After weeks of leaks, forum discussion and stealthy in-race use, Specialized's unreleased Tarmac SL9 has appeared in the closest footage yet, captured by Velora (below) at the Tour de Suisse this week.
The video shows a bike with a noticeably redesigned fork and a rear triangle with a notable rear wheel cutout evolution compared to the current SL8, adding to six weeks of leaks that point toward an official launch before or during the Tour de France.
Specialized has not commented publicly on any of the sightings. The company has previously described its practice of putting pre-production equipment on professional team bikes as "Project Black", but has not confirmed the SL9 designation.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) was riding the bike throughout much of the Tour de Suisse, though his inclusion on Red Bull's final Tour squad remains unconfirmed.
Roglič on the unreleased SL9 at the Tour de Suisse
The Tour de France starts on 4 July in Barcelona. Five Specialized-sponsored WorldTour teams, Soudal–Quick Step, AG Insurance–Soudal, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, FDJ United–Suez and SD Worx–Protime, are candidates to race the new frame. Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe has drawn the most attention as a likely debut squad, with Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) building toward the Tour through altitude training and course reconnaissance.
What the footage shows
The Tour de Suisse video confirms two changes that had been visible in earlier static images but were harder to assess in low-resolution stills.
The fork is the most obvious departure from the SL8. The leading edge appears deeper and more forward-set, with a more angular crown that flows into the head tube. Specialized's "Speed Sniffer," the protruding nose-cone shape at the head tube designed to manage airflow, appears to remain, though it may be reshaped and to us appears a little more bulky.
At the rear, the seat tube follows the profile of the rear tyre more closely than on the outgoing model, creating a cutout that mirrors earlier Specialized aero designs – the silhouette resembles the Venge VIAS generation of race bikes, though dialled back from that platform's more aggressive aero shaping.
To us a notable feature of the rear-wheel cutout is that it seems to have halted the trend toward wider tyre clearance on endurance racers. Though we couldn't identify the tyre width, we believe the specced tyres on Roglič's bike are S-Works Turbo Cotton TLR 30mm tyres. ISO standards demand a 4mm gap between the tyre edge and the closest frame component, we would bet that in the current setup it's pretty close to that tolerance already. That suggests to us that the Tarmac is remaining at 32mm clearance, or perhaps even shrinking to 30mm in light of Specialized's wider fleet being better suited to all-road riding.
The down tube, top tube and overall main triangle look close to the SL8, reinforcing signs of an incremental update, with little to suggest a clean-sheet redesign.
No front-on view has surfaced publicly. Frontal area and tube shaping are the primary drivers of aerodynamic drag, so without that angle, or official data from Specialized, performance claims remain speculative.
A Weight Weenies forum post from February 2026, citing an unnamed Specialized employee, described the SL9 as "a slightly aero optimized SL8" that would combine "comfort of the Aethos backend, aeroness of the SL7 backend and an optimized SL8 front." The same post said the introduction would come "around the tour."
Roglič on the unreleased SL9 at the Tour de Suisse
The leaks began on 12 May, when side-profile images posted to Instagram by the account @czice_ prompted debate over whether they were genuine or AI-generated. On 23 May, cyclist Artem Shcherbyna posted an Instagram reel showing Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) on what Shcherbyna captioned as "new S-Works SL9" in footage from the Sierra Nevada region of Spain. By early June, mechanics attempting to shield the bike at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and a since-deleted Instagram image from a Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe training camp showed a new Specialized atop a team car.
The pattern follows Specialized's SL8 rollout in 2023, when the bike was first spotted in training with Soudal–Quick Step in July before an official launch weeks later. With the Tour de France less than two weeks away, an official announcement could come soon.
We know the bike will be called the Tarmac, but whether it will be the SL9, or some new designation is yet to be seen. What is certain is that from the current launch pattern, we are looking at the new flagship road racing bike from Specialized.
Cover image: Velora Cycling
