Belgian Knee Warmers has an interesting piece about Specialized and Boonen's bike. They built the Al frame for fit. Once they had the fit dialed, they built a mold (!!!) for his custom bike. So he's riding a Tarmac E5 58cm with a top tube 13mm longer and an extra wrap of carbon around the frame to make it stiffer.

Linky: http://belgiumkneewarmers.blogspot.com/

Edit: Fixed the units.

13cm longer? That's a loooooonnnng bike! 13mm maybe? :wink5:

13cm longer? That's a loooooonnnng bike! 13mm maybe?

What you said. I edited my OP with the correct units.

13cm longer? That's a loooooonnnng bike! 13mm maybe?

That's what I was thinking, I'm sure it's 13mm.

Check it here: http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=91851 Post #32

13cm longer? That's a loooooonnnng bike! 13mm maybe? :wink5:

Maybe he figures it will give him an extra edge during the bike thrust at the line. "And Boonen wins by a tire width, er, uh, hmmm, uh, by 12.5 cm's!" crowd goes wild crowd goes nuts...

Check it here: http://forums.roadbikereview.com/showthread.php?t=91851 Post #32

Actually, I'm talking about the new post on BKW dated April 25 that specifically states that Specialized had a custom mold made specifically for Tom Boonen.

I'd read the BKW post you linked to in your post previously.