The bikes of the pros: The Specialized Turbo Levo by Sofia Wiedenroth

As a promising cross-country talent, Sofia found her way into e-MTB racing via the Enduro World Series. She is now one of the most versatile e-racers, with numerous successes and several World Championship medals in her jersey pocket. For Sofia, e-MTB racing is "faster, more intense and more versatile" than the non-motorised disciplines. She has lost her heart to E-Enduro, but the E-XC races, such as the WES or at world championships, are also very important to Sofia.

Who is Sofia Wiedenroth?

• Nationality: German
• Age: 28
• Team: Specialised Enduro Team
• Greatest successes: Silver and bronze at the UCI E-MTB World Championships

It's hard to believe that at 28 years old, Sofia already has 20 years of racing experience. She rode her first ever race in 2003 in the U9 category and won her first major title in 2012 as runner-up in the U19 class. She started her professional career in XCO (cross country) on Rotwild bikes. She later switched to the enduro discipline and rode for the Cube Action Team for two years, where she won the overall title in the international WES race series. Since 2021, Sofia has been competing for the Specialized Racing Team in the UCI E-Cross Country Series, the WES, and in the E-Enduro racing series EDR-E (formerly EWS-E). She finished the 2023 season with a strong 2nd place in the overall standings of the WES.

Sofia's strengths are her high level of riding technique and her fitness - she particularly benefits from these characteristics on technical uphills. While other MTB racers from the classic disciplines are sceptical about e-MTBs, Sofia became enthusiastic about e-mountainbikes early on and finds it "simply impressive" what can be achieved with modern e-MTBs: "You can ride completely different things with an e-MTB," enthuses the Konstanz native. "Downhill, the bikes are extremely stable on the trail, and on the uphills, it can't get technical enough for me."

Although Wiedenroth still sometimes competes in races on classic mountain bikes and still trains a lot on a bike without a motor, she has long since focussed on the e-disciplines. The training for this is specialised - Sofia invests a lot of time in training her uphill riding technique, for example: "It's a very unique way of riding a bike and requires a lot of practice." In the race, Sofia not only pushes her physical and technical skills to the limit, the bike also has to give its all. Sofia's strategy: "Always in turbo mode!"

Sofia's bike: the Specialized Turbo Levo

• Suspension travel: 160/150 mm
• Weight: 23 kilos
• Motor: Specialised Turbo Full Power System 2.2
• Battery: Specialised M3-700 Wh

Externally, Sofia's Specialised Turbo Levo close to the standard trim. However, the inner values have been tweaked a little. Special race software, developed by the racing team together with Specialized engineers, gets even more out of the drive. Interesting: For E-Cross-Country races such as the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and the WES, the rear triangle and the shock mount are significantly adapted so that it can ride a larger 29" rear wheel. This provides more performance on the technical climbs. To avoid having to get used to the bike too much between races, she rides the identical cockpit and a 160 mm fork on both bikes. A little more travel at the front would be a benefit for the long enduro descents, but that would compromise the bike's climbing abilities too much, says Sofia.

The differences between XC and Enduro trims

Sofia also rides her Specialized in Enduro with a comparatively short fork with 160 millimetres of travel, where others rely on 170. This makes it easier to switch between disciplines. This is because she can always use the same frame, the same suspension travel and the same cockpit. Whether cross country or enduro. In addition, a longer fork would be a step backwards for the Turbo Levo's climbing ability.

Nevertheless, she changes the fork between the disciplines: The lighter Rockshox Lyrik is used in cross country, the stiffer Zeb in enduro races. As the focus in the cross-country races of the WES is less on downhill than in enduro racing, Sofia switches to a 29-inch rear wheel in the WES - which, incidentally, is not approved for the Specialized Turbo Levo in the series. To compensate for the change in geometry, she uses the standard flip chips provided by the carbon chassis. The Cross Country also uses lighter tyres.