Garrett Chow, former creative director for performance road bicycles at Specialized, brought his artistic talent to Rainier's 2014 Venge Pro. These details really spring to life when ridden on by the TMB 2014 kit! In addition to this bicycle, Garrett has done custom work for many of the world's best, such as Tom Boonen, Zdenek Stybar, and Tony Martin. To say that this is an honor is a serious understatement!
This one of a kind bicycle is equipped with Sram Red 22 and Zipp throughout, including a -17 degree Service Course SL stem and 44cm Service Course SL handlebars wrapped in BikeSmart Skyline tape. Placed neatly in front of those handlebars, and therefore hidden in the above photo, is a Barfly 2.0 and Garmin 500.
Like the rest of TMB, Rainier trains on Zipp 101s: the most aerodynamic, light, and tough aluminum wheelset available. The most under-rated feature of this wheelset is the rim width. When racing on Zipp 404s and training on standard aluminum rims, brake calipers must be significantly adjusted to accommodate the width discrepency. This is not so with 101s, just a small tweak of the barrel adjuster is all it takes to switch between them and 404s. While this at first may seem trivial, it is in fact crucial to help reduce frantic pre-race preparations. Having one less thing to do—such as adjusting brake cable tension with an allen wrench—could save you time and nerves (not to mention the possibility of not finding an allen wrench, stripping your bolt, or fraying the brake cable) before a race.
-Rainier
