8 min read
“Please don’t let Ben Healy hit me.” That was the only thought racing through my mind as the right side of my body slid across several yards of Catalan asphalt. We were only one hour and 18 minutes into a group ride when I crashed, and I knew the Irishman, who had spent two days in the yellow jersey during the 2025 Tour de France, was only a few wheels behind me.
What brought me to the roads outside Girona, Spain, was Cannondale’s launch of its fifth-generation SuperSix Evo. And since the Cannondale-sponsored EF Education Racing squad was hosting its preseason team camp in the region, Healy, along with teammates Richard Carapaz and Cédrine Kerbaol, tagged along for the 45-mile ride through a mix of city streets, farm roads, and rolling hills.
Bikes like the Evo are what most amateur racers and many enthusiast road riders actually need. It’s a bicycle light enough for climbing yet sufficiently aero for speed, and with a degree of comfort and smoothness for everyday rides and training.
Cannondale has been refining the SuperSix for nearly 20 years, and this latest version is an exciting evolution. It combines speed and handling into one of the best all-around fast bikes I’ve ever ridden. I knew that right from the start.
Usually, I expect to take at least a few rides to get a bike dialed and feel confident on it at speed, in corners, or in other situations where my safety is on the line. But the SuperSix Evo immediately felt right. I only needed to set my saddle position and adjust the brake-hood height. From my first pedal strokes down the street outside my hotel, I trusted this new bike.
Earlier in my career, I worked closely with pro racers to develop World Championship–winning bicycles (albeit in a different riding discipline). I know how important it is for those riders to have complete confidence in their race bikes. For pros, it can be the difference between standing on a podium and finishing off the back. For the rest of us, it can make or break a ride.
I can’t blame the SuperSix for my get-off in Girona. My confidence in the Evo is likely what put me in that situation in the first place. I was riding a little fast for the road conditions and misjudged the apex of the turn, hit some gravel, and slid across the road. Total rider error. Despite my crash, my faith in the Evo remains as strong today as in the moments before I tore my bibs to shreds and picked up some road rash on my hip, shoulder, knee, and elbow.
Lightweight, aerodynamic, and fast: The new SuperSix Evo embodies the feel of WorldTour race bikes but with enough compliance for your daily rides.
All-Arounders in the Age of Aero
Cannondale launched its first full-carbon SuperSix road bike in 2007. Four years later, the Connecticut-based brand followed it up with the SuperSix Evo—an “evolved” SuperSix. In the nearly two decades since, the Evo platform has seen several iterations and refreshes.
Launched in 2023, the fourth-generation SuperSix Evo was ridden by riders who claimed Olympic and World Championship gold medals, Spring Classic victories, and Grand Tour stage wins. It’s also a Bicycling staff favorite; four of us own one, and we’ve collectively ridden more than 20,000 miles on the platform. It’s a bike we all trust to take on our hardest, fastest, and most adventurous rides.
The fifth-gen Evo will be downright familiar to anyone who has seen the bike’s previous iteration—or many other top-shelf contemporary road race bikes. The SuperSix Evo, Specialized’s Tarmac SL8, the Canyon Aeroad, and others share a similar silhouette: dropped seatstays, an aero-shaped front triangle, deep wheels, and a fully integrated one-piece cockpit. The profile is ubiquitous in the pro peloton for a reason: It works.
Today’s road race bikes are a balance of weight and aerodynamics. Ultralight bikes prioritize low weight over most other characteristics, usually resulting in bikes with minimalist proportions. Brands can now make these bikes—like Specialized’s Aethos 2 and the Cervélo R5—so light that they easily break the UCI’s 6.8-kilogram (14.99-pound) minimum weight rule.
In modern road racing, aerodynamics plays a more significant role than bike mass in increasing riders’ speeds. That’s given rise to hyperbikes—aero bikes with radical design features—that are faster for pros than superlight designs even though they are heavier. The Factor One, Cervélo S5, and Colnago Y1Rs are examples.
All-arounders like the SuperSix Evo blend aerodynamics and low weight. The bike is aerodynamically slippery enough that the EF Education team riders use it to take long-range solo fliers or sit in the breakaway for dozens of miles. And the Evo is light enough that riders sometimes need to add weight to ensure theirs conforms to UCI regulations.
These traits also make all-arounders an ideal choice for many cyclists who seek lightweight bikes with spirited handling for their group rides with friends, training, or collecting PRs on Strava segments.
Cannondale shortened the head tube across the size range for the fifth-generation Evo. This allows for a lower bar height and roomier top tube. New 50cm and 52cm frame sizes (replacing the old 51cm) also give riders more fit options.
The Evolving Evo
Perhaps the reason the fifth-gen SuperSix Evo feels right to me is that it closely mirrors its fourth iteration—a bike I rode about 2,000 miles last year.
Aside from a shorter head tube on the new version, the geometry is effectively the same on most frame sizes. On the 58cm Evo I tested, the wheelbase, chainstay length, head angle, trail, and bottom bracket–drop measurements all match those of the gen-4 model. No wonder I feel so comfortable on the bike.
However, similar doesn’t mean identical. And the changes and updates Cannondale made for the new bike improve upon an already solid road platform.
The most easily identifiable addition to the gen-5 SuperSix Evo is its UDH-compatible rear dropout. UDH has quickly become the standard for road, gravel, and mountain bikes. It makes finding a replacement hanger simple (most bike shops will have them), and it makes the Evo compatible with SRAM AXS XPLR 1x drivetrains.
The new SuperSix Evo frame accepts only fully internal brake-hose routing and electronic drivetrains. That could be upsetting news for riders holding onto old mechanical drivetrains, but it reflects the market: Shimano, SRAM, and Campagnolo’s high-performance drivetrains are all electronic shifting with hydraulic disc brakes.
Other changes help tidy up the SuperSix. Notably, the thru-axles on the new Evo finally match, something that annoyed me on my gen-4 Evo. Other refinements include a new dust cover for the seatpost binder, cleaner Di2 battery access, and a sleeker seatpost. Cannondale also softened some radii on frame tubes, eliminated the shelf where the seatstays meet, and cleaned up the look of the fork. These details don’t dramatically improve the bike’s ride quality, but they do make the new Evo appear more refined.
While the bike’s geometry is mostly similar to the previous version, there are two notable differences. The shorter head tube (10mm less stack on most sizes) allows riders to achieve a lower bar height. Cannondale also added an eighth frame size to the mix, replacing the previous 51cm frame with separate 50cm and 52cm frames. This should allow a better bike fit for some shorter riders.
TREVOR RAAB
Cannondale’s System Road cockpit is offered in aero and round bar shapes.
Cannondale offers a deep assortment of fifth-gen SuperSix Evo models. Prices start at $4,999 for the Evo 5 with 105 Di2; they top out at $13,499 for the superlight Lab71 variations with Dura-Ace and Red AXS. Evo variants with SRAM Force and Rival AXS groups, as well as Shimano Ultegra, are also available.
Lab71 complete bikes employ the 1,138-gram (claimed) Series 0 frameset, and Evo 1 models use the 75-gram-heavier Hi-Mod variant. Evo 2, 3, 4, and 5 models come with a standard carbon frame and fork weighing 1,355 grams. These are also offered as framesets, if you wish to build up your own bicycle or swap parts from an existing bike.
If you prefer traditional-shaped handlebars, Cannondale offers SuperSix Evo SL variants of its top-tier models. These bikes feature a round one-piece bar and lightweight wheels.
Riding the Gen-5
The SuperSix Evo 1 ($9,499) I tested felt fast, smooth, and predictable on Catalonia’s well-kept asphalt. Climbing was comfortable, and it remained poised when descending.
Back home on the winter-weathered roads of eastern Pennsylvania, the Evo felt equally calm and quick. While it lacks the raw straight-line speed of fully aero bikes like the Scott Foil RC Ultimate and Cervélo S5, the SuperSix Evo 1 still feels quite fast and carries speed well.
That is especially noticeable on rolling roads and through corners. On early rides, I wondered how large a role the deep 57|64 Reserve wheels with Vittoria Corsa Pro tires factored in. So I swapped them out for Zipp 303 SW wheels with Goodyear rubber, and then for low-profile Reserve wheels with Schwalbes. While somewhat slower with these shallower wheels, the Evo 1 still felt downright fast.
No bike is absolutely perfect for every rider, even the really good ones. However, the faults I found in the Evo 1 are mostly driven by personal preference, not functional issues. The bike’s 48/35T chainrings are paired with a 10-33T cassette. It’s not my favorite combo. I’d rather take the slight weight penalty for the extra range of a 10-36T. Similarly, I prefer SRAM’s 50/37T chainring combo for all but the biggest climbing days.
I also thought the 29mm tires on the Evo 1 were too skinny for my usual riding. The Evo can easily accommodate 32mm tires, and the added comfort and grip of wider tires is worth a few extra grams to me. Luckily, cassettes and tires are high-wear items that can be easily swapped when it’s time to replace them.
Worth the Price?
The Cannondale SuperSix Evo should be on the shortlist for anyone purchasing a new race bike. If you already own a fourth-gen Evo, the latest Evo might not rock your world. As implied in its name, this bike is an evolution, not a groundbreaking redesign. But that’s a big part of why the bike gives the rider so much confidence.
Cannondale took an already solid bike and softened some rough edges, tidied up details, and fixed a couple of shortcomings in sizing and fit. The new Evo is a better, faster race bike that feels right.
Of the eight fifth-gen SuperSix Evo models, the Evo 3 ($6,999)—in the gorgeous, cherry-lacquer color—is probably my favorite. It’s also a lot of bicycle for the money. It comes with SRAM Force AXS, 45mm-deep DT Swiss carbon wheels, and 28mm-wide Schwalbe tires. Although the bike uses a standard modulus carbon frame and fork, it shares the shape and aerodynamics of the SuperSix Lab71 and Hi-Mod models. Cannondale claims the Evo 3 weighs just 300 grams more than the pricier Evo 1 that I tested.
Is that weight savings worth an additional $2,500? For that extra money, you could buy some lighter wheels and tires to lower the weight or aero equipment to pick up some speed. Or, splurge on a trip to Girona to ride the region’s amazing roads. But watch out for spots of gravel as you’re ripping around high-speed corners.
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As Deputy Editor, Tara Seplavy leads Bicycling’s product test team; after having previously led product development and sourcing for multiple bike brands, run World Championship winning mountain bike teams, wrenched at renowned bicycle shops in Brooklyn, raced everything from criteriums to downhill, and ridden bikes on six different continents (landing herself in hospital emergency rooms in four countries and counting). Based in Easton, Pennsylvania, Tara spends tons of time on the road and trail testing products. A familiar face at cyclocross races, crits, and bike parks in the Mid Atlantic and New England, on weekends she can often be found racing for the New York City-based CRCA/KruisCX team. When not riding a bike, or talking about them, Tara listens to a lot of ska, punk, and emo music, and consumes too much social media.