The Specialized Shiv of The Hoff

Ben Hoffman had a spectacular race in Kona and finished second overall with a final time of 8:19:32. In 2012 Hoffman was spectating here in Kona and assisted slowtwitch with an interview of Rasmus Henning, and man what a difference 2 years made. Luckily I managed to look closer at the Specialized Shiv race bike of this fast 5'10" athlete and bacon and sausage connoisseur.

Hoffman biked 4:32:20 on a very windy day, and was near the front most of the time.

The Specialized Shiv of Ben Hoffman is a size M and is mostly decked out with SRAM, Zipp and Specialized components.

The cockpit of this Shiv has SRAM brakes, a Specialized cage BTA bottle setup, SRAM R2C shifters and a Garmin mount.

Hoffman has his pads relatively wide apart, but it seems to work for him. The Specialized Fuelselage was only filled with water but he has Clif Shot mix in the bottle.

Up close with the Garmin head unit and the SRAM shifters.

Hoffman rides a Specialized Sitero saddle and has a single Specialized cage mounted. In that bottle it is a Red Bull water mix.

I did not ask him, but I assume this handy graphic work was done by the GoPro Ironman Championship runner-up.

Hoffman had a repair kit in his fuel cell, but only one cartridge. He also had 2 backup Clif gels. He used liquid nutrition in his bottles. But 2 flats would have likely meant the end.

Hoffman rides 172.5mm S-Works cranks with a Quarq power meter and 55-42 SRAM rings.

The Hoff is a SRAM Red man.

Specialized S-Works 24mm Turbo tires front and back on Zipp 808 wheels.

The frontal view of Ben Hoffman's Specialized Shiv.

All images © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com