This Cannondale Capo may have started life as an alloy commuter, but it now weighs less than 5kg and was raced by Arion Oates at the National Hill Climb Championships yesterday.
The bike is actually owned by BikeRadar contributor Rob Borek, but he was ill for this year’s competition, and so he lent it to Oates.
This year, the nationals took place in Matlock, Derbyshire, on the demanding slopes of Bank Road. The 834m course has an average gradient of 14 per cent, taking in more than 100m of elevation before the finish line.
Arion Oates, riding for PDQ Cycle Coaching, finished the day in 40th place in the men’s open category and took 29th in the senior category with a time of 2 minutes 43.5 seconds.
Oates used the same 39x19t gear ratio Rob used when he rode the bike for the 2016 National Hill Climb Championships, which also took place on Bank Road.
In a previous life, this Cannondale Capo was a commuter bike at a time when single-speeds and fixies were a more common sight than ebikes in many cities.
In order to save weight, Rob built the bike with a host of premium carbon components. It has a carbon fibre THM Fibular brake caliper and a carbon THM Clavicular SE crankset, alongside a barebones carbon fibre saddle. Rob has also built the bike with an ENVE carbon fork.
The bike has a lightweight bullhorn handlebar setup with a time trial brake lever and cotton bar tape.
The result is a fixie that weighs just 4.8kg, which is more than a kilogram lighter than the Monoc track bike Simon Warren raced at the nationals.
Although hill climb efforts boil down to how much power you can put out, Oates didn’t use a power meter or bike computer for his effort.
Bike lights are now compulsory for hill climb races, so Borek has fitted the bike with miniature front and rear lights, consisting of single LEDs zip-tied to the bars and seatpost.
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