North American racing fans are accustomed to seeing two-time U.S. cyclocross champ in red, white and blue on a red, white and blue Cannondale, but this spring in Belgium, Honsinger is pink on pink, down to her customized Bont shoes, and, at Gent-Wevelgem, the presentation carpet, too.
Here’s a look at her 2022 Cannondale SuperSix EVO in the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB livery.
Clara Honsinger at the start of Gent-Wevelgem, her first WorldTour road race in Belgium — but certainly not her first pro race in Belgium.
Cannondale’s SuperSix EVO, like many modern race bikes, features internal routing. However, this design is a little more flexible in that it works with a variety of cockpit styles instead of requiring a particular integrated bar/stem.
While the SuperSix EVO is sold with a HollowGram bar and stem that cover the port into the head tube, the open design works with a standard bar and stem like Honsinger has here.
Honsinger’s team did a detailed recon of the Gent-Wevelgem course Friday, and she opted to tape notes of key sections on her stem.
The down tube port can be used or capped with carbon fiber.
Gent-Wevelgem’s decorating committee didn’t exactly match the EF pink, but it came close.
Hollowgram is Cannondale’s brand. The drivetrain is otherwise full Shimano Dura-Ace 9250 12-speed.
With the advent of 11-speed and now 12-speed, teams are more apt to stick with the same cassette for more races, instead of swapping bigger cassettes for events with steeper hills and smaller cassettes for flatter races. Now riders have a good range with small steps between gears.
Unlike the men’s EF Education team that uses custom direct mount connections, the women’s EF Education team uses the stock configuration.
Honsinger raced Vittoria’s tubeless Corsa Control 28mm tires on Vision Metron wheels. Vittoria Corsas are a popular WorldTour tire, in both tubeless and tubular.
Wahoo recently purchased Speedplay, and while the line-up was streamlined, the Zero Aero continued, now called just Speedplay Aero. Unlike the other Speedplay options with two-sided engagement, the Aero is one-sided, with a dimpled surface on the back/underside.
Bam! Honsinger kicks it in Bont Vaypor S shoes, customized with her name.