Cannondale introduces the Slice Ultimate

Faris Al-Sultan will be riding the latest speed machine from Cannondale

The first time I saw Faris Al-Sultan's new bike in Germany, there were only six of them on the planet. Four were being used by the professional cycling team, Liquigas. One made it to Al-Sultan's house. The last one was commandeered by Cannondale's Bill Keith.

I got to pick up Keith's Slice Ultimate today. Weighing just 14 pounds, Cannondale's full-carbon wonder is sure to be a hit.

"We wanted to make a lighter bike," Keith said today. "But Faris told us that we needed to make sure it performed like our aluminum frames."

From what I can see, Cannondale achieved all that and more. The new Slice frame features a new, lower head tube, which makes getting into an aerodynamic position much easier than on the previous Slice models. To ensure the bike remains rock-solid stable, especially when riding on the aero bars, the head tube angle is set up a half-degree shallower than other time-trial frames. The thinned out top tube on the new Slice is not only aerodynamic, it allows a rider’s knee position to sit directly behind their elbows to ensure a minimum amount of wind drag.

Cannondale has also modified the rear triangle, the ‘Save SL’ stays are designed to eliminate high frequency vibration.

The bike’s light weight comes in part from the new Hollowgram SL crank, which trims 70 grams off the previous version.

The Ultimate version of the bike comes with a minimalist Arione Saddle, USE Tula bars (which, in a word, are hot!) and lightweight Zipp carbon Zed Tech wheels … the entire package has to be one of the sleekest and coolest looking Canondale’s to date.

Al-Sultan’s bike is specced with slightly different components and weighs a bit more than Keith’s speedy machine, but you can be sure it will move along the Queen K at quite a speed tomorrow.

We’ll certainly have a more extensive review of the new Cannondale Slice later this year here on Ironman.com.