Cervelo Soloist Carbon

Simply put, it's the bicycle equivalent of Zipp's divine wheels, and in many ways serves as Cervélo's ultimate aero road racing frame. Why? Because it offers weight advantages no less amazing than its aerodynamics. Despite the sizeable surface area of its sculpted tubes, the Soloist Carbon weighs little more than the Cervélo R3 -- the wonderbike preferred by Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady for the cobbled northern classics like Paris-Roubaix, but chosen by Carlos Sastre for the mountain stages of the Grand Tours.

Every tube on the Soloist Carbon has been designed to optimize its aerodynamics. Its headtube is only 1mm wider than what you'll find on the Cervélo P3 time trial bike, with a downtube virtually identical to the supremely aero design you find on the P3. The sloping top tube has an airfoil cross section in the direction of the airflow.

And beyond weight and aerodynamics is the ever-critical requirement of stiffness. The ideal Soloist Carbon rider is cut from the same cloth as Team CSC's Jens Voight -- a breakaway specialist, solo or in a small group. You don't spend a whole day outpacing the peloton by spinning moderate gears. Rather, you've gotta push the big meat and nothing torques your frame more than sustained huge gear efforts. The Soloist Carbon is built with a visibly overbuilt BB area to provide you with a frame that won't waste a single watt of your power. Its substantial volume and smooth contours don't just eliminate frame flex, it adds strength to the frame as well. One other important detail is the new design of the chainstays: They're specifically engineered to complement the stiffness of the BB area.