Exclusive first ride - Cannondale Synapse 2018

The update to the road.cc Bike of the Year winning Cannondale Synapse has been one of the most hotly anticipated releases this year. I got to ride it at the worldwide launch in Italy many months ago, but I finally got to ride it on more familiar UK roads earlier this week, and you can watch that first ride in the video above.

This is an exclusive first ride - the full range has just started to land in shops across the UK. I took to the roads of Dorset with Cannondale’s George Huxford and picked his brains on the many changes and advances in this new model. There’s a test bike winging its way to road.cc so we’ll be following this first ride up with one of our usual in-depth bike reviews soon.

- Cannondale Synapse 2018: Lighter and stiffer frame, wider tyres and disc brakes only

The yellow bike I rode is the Synapse Carbon Disc Red eTap that costs £4,999.99. The frame dispenses with the expensive high modulus carbon fibre of the higher-end Hi-Mod Synapse but is actually lighter than the old Hi-Mod Synapse. It does lack the distinctive Power Pyramid split seat tube found on the Hi-Mod Synapse, but more critically it gets all the key features such as 32mm wide tyre clearance, flat mount disc brakes with thru-axles, refined geometry and SAVE technology and hidden mudguard mounts.

- Cannondale 2018: Featuring the Synapse, Supersix Evo and more