old, 2013 Tarmac SL3 out of the attic. It has Campagnolo Chorus 11-speed and an old set of Mavic alloy shallow wheels with some tidy aero spokes.
His new Canyon Aeroad is top of the line – much more top of the line than his old Tarmac… which brings about an interesting conundrum.
He tested the bikes, power for power, and came out with a fair difference betwixt the two, as one would expect.
However, as most discerning cyclists would pick out, there’s a trick to this. A sleight of hand, if you will. the Tarmac wasn’t the top of the line bike Specialized released that year. More important, those alloy wheels, while nice and certainly light, were middle of the road for wheels available that year.
I’d like to see Si’s new Aeroad against that Tarmac with a set of carbon fiber 50s… or better, against this:
The squishiness Si experienced in his Tarmac would be fixed, the aero frame issue and exposed cables (most of them, at least) would be fixed, the wheels would be fixed… In fact, other than the cables at the front, the only difference would be aero rim brakes vs. disc brakes. Oh, how tasty that would be. I’d bet my lunch you’d be down to a mere few seconds over ten or twenty miles, if it wasn’t an even matchup. It certainly would be fair.
Oh, and I’d be willing to bet Si’s Aeroad isn’t much lighter than the Venge, too. Oh how I’d like to see that matchup.
Fit Recovery 
You should challenge him 🤣
That’d be a no. I’m way too fat for that, brother! 🤣🤣🤣