Slice RS, EVO High Mod highlight 2013 Cannondale range

Rather than bore you with every mundane detail of Cannondale's 2013 line, I'll stick with the highlight reel. First up is the new Slice RS, as seen under Liquigas-Cannondale since the 2011 Giro d'Italia. The bike is now finally available for sale to the public, and has all the slick, wind-cheating features that have become prerequisites for entering the top end of the TT/tri market: hidden brakes, a long, integrated front end (making use of the UCI's gusset rules to elongate the head tube shape), a nicely tucked away rear wheel, and plenty of handlebar adjustability. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The front end of the Slice doesn't use a traditional steerer tube. The fork itself attaches to a bearing at the top and bottom of the head tube, sort of like a dual-crown downhill mountain bike fork. A small pin runs through the frame holding everything in place. The design allows for an ingenious bit of cable routing that effectively eliminates any steering input from the cables, which enter behind the integrated stem. The brakes are linear pull and hide behind the fork legs. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Cables enter this little plastic port, which turns intependently of the rest of the stem, thus eliminating any cable-induced steering input. In a funny quirk of the UCI 3:1 ratio rules, the head tube junction effectively gains its maximum allowable dimensions from the size of the down and top tubes. So, a wide top tube allows for a longer, more aerodynamic "gusset." That's one reason why the Slice, and other TT frames, are using wide top tubes these days. The width has minimal impact on top-tube aerodyamics, improves stiffness, and allows for a more aero head tube. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The bottom bracket area plays by the same UCI rules as the head tube. The Slice comes up nice and high. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The seat tube is angled back dramatically to wrap the rear wheel for as long as possible. It makes the vertical seatpost look a bit silly, but good TT bikes are more about function than form. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Seatstays are slender and stay nearly parallel before flaring out near the hub. Cannondale works its "SAVE" technology into the stays to add a bit of vertical give. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The rear wheel cutout of the Slice RS features a large channel to allow for air spinning into the tire to escape. The whole bike looks rather stunning, until you get to the seatpost. Cannondale admits it's not the most graceful line it's ever drawn, but the design was a necessity given the relaxed, leaned-back seat tube. The hyper-skinny seatpost can be flipped, changing effective seat tube angle from 73 to 78 degrees (TT to tri, basically). Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Here's one of our favorite pieces of Cannondale's 2013 line: the Racing Edition builds. Basically, Cannondale gave its road product manager free reign to build these particular models as if he was going to go out and race them, rather than shooting for specific price points. The Racing Edition models put an emphasis on quality wheels like FSA Vision carbon tubulars in the case of the EVO version and save a bit of cash in places that don't matter as much. The EVO gets FSA chainrings, a SRAM Red group, alloy Cannondale bars with a nice deep drop, and an alloy Cannondale seatpost. It's certainly not cheap at $7,200, but in terms of performance per dollar it's the ringer of the whole line. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The FSA Vision TC24 wheels are a good bang-for-buck option. When was the last time you saw tubulars spec'ed on any model from a major manufacturer? It hapens, but certainly not frequently. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The Racing Edition EVO gets less expensive, but still excellent, FSA chainrings rather than Cannondale's new Spiderings. It comes with a standard 53/39;€” no compacts here! Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Aluminum bars on a $7,200 bike? Well, yeah, if you're going to race it. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Sadly, Cannondale did not have the CAAD10 Racing Edition model on-hand at Eurobike, so I've taken this photo from the 2013 catalog. At $2,800 complete, the CAAD10 comes with a SRAM Force group and quality FSA Energy clinchers, SRAM S950 carbon cranks, BB30, tapered head tube... the list goes on. For the racer on a bit of a budget, it would be extremely difficult to do better. We''ve always been big fans of the CAAD10, and a solid, race-oriented parts spec just makes it even better. Kudos, Cannondale. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The Black Edition models are similar to the Racing Edition models except Cannondale's product manager was given a different directive: go hog wild. The result is a $13,300, 11-pound machine. The EVO Black Edition features Enve carbon wheels, bar, stem, and seatpost; new Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 11-speed; Cannondale's new Hollowgram SISL crank with the new Spiderings. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

New Dura-Ace 9000 on the EVO Black Edition. The frame remains unchanged from last year. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 brakes, Enve carbon tubulars and Schwalbe Ultremo tires on the EVO Black Edition. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Cannondale's new Spiderings eliminate the traditional spider/chainring interface and simply turn both chainrings into a single unit that attaches directly to the crankarms using the same spline that the spider would normally mount to (Hollowgram cranks are designed with a swappable spider, which is how Cannondale switches between road standard, road compact, and mountain bike versions all while using the same crankarms). The rings are forged, similar to the Praxis chainrings that are gaining popularity, and will be available in standard and compact versions. An exact weight was not available at Eurobike, but Cannondale says they are lighter than the normal spider/ring setup. Cost is "less than a new set of Dura-Ace rings," says Cannondale's Bill Rudell. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The one-piece Spiderings. Note the ramps on the spider arms, which should help improve shifting. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The women's versions of the EVO get some excellent specs, specific geometry, and graphical flourishes. In fact, the graphics are some of the best we've seen on women's models in recent years — understated, but still subtly feminine. But we're not women, so we could be completely wrong. The top-tier model gets all the goods: SRAM Red, the new Spiderings, solid Mavic wheels, and carbon bars and seatpost from FSA. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The new EVO women's graphics are strong. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Women do get this little flower badge, but, more importantly, the women's frames feature the exact same technology that pushed the EVO way out ahead in our recent WorldTour bikes test (in Velo Magazine), with only a few modifications to geometry. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Jumping straight down the range (because nothing in the Synapse range was particularly exciting except for a return to a standard seatpost), we get to the kids' bikes. Cannondale applied a bunch of technology from its CAAD series frames to the tiny aluminum kids' bikes, even the 16-inchers, including the SAVE seatstays and oversized head tubes. These touches are perhaps intended more for exciteable parents than for the kids themselves, but we still dig it. The 24, the first model with gears, gets nice, long chainstays to keep things stable and prevent the terrible shifting and chainline issues often associated with super-short kids' bike chainstays. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Yeah, this 16-incher has an oversized head tube. For precise steering under sprint loads, obviously. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com