May 21, 2023
Is this the coolest paint job in the peloton?
If you’ve been following the WorldTour peloton in the opening stages of the 2023 season, you would have heard the name Ben Healy. The 22-year-old rider has been in imperious form so far this year with two second places and a fourth place during the Ardennes classics, as well as a stage win already in the Giro d’Italia. With his attacking style and aggressive aerodynamic position, Healy is unmissable in the bunch (this is helped, naturally, by EF Education-EasyPost’s outlandish Giro d’Italia switch out kit.)
The Irish rider has been riding on a mix of bikes at the Giro d’Italia this year, opting for the more aerodynamic Cannondale SystemSix model on the flatter stages (this is the bike he rode to victory on stage 8) and using the lighter SuperSix when the race heads deeper into the mountains. On stage 15 to Bergamo, when Healy narrowly missed out on another stage win to Brandon McNulty, he was using the SuperSix Evo Lab71 model which was released by Cannondale earlier this year.
Upon launching the new SuperSix Evo, Cannondale said the bike was more aerodynamic than the previous iteration due to its dropped seatstays, reshaped front fork and additional space between the fork and wheel. It is also said to be significantly lighter than the SystemSix model which Healy has also been riding – a top-spec Dura-Ace LAB71 SuperSix in 56cm is claimed to come in on the UCI weight limit of 6.8 kilos while Cannondale’s aero model, the SystemSix, comes in at a total claimed weight of 7.7kg. This is a significant difference, especially at the professional level when riders are looking for incremental gains in the mountains.
The LAB71 sticker on Healy’s SuperSix Evo connotes Cannondale’s most premium build option, it features the brand’s Series 0 Carbon which is said to be a higher grade than that found in any of Cannondale’s other offerings. The paint work on Healy’s SuperSix is a special edition for this year’s Giro d’Italia, designed to match the pink, yellow, navy and green of the team’s kit. The designers have used a stunning tie-dye effect across the downtube and into the rear of the bike while keeping the forks and seat tube in the team’s traditional black and pink colourway.
The Cannondale SuperSix Evo features a port which can hold…