Is this the yet-to-be-released Cannondale SuperSix CX bike?

The Cannondale Road Instagram account posted a darkened image of what very much looks like the SuperSix silhouette to us, so could this be a cyclocross version of the SuperSix? Or is it another gravel bike from the American brand?

Although posted by the Road Instagram account of Cannondale, the light bouncing off those tyres definitely reveals a knobbly tread pattern for tackling off-road terrain.

The drop-bar disc brake bike pictured looks to have the aero tubing of the SuperSix road race bike with the dropped seat stays that are included to soften up the rear end.

The one big difference between road and off-road bikes is tyre size and while the road model of the SuperSix offers generous clearance for 30mm rubber, a cyclocross or gravel version of the SuperSix would need to boost this quite dramatically. When you add extra clearance, the geometry can be affected, so while this might look like a SuperSix, we'd expect that there will be some key changes to the handling.

> Cannondale SuperSix Evo Carbon Disc 105 2021

The gear cables appear to run externally between the ends of the handlebar tape before entering the frame at the top of the downtube. That would certainly differentiate it from the road-going version of the SuperSix which uses a fully hidden front end to save every watt possible.

The sight of external cables could suggest that Cannondale is looking to make serviceability one of the main features of the bike and while we have seen some brands, such as Ridley with its X-Night SL, using a fully integrated front-end, hidden cables haven't yet become essential on off-road bikes.

You can see there’s a front derailleur so it’s not a 1x specific. As it’s a cyclocross or gravel bike though, there’s likely to be other builds with a 1x set-up.

We came across the Cannondale SuperSix CX on the UCI’s list of approved framesets back in February, and so is this a sneaky peek at the new model that’s surely due to be released soon?

There was also the SuperSix SE on the UCI approved list, which also gets the CX categorisation. CX stands for cyclocross, but we’re not too sure what SE could be, any ideas?

Cannondale has had the carbon SuperX in its line-up for quite a few years now, we reviewed it way back in 2016.

So could Cannondale be about to bring its carbon cyclocross bikes into the SuperSix range to benefit from the brand’s stiff yet highly comfortable road racing platform for speed on off-road terrain?

We’ll update this article when we find out more about this sleek-looking off-road bike from Cannondale.

www.cannondale.com