The new year is barely upon us and we’re already in the throes of new bike release fever. We’ve seen leaked shots of a new Cannondale and we’ve reached the point where we can say with certainty that it’s a new Cannondale SuperSix. While the Tour de France tends to get a great swathe of new bikes, the first race of the season, the Tour Down Under, has given us the opportunity to get up close and personal with this new bike, beyond what we’ve already been able to gather from spy shots, and pictures of the bikes from the launch of the new EF team kits.
Beyond the initial speculation, we’re ready to bring you everything we know about the new Cannondale SuperSix. We’ve interrogated all the images, pored over databases of UCI registered framesets, and got a fair idea of what “Lab 71” is all about.
What will the new Cannondale be called?
Upon interrogating the list of registered frames it appears we’re into a three-tier system. They will all be known as the Cannondale SuperSix. However, only two of the three will get the ‘Evo’ moniker.
The trio consists of the SuperSix Evo 4, the SuperSix Evo 4 SL (‘Superlight’, one presumes), and the SuperSix 4 Hi-Mod. The latter will be the very top-tier lightweight frameset utilising a higher modulus (read: stiffer) carbon allowing for a lighter frame weight.
How has the new Cannondale SuperSix’s frameset changed?
Thanks to shots taken by the Cyclingnews team on the ground at the Tour Down Under – before the road-bikes-only opening prologue of the Tour Down Under saw some highly modified bikes – we are able to peep the UCI Codes on both the frame and fork for both the EF teams as well as the women’s St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 team.
As you’d expect, the race bikes at the highest level of the sport that we can see here are the SuperSix Evo 4 Hi-Mod, as denoted by the ‘S6HM’ coding on the downtube.
Taking experience from bike ranges of the past, the differences between these framesets will likely be internal (lighter, stiffer carbon for the upper-tier models), and in the specs. The frame silhouette and geometry will likely be consistent throughout, though a slightly more aggressive geometry for the upper echelons is something we do occasionally see.
The new SuperSix Evo 4 framesets do bear a striking resemblance to the outgoing model, but with some big tweaks within the overall package. 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.
From what we can see from images from the EF kit launch, it appears that the bike can run an array of cockpits, though we assume it’ll come stock with an integrated one-piece system, at least for the top-tier models, as has been the case for most new race bike launches in recent memory. However, we can see that if you want to run a traditional round bar and stem with no internal routing you can, as well as halfway house systems like we can see below (left) from Vision with integrated cables in the bars, and routing externally under the stem. In both non-integrated systems, the hoses would run through the headtube via a slot in the bottom spacer. You can find a similar setup on Remco Evenepoel’s bike, so if it’s good enough for him it’s probably good enough for you too if you’re not into a fully integrated cockpit.
The portal at the upper end of the downtube is still present. This was used in previous generations as a cable insertion point, so it’s not a wild speculation to suppose that the lower tier models will still be available with cable-actuated gearing, perhaps to work with what is rumoured to be a new cable actuated 12 speed Shimano 105 groupset. The exit point for a cable from the rear dropout, shared between cables and Di2 wiring in older models, would see the derailleur cable tracing quite a sharp curve though, probably requiring a degree of internal cable housing routing to protect the frame internals. Don’t get your hopes up for a crazy Hi-Mod hill climb build using a vintage SRAM MTB derailleur just yet; the jury’s out on cables.
Up front, we have a modified head tube, which eschews that cable-entry channel from before, and looks to have been shaped in a slightly more aerodynamic way with a deeper overall profile and truncated rear edge.
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 it, the tube is shallower, no doubt in a bid to add compliance in combination with what looks to be a flattened top tube.
Will the new Cannondale SuperSix have a threaded bottom bracket?
The trend of high end bikes reverting back to a threaded bottom bracket is one we can absolutely get behind. They’re easier to live with and easier to work on, whether you’re a UCI mechanic in a service course, or just at home in your garage.
Pictures of the new SuperSix Evo 4 confirm that, to the collective delight of everyone besides those with shares in Big Press Fit, it has a threaded BB. It’s likely it’ll be a T47 rather than BSA standard.
In similarly trendy fashion it looks like the Evo 4 can take fashionably chunky rubber. The pros will probably ride anything between a 25mm and a 28mm, but there appears to be plenty of free real estate at the fork crown to take something potentially as large as a 34, a la the new Canyon Ultimate.
Lab 71
Here’s where solid educated guesswork becomes slightly more speculative. Cannondale was founded in 1971, so perhaps something commemorative? Yeah, for that classic 52nd anniversary..? C’mon.
The most likely scenario is that it’s some sort of top-tier run, not dissimilar to how S-Works lives alongside Specialized. We can’t say for sure, but there are some details to be found with a little deductive reasoning around the UCI stickers.
The EF teams’ bikes have “Lab 71” plastered down the seat tube, whereas the St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 bikes do not. Both sets of team bikes feature the ‘S6HM’ coding on the UCI stickers, indicating that they are the Hi-Mod frameset. EF are using Dura-Ace groupsets, while St Michel get Ultegra, and from this, we can deduce to a point that Hi-Mod frames aren’t going to exclusively be used on the ‘Lab 71’ bikes, but that ‘Lab 71’ could be the very highest spec builds; those with Dura-Ace, SRAM Red, Campagnolo Super Record EPS, perhaps also using lightweight paint and more premium build kits, but still based on the Evo 4 Hi-Mod frameset.
As ever, time will tell, and we’ll add any more details that we can garner to this page as they arise.
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When will the new Cannondale SuperSix launch?
Unfortunately we don’t have a specific date for the launch just yet. However, given the frames are registered and are currently being raced in plain sight on the biggest stage, we can probably expect a proper launch and all the juicy details in the very near future.
