Cannondale Saeco CAAD 3 Silk Road (2003)

An elegant prototype suspension bike made for Paris-roubaix

No race drives innovation like Paris-roubaix. So when Anderson had a chance to snag Jörg Ludewig’s prototype Cannondale, made especially for the race, he wasn’t going to pass it up.

‘There’s always a lot of experimentation around ParisRoubaix,’ says Anderson. ‘Sometimes this can be disastrous, but the Headshok system taken from Cannondale’s mountain bikes and used here worked really well.’

Created for the Saeco team in 2003 and eventually making it to market as the Silk Road, this bike must have performed pretty well – Ludewig’s teammate Dario Pieri came within inches of winning that same year.

As it happens, Anderson recently hosted UCI development team SKS Sauerland NRW, some of whom knew Ludewig. At the time the bike was sitting unbuilt.

‘One of them called him up and said they’d found his old bike,’ says Anderson. ‘So I’m there holding the frame, and Jörg is saying how great a bike it was. Then he told me what wheels he was using and his saddle height. One of the young guys was so excited he went and built it up.’