SUPER RECORD GOES UP TO 13

Campagnolo steals a march on its rivals with its new 13-speed road groupset

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When Campagnolo launched its 13-speed 1x gravel groupset, Ekar, back in late 2020, it raised the inevitable question of whether the extra sprocket would find its way into the brand's road groupsets. Now we have the answer in the shape of a 13-speed Super Record groupset. Campagnolo Super Record 13 is the first wireless 2x13-speed groupset designed for road riding. After the initial prototyping phase done in-house in Vicenza, presumably, the set-up has been fine-tuned with the help of the Cofidis WorldTour team and is currently being ridden in the Giro d'Italia by the French-based outfit.

To make room for the extra sprocket, Campagnolo has repeated the method it used for its Ekar cassette, reducing the distances between each sprocket, as well as making the each sprocket thinner. With the gear spacing so close, Campagnolo says it has created smoother transitions and reduced 'jumps' between gears, enabling the rider to always find the right cadence. There are four cassette options available: 10-29t, 10-33t, 11-32t and, new for high-end Campy groups, an 11-36 option.

Expanded gear range

One of the missteps in the 2023 launch of the previous version was the omission of a full-size chainset. It's fixed that here with three pro-sized gear options. In total, the new Super Record is offered with seven chainset configurations: 45/29, 48/32, 50/34, 52/36, 53/39, 54/39 and 55/39.

It hasn't left the mere mortals behind entirely either, with the two sub-compact offerings staying in the range. Paired with the 11-36t cassette, it now offers a market-leading gear range, wider than SRAM's 46/33 chainset with a 10-36t cassette option. That said, SRAM's ability to mix and match with its road and gravel-focused XPLR groups, and its MTB range, does call into question the real value of that claim.