Cannondale Topstone LAB71 frameset

"It's road-bike responsive and stiff on tarmac while off road it's just as rapid yet feels superbly composed"

- Warren Rossiter

£3,000 The gravel frameset gets special treatment

4.5/5

The Topstone is a brilliant gravel bike: light and agile enough to be raced. Yet comfortable enough to be an epic multi-day ride, with the fixtures and fittings to carry everything you'll need. This beautifully crafted special edition gets a new carbon fibre lay-up that has "exceptional tensile and compressive strength properties".

It weighs just 1,727g (for the 58cm size) including the fork, seatpost, seat binder, thru-axles, headset and six bottle-boss bolts, saving over 160g over the standard carbon Topstone. Not bad considering those triple bottle bosses, plus top-tube bento box mounts, triple-anything fork mounts, mudguard mounts, internal cable routing, SmartSense port (or toolkit recess) and threaded BSA 68mm bottom bracket shell.