CANNONDALE TOPSTONE
PRICE: R50 000 / CANNONDALE.CO.ZA
EF Education First are the cool kids of pro cycling. Their riders, unmistakable in their neon-pink Rapha jerseys, are always mixing it up at the front of the big races; but grand tours and spring classics are not the only important events on the EF calendar.
They’ve broadened their scope to include alternative races – gravel and mountain-biking events such as Dirty Kanza in the US and even this year’s ill-fated Cape Epic. In doing so, they’ve shown that there’s more to pro cycling than a bunch of guys going at it like demented hamsters through one European postcard after the next.
As part of this alternative racing programme, Aussie rider and free spirit Lachlan Morton took on the inaugural GBDURO – a 2 000km, self-supported bikepacking race from Land’s End in the far south of England to John O’groats in the far north of Scotland, featuring 29 000m of climbing and every road surface imaginable, including plenty of gravel and singletrack. In a field of amateur riders, it’s not surprising that he won the event, finishing in six and half days.
But even for Morton, as a pro rider used to hard work, GBDURO involved more suffering than he’d bargained for. “That was unimaginably hard,” he said at the finish. “It was so much beyond anything I’ve ever done before.”
Morton’s bike of choice was the new carbon Cannondale Topstone – a gravel bike with a funky rear end. Look closely at where the dropped seat stays join the seat tube, and you’ll notice a single pivot. Cannondale calls it Kingpin suspension, and it uses engineered flex in the frame to offer up to 30mm of active travel, without the need for a shock or any linkages. It’s no gimmick – the travel really works to smooth out the road, but it doesn’t affect power transfer at all, even when you stand up and stomp on the pedals.
The model available in South Africa has an 11-speed Shimano drivetrain with an Ultegra RX stabilised rear derailleur, Ultegra shifters with hydraulic disc brakes and an 11-34T cassette, driven by a Cannondale crankset with 46/30T rings – offering plenty of range for all-day riding, no matter what the terrain.
The frame is made from Cannondale’s top-line Ballistec carbon, and features mounts for three bottle cages, a top-tube accessory, fenders and a front rack. It can take 700x40mm tyres, or 48mm tyres on 650b rims.
Bikes like the Topstone are slowly but surely proving their worth. It’s fast on the road, awesomely smooth on dirt, and you can load it up for adventures that simply aren’t feasible with a standard road bike. Now that you have the option to take a green-belt detour, or slice your way down some mountain-bike singletrack, your Sunday ride will never be the same.
Indeed, the Topstone is a reminder that riding a bike is meant to be fun; something the pros tend to forget in their quest for the podium. Kudos to EF – and Cannondale – for trying to change that. – Jon Minster