Cannondale awarded Gold Award for Best Road Bike at Eurobike for Slate Force CX1

On the heels of its Slate lineup’s official release, Cannondale has been recognized with a 2015 Eurobike Gold Award for Best Road Bike, an honour earned by the innovative, sophisticated design of its Slate Force CX1 platform.

As one of that lineup’s newest members, the Slate Force CX1 is an aggressive, gravel-riding approach to the road bike, broadening the idea of “road riding” to include a “hard-cornering, curb-hopping, dirt-shredding” dynamic. On the Slate Force CX1, a host of innovative features combines to support everything from fast-paced group road rides to singletrack, and it’s this versatility that merited the accolades of judges.

“This new bike by Cannondale,” they said, announcing the award, “combines two worlds that usually have little to do with each other. It echoes elements of a mountain bike and interprets these for road use. As a result, it taps into a bigger target of cyclists.”

The Slate Force CX1’s highlights are head-turners on their own. The Lefty Oliver fork, for one, was built and tuned especially for Slate, with its 30 mm of travel and unmatched stiffness adapting to every kind of road. The control and comfort it facilitates is also supported by Slate’s 650bx42c tires, combining the speed and agility of road wheels — the tires are nearly identical in outer diameter and roll out as 700x23c tires — with the grip of high volume 42c tires.

Its optimized geometry is also part of Slate’s award-winning design package, with 405-mm chain stays and its 650b platform providing elite-level aerodynamics. On rough stretches, too, a longer top tube and somewhat more slack head tube angle provides stability.

“When we first set out to design the Slate,” said David Devine, Cannondale’s senior road product manager, “we were looking to create a bike that suits the type of riding that we do ourselves, bringing together a lot of different aspects of riding to create a bike unlike anything this industry has seen before.”

“We are honoured to receive a Eurobike Award that recognizes the versatility and innovative features of the Slate,” Devine added.