Kona Tech: Rasmus Henning’s Specialized Shiv

Get a look at the Specialized Shiv Denmark’s Rasmus Henning will be riding on Saturday in the Ironman World Championship.

Written by: Aaron Hersh

Rasmus Henning has the pedigree of an Ironman world champion. He has a more impressive Olympic distance resume than Craig Alexander, having won several World Cup races. He has proven his ability to handle heat by winning Ironman China in 100+ degree heat. He has proven he posses the ability to go as fast as anyone on the planet by shattering 8:00 earlier this summer.

Henning has the tools to win Kona, now he just has to put it together on race day. This weekend will be his second attempt at winning the Ironman world championships and he will race aboard a Specialized Shiv and his bike is equipped with every imaginable upgrade.

He is riding Zipp’s brand new 808 tubulars that were shown to the public for the first time at Eurobike last month. They aren’t available to purchase quite yet, but contending for the world championships has its perks, as Henning got his hands on a pair. They are wrapped with Zipp Tangente tubular tires. His mechanic added barrel adjusters on the end of the brake levers to precisely tune brake tension.

Henning ride SRAM Red components and SRAM R2C shifters. These shifters return to the center position after every gear change rather than rotating about the aerobar like traditional shifters.

Henning’s mechanic describes the Dane as an athlete focused on every detail of his bike and he has an advanced computer setup to precisely monitor his effort during the ride. He has an SRM powermeter built on a Specialized crank with S-Works aero chaingrings. The power data is displayed on a Garmin 500 unit that doubles as a GPS unit.

To stay hydrated, Henning is bringing four water bottles; one on the frame, two behind the saddle and one between his arms. We will have to wait until this Saturday to see if it is enough to stay cool and to see just how high Rasmus can climb in the standings.