Mike Cotty starts his Road to Mont Blanc challenge ride today and this is the bike he’ll be doing it on. The 1,000km ride crosses the Dolomites, Eastern Alps and Swiss Alps, and includes 21 mountain passes and over 23,000m of elevation gain.
Mike’s main bike is a Cannondale SuperSix Evo HiMod 2014. The frame is superlight at about 700g, and it features what Cannondale call “Micro-Suspension Rear Stays” which are “subtle flex zones built into the chainstays and seatstays [that] allow the rear wheel to track the ground, improving speed, handling and comfort”.
This is a race frame so it comes with a low and stretched geometry. Despite the distance, Mike hasn’t raised the front end for a more relaxed ride position.
The Speed Save fork is 315g with a 1 1/8in to 1 1/4in tapered steerer.The offset dropouts are designed to provide more compliance without affecting handling.
The groupset is Shimano’s top-level Dura-Ace with Di2 electronic shifting.
The exception is Cannondale's SiSL 2 chainset featuring a one-piece 34/50t spider-ring that’s forged out of a single piece of aluminium for strength. That’s matched up to an 11-28t cassette, so the smallest gear Mike has is 30.9in.
Mike is a brand ambassador for Mavic as well as Cannondale, and the wheels he’s using are Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimates.
The tyres are 23mm Mavic Yksion Pro Griplink and Powerlink.
The pedals come from Mavic too. They’re Zxellium SLR Ti using Time’s iClic retention system. Each one has a carbon body and a hollow titanium axle, and Mavic give a weight of just 155g.
The handlebar, stem and seatpost all come from USE: a Summit Carbon bar, a Race stem and an Alien Carbon seatpost.
The lights come from USE’s sister brand Exposure. Mike is using the powerful Reflex (up to 2,200 lumens) along with the Joystick (400 lumens) when less punch is required. He’ll also be using the Blaze rear light.
The saddle is a Fizik Aliante Carbon and the bottle cages come from Lezyne.
Alongside all that, Mike will be using a Garmin 800 GPS computer that’ll provide live tracking. You can follow Mike’s progress online as soon as he begins his quest at midday today (UK time).
The complete bike weighs just 5.9kg (excluding lights). That really is very light indeed, which is just as well considering the distance and the amount of climbing involved in this challenge.
A Mavic support vehicle will be carrying Mike’s backup bike, last year’s version of the Cannondale SuperSix Evo HiMod . That one looks to be specced the same.
Bike spec
Frameset Cannondale EVO Hi-Mod (56cm)
Wheels Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate
Tubulars Mavic Yksion Pro Griplink & Powerlink (23mm)
Shifters Shimano Dura-Ace 9070 Di2 11 speed
Brake calipers Shimano Dura-Ace with Swissstop Yellow King pads
Chainset Cannondale SiSL 2 crank with one piece 34/50t spider-ring
Pedals Mavic Zxellium SLR Ti
Cassette Shimano Dura-Ace 11-28t
Chain Shimano Dura-Ace
Handlebar USE Summit Carbon (420mm C-C)
Stem USE Race (120mm)
Seatpost USE Alien Carbon (27.2mm x 270mm)
Saddle Fi:zi’k Aliante Carbon
Bottle cages Lezyne Carbon SL
GPS device Garmin 800
Lighting Exposure Reflex, Joystick and Blaze
Weight 5.9kg (excluding lights)
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now pushing 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.