A brand new Cannondale race bike has been spotted online, having been leaked to the social media accounts of various riders of the EF Education-EasyPost men’s team.
It cuts a svelte figure, and given its similarities to the SuperSix Evo 3, the new model is presumably its replacement. If so, it is likely to be known as the SuperSix Evo 4.
The current model of Cannondale SuperSix Evo was launched in the summer of 2019, which although just three and a half years, seems like a lifetime ago thanks to obvious pandemic-related circumstances. Coincidentally, that literally is a lifetime ago for many road bikes, with the typical product lifecycle for top-end models being somewhere between three and five years.
The Cannondale SuperSix Evo has worked wonderfully within these constraints ever since its inception, with the SuperSix Evo landing in 2011, followed four years later by its replacement – the SuperSix Evo 2 – in 2015. Another four years takes us to the SuperSix Evo 3 in 2019 and a bike that many will still argue is among the best road bikes available.
Another four years takes us to this year, so it was widely expected that a SuperSix Evo 4 would appear during the year at some point. Nobody could have expected it would be this soon, though, as before the year had even begun, social media was alight with sightings of what appeared to be the new bike.
The best images we’ve seen come courtesy of EF’s new recruit, Andrey Amador.
The saying ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ comes to mind, as the new bike shares a striking resemblance to its predecessor. However, a few changes have been made, and these are significant enough to confirm that this is indeed an altogether new bike.
Firstly, the change that most Cannondale fans will be most pleased to see is a redesigned cable routing from the handlebars into the frame. The outgoing Supersix Evo featured a channel on the front of the head tube, through which the cables entered.
In some instances, this caused damage to cables and hoses, and it created an aesthetic sore point when using anything other than the Cannondale-issue cockpit. The new model appears to feature a cleaner routing through the bottom spacer. In turn, it looks as though this will allow the use of aftermarket bar-stem combinations. It also creates a smoother head tube appearance, the rear of which looks to be even more squared off than before.
Another area of reshaped tubing is found at the seat tube. On the outgoing model, the seat tube remained a consistent depth throughout its length, but here there’s a marked change at the junction with the seat stays. The seat stays meet the seat tube lower than the last model, and above this junction, the seat tube is deeper than before, likely for aero gains. Below the junction, the tube is considerably shallower, no doubt in a bid to add compliance in combination with what looks to be a flattened top tube.
The ‘Lab 71’ printed on the side of the seat tube is a novel addition, too. We’ve seen reports of Cannondale applying to trademark the term and we expect that the 71 relates to 1971, the year of Cannondale’s inception.
While this image gives us some idea of the amount of tyre clearance available, market trends are probably a better way to gauge what clearance the new SuperSix Evo will be given. The prior model was able to handle 30mm tyres, which even today is in line with the common allowance of 30-32mm. Nobody is making bikes with less clearance, and even though 30mm is more than most racers will use, we’d expect Cannondale to play it safe in this regard and push that out to 32mm, perhaps even 34mm like the new Canyon Ultimate.
The question on everyone’s lips, then, is assuming this is indeed the new SuperSix Evo 4, when will it launch?
The short answer is ‘we don’t know’. However, the bikes we see here are all in a new design of EF Education-EasyPost, and are being ridden by the pros. To us, that suggests the bikes are ready – if not almost ready – to launch. Cyclingnews will have boots on the ground at the Tour Down Under – the first WorldTour race of the season – and you can be sure that we’ll be heading straight to the EF team to find out more.
