Has Kasper Asgreen been spotted on an unreleased Specialized Diverge gravel bike?

As a rider for the Soudal Quick-Step WorldTour team, Kasper Asgreen has the latest and greatest kit available to him from the team's sponsors.

However, in a recent Instagram post Asgreen can be seen out on a snowy winter ride on a bike that does not look to be part of Specialized’s current line up.

The initial story was captured by Velo, and they were able to get hold of the Instagram post before it was removed.

From the images available to us we can see that the bike is a gravel model as it is fitted with wide knobbly tyres and still has room for mudguards to be fitted. This means that unless there is a new Specialized bike in the works altogether - which seems unlikely - it is an update to either the Crux or the Diverge.

Taking a look at the front of the bike we can see that Asgreen has his bike configured in a very low position with the Roval Rapide integrated bars and stem slammed. This is particularly interesting as this points to the removal of the Future Shock system that Specialized has been using in its endurance and gravel bikes for some time now.

• Read more: Laurens ten Dam's pro gravel bike: Specialized S-Works Roubaix SL8

There is the potential that this is a heavily modified Roubaix or Diverge that has undergone surgery to work around the design constraints imposed by the Future Shock. However, this seems unlikely and rules out the Roubaix, as the fork pictured features mounting points down the legs.

The same issues are found if we look to the Crux as an alternative, although this bike does not have a Future Shock fitted as standard and it also does not have the mounting points on the top tube.

It could be that the bike has a new headset and fork internal structure allowing Asgreen to run his bars lower than typical with a bike equipped with a Future Shock. Even with the current kits that allow for the removal of the Future Shock unit, the bars still do not sit as low as pictured here. If it is a modification to an existing bike it would have been a fairly involved one.