Hot off the back of Sean Quinn’s close-fought victory in the US National Champs, EF-Education EasyPost wasted no time in reminding the Grand Départ of the true significance of the 4th of July.
The American team debuted Quinn’s new Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71 in the stars and stripes despite Florence being gripped by Tour de France fever. While the design might be considered a bit strong for European taste, US national champions never miss an opportunity to fly Old Glory loudly at the Tour de France.
The 24-year-old edged out Brandon McNulty of UAE Team Emirates in a sprint finish following a hard fought race in Charleston, West Virginia. Neilson Powless took third while EF’s Kristen Faulkner and Coryn Labecki took first and third respectively in the women’s race. A reminder that EF are the dominant American force in WorldTour cycling.
The SuperSix Evo was long considered a bike for the true climbers until advancements in material design allowed brands to create aerodynamic shapes at much lighter weights. Since then it has undertaken something of an aerodynamic facelift.
A subtle hourglass head tube, truncated aerofoil tubing and dropped seatstays all added up to a saving of 30 watts over the previous round tubed, traditionally designed SuperSix Evo. Debuting in 2023, Quinn is using a 54cm LAB71 frameset which shaves a further 770g out of the frame’s weight and a further 12 watts of aerodynamic drag.
Quinn has opted for the Vision Metron 60 SL wheels which are a deeper depth than we’ve seen on all but the purest sprinters' bikes, clearly favouring the improved rolling resistance over the flat stage 12 into Pau. We suspect he’ll swap them for something shallower ahead of stages with significant climbing and long descents.
These are shod with the Vittoria Corsa Pro Graphene 28c tyres. The Corsa’s can be run with tubes, but as is common now in the peloton Quinn has them set up tubeless.
In terms of fit, Quinn, who is 1.87m tall, rides a 54cm frameset, with a 75cm saddle height and 9.3cm of setback. The attractive MomoDesign SystemBar R-One bar and stem measures 38mm in width with a 120mm stem.
Quinn is running a Shimano Dura-Ace 12-speed groupset with 54/40 FSA chainrings and 172.5mm FSA Powerbox K-Force crankset. He pairs these to an 11-32 cassette on the back.
It was a dream start to the Tour de France for EF Education-EastPost, with Richard Carapaz taking the yellow jersey on stage three. Since then, he and Ben Healy have animated this Tour’s break away efforts, with the Ecuadorian winning stage 17.
With the Alps still to come, we can expect to see Quinn head up the road in an effort to try to secure EF another stage win before the end of the Tour.
