Is this the new Cannondale SuperSix Evo? Unreleased bike spotted 

By Oscar Huckle

Published: Saturday, 24 December 2022 at 12:00 am

A new Cannondale road bike has been spotted being ridden by Andrey Amador of EF Education-EasyPost. Is this the next-generation Cannondale SuperSix Evo?

The SuperSix Evo is Cannondale’s flagship all-round race bike. The third generation SuperSix Evo launched in June 2019 when it underwent an aero-optimised redesign to sit alongside the SystemSix, Cannondale’s dedicated aerodynamic road bike.

While this unreleased, fourth-generation SuperSix Evo looks fairly similar to the outgoing model, a closer inspection reveals notable differences, including a refreshed front end, more aggressive tube shaping and a hint at something further to come from Cannondale.

A refreshed front end

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The fork and seatstays have been updated.
Twitter

The new SuperSix Evo’s refinements are focussed on the front end, with what appears to be a revised fork and head tube design.

This first glance suggests the revised head tube and fork aren’t as aggressive in their profiling as the outgoing model.

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The fork on the current-generation bike hugs the underside of the head tube and down tube.
Warren Rossiter/Immediate media

Though it’s hard to tell from the video of Amador, the integrated cockpit has been slimmed down. The design of the headset spacers is also different and seems to move away from the jigsaw-shaped design of the current generation.

We expect Cannondale has tried to simplify the current integrated design.

Tube-shape refinements

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The current SuperSix Evo uses a D-shaped post.
Warren Rossiter/Immediate media

The bike features an aerodynamically-shaped seat tube and a matching seatpost. The current Supersix Evo uses a shallow D-shaped post.

The seatstays have been further dropped and kink where they meet the chainstays. The top tube is also more aggressively shaped.

Though it’s impossible to tell from the screengrabs, we’d wager the new SuperSix will feature a threaded bottom bracket, moving away from the PF30a press-fit shell used on the outgoing model.

Cannondale has made similar moves with its latest generation Synapse endurance and Topstone gravel bikes, adopting a standard BSA/ISO bottom bracket shell.

Cannondale also seems to be moving away from Mavic’s SpeedRelease dropouts. This sees one open and one closed dropout and is claimed to speed up wheel changes.

Lab71

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Could Lab71 be a new custom paint programme?
Cannondale / USPTO

The frame being ridden by Amador is painted in Team EF colours.

With this in mind, it’s likely to be a finalised version of the new frame, to be ridden in the 2023 WorldTour season, unlike the Canyon Aeroad prototype spotted this week, which was unpainted and, in all likelihood, a pre-production model.

Interestingly, ‘Lab71’ is printed on the seat tube.

Cannondale is in the process of applying for a trademark covering for the Lab71 moniker. Could this be a new carbon material or Cannondale’s attempt at launching a flagship tier of bikes, similar to Specialized’s S-Works line or Trek’s Project One custom paint programme?

What next?

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Will the new SuperSix Evo take cues from the Synapse?
Dave Caudery / Our Media

The SuperSix Evo is one of three main road bikes in the Cannondale range, sitting alongside the comfort-oriented Synapse and the SystemSix aero bike. The Synapse Carbon RLT RLE was our Endurance Bike of the Year winner in 2022.

The latest Synapse was launched in January 2022 and the SystemSix in July 2018. With the aerodynamic seat tube, might Cannondale be trying to amalgamate the SystemSix and SuperSix Evo into one bike like Specialized did with the Tarmac and Venge?

Given the SystemSix’s credentials as one of the fastest aero road bikes in the pro peloton, we’d expect this more likely to be an attempt to give the SuperSix a further aero-lite makeover, while retaining its credentials as a lightweight all-rounder.

That’s all we know so far. We have contacted Cannondale and will bring you more details if and when we get them.