- Pierre Rolland is one of those riders
whose name is synonymous with the Tour de France.
You're almost guaranteed that
we will be seeing plenty of him.
And therefore we will also be seeing
plenty of this:
his bike.
It's a Cannondale SuperSix Evo,
and lucky Pierre, this is brand new.
The entire Cannondale-Drapac team
have been given new race bikes for this year.
Let's take a look.
So what do you need to know about this frame
other than the fact that it's brand new.
Well, this is very much a traditional frame,
and it is exceedingly light.
Cannondale quote weights of less than 700 grammes
for the bare frame.
I suspect from looking at this paint job though,
this one will weigh a little bit more.
Paint is bizarrely notoriously heavy.
Now there's not a single nod to aerodynamics on here,
other than the fact that the tubes are reasonably slender.
But it's a traditional frame that I think
suits quite a traditional type of rider.
Certainly mechanics say he's old school,
but more of that later on.
As well as getting new frames,
the riders are also getting new Dura-Ace.
Now I say the term new Dura-Ace quite loosely,
'cause it was technically released over a year ago,
but here it is.
We've not seen much of it on race bikes until now.
So this is the new 9150 Dura-Ace Di2.
Particularly, the rear derailleur has a really useful touch,
mainly for the mechanics actually, not the riders.
But it's got a slightly longer cage on it,
and so that means that
they'll be able to use 11 to 30-tooth cassettes on here
without swapping the rear derailleur,
whereas they used to have to swap it out
for an Ultegra Di2 rear derailleur.
Currently though,
Rolland has gotten 11 to 28-cassette on here,
and 53/39 chain rings up front,
and that's not, you'll notice, a Shimano crankset.
That is Cannondale's own chain set
with an SRM power metre on there as well.
The team gets to use Mavic wheels,
and Rolland is currently using
the Cosmic Carbon Ultimate,
as I suspect he will for most of the race actually.
They're super light,
just 1250 grammes for this tubular version,
but of course they do have deeper wheels
at their disposal for the flatter stages,
the sprinter stages.
Tyres, meanwhile, are unbranded.
The only giveaway on there
is that they say made in Italy.
So I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.
And even the width, actually, is invisible.
So I'm bringing out the callipers,
25.2.
You might expect aerodynamically that works better
on the slightly wider wheels as well.
Now and what about the fact that Rolland
is called an old school rider by the team mechanic?
Well part of that is due to his choice of saddle.
It's a Fi'zi:k KS,
and in the words of the mechanic
"It's like a settee."
Rolland has chosen comfort over there.
And who can blame him?
He's gonna spend plenty of time in it,
but that was the main reason that he's gone
for really big, old, comfortable saddle on there.
And there's his position on the bike as well.
So there's not much drop between the saddle to the bars,
and then there's a massive stem on there.
So he's using FSA bars, stem, and seat post.
The stem itself is 140mm long,
so that's pretty epic.
And it's not slammed either,
there's a couple of spacers underneath.
And the handlebars too,
again according to the mechanic,
are slightly old school.
He's still going for 42cm wide.
So rather than going narrower and more aero,
it's very much a traditional, comfortable,
and very cool race bike.
I think we need to weigh it though.
How light is his bike?
That's not bad is it?
With a Garmin attached as well.
That's a pretty light bike.
Now before we leave Pierre's bike,
you will be wanting to know, I'm sure,
his saddle height and the reach to the bars.
So seat height is
about 77,
and then the reach to the bars,
it's a tipper saddle,
it's pretty long.
59 centimetres.
So a 54 centimetre frame,
but that is a long old reach on there.
Now if you would like to see more pro bikes
here on GCN,
firstly you should definitely subscribe to the channel.
To do it, it's completely free.
You just click on the globe.
And then our pro bike playlist is just down there.
And then for from the Cannondale-Drapac team,
I suggest you have a sneaky look
around their mechanics truck.
That one is just down there.