Italian bike maker Bianchi has quietly slipped out a new celeste Zolder Pro, a modern carbon cyclocross bike that their mountain bike pros have been campaigning on this winter. A huge improvement over the old carbon Zolder Disc which hadn’t yet had a thru-axle update, the new bike has already been raced by Chiara Teocchi & Marco Fontana on the World Cup circuit, with a Worlds debut not far off…
2019 Bianchi Zolder Pro race-ready carbon cross bike
During the off-season from the mountain bike, a few of Team Bianchi Countervail’s pro riders use cyclocross to build winter fitness and keep the training exciting. But World Cup level mountain bikers don’t want to race cross on a bike with QRs and external cable routing, so it was time to step up with a new pro-level cross bike.
Team riders Nadir Colledani & Chiara Teocchi each rode the new Zolder Pro to a win in their men & women’s categories at the bike’s debut in Northern Italy cross race at the start of December. While the mountain bike team may have Countervail in their name, the new cross bike sadly doesn’t get a vibration damping CV designation, instead sticking with a stiff & light carbon construction.
Bianchi Zolder Pro Tech Details
The new monocoque carbon Zolder Pro and accompanying full carbon, tapered 1.5″ fork are disc brake only, with flat mount calipers and 12mm thru-axles at both ends (12x100mm & 12x142mm). The frame features fully internal modular cable routing for mechanical & electronic drivetrains, and is set up for 2x drivetrains with a removable braze-on front derailleur hanger. The frame gets a press fit bottom bracket with alloy bearing seats, and a tapered integrated headset.
Bianchi hasn’t yet revealed the geometry for the new carbon cyclocross race bike, but we do know that it is available in six stock frame sizes (48-58cm).
The carbon frameset is available on its own for 2100€, or in a single 3150€ complete bike build combining a mix of Shimano Ultegra & 105 components in a mechanical 2×11 speed build with hydraulic disc brakes.
Both options are available through select international dealers, with the Munich-based German distributor BianchiStore offering up the best details so far.
Now that the Italian CX National Championships have passed with Teocchi earning a bronze in her race, most of the pro mountain bikers on the Bianchi team will make the switch back to dedicated MTB training. With two CX World Cups remaining, plus the World Championships in Denmark, the new Zolder Pro is likely to see a bit more racing this season.
