Cervélo goes mountain biking on all-new ZHT-5 World Cup XC hardtail bike

This all-new lightweight carbon Cervélo ZHT-5 mountain bike takes road racing heritage further off-road, as Jumbo-Visma targets World Cup XC racing and the Paris 2024 Olympics over the horizon. Already having taken to racing in the dirt with dedicated gravel & cyclocross bikes, this new XC hardtail is ready for top-tier cross-country racing with benchmark lightweight, big tire clearance, and modern XCO race-ready progressive geometry…

Cervélo ZHT-5 World Cup XC hardtail MTB

Cervélo really started getting serious about racing off-road with the original Áspero gravel bike, and then took it to the next level with a proper R5-CX cyclocross bike. It didn’t hurt to have the multi-discipline superstars Marianne Vos and Wout van Aert of Team Jumbo-Visma on their team driving a push into the dirt. Well, Jumbo-Visma also has a dedicated mountain biker in multi-time Dutch XC champ Milan Vader. And while Vader was set to debut the new Cervélo ZHT-5 hardtail on the XC circuit this year after a World Cup podium last year, a wild early season road racing injury pushed Vader and his new bike’s XC racing campaign back to the 2023 season.

But now with another season of prep, Jumbo-Visma looks set to field a proper XCO race team in 2023, and to give the all-new Cervélo ZHT-5 hardtail a proper World Cup XCO mountain biking debut when racing kicks off in Valkenburg next season. Because more of today’s elite athletes are branching out beyond just one racing discipline.

Tech details

It’s Cervélo’s first mountain bike, so literally, everything is all-new, but the 29er ZHT-5 hardtail certainly builds on years of Cervélo race bikes. The new carbon ZHT-5 frame is superlight at a claimed 870g (medium), with a strong focus on pedaling efficiency, and paired to 100mm XC forks.

Cervélo describes the new ZHT as built for modern World Cup  XCO – calling its geometry “rationally progressive”. This is not an ultra-slack mountain bike for sending big hits, with Cervélo priding their “reputation for balancing sharpness with stability.” The new mountain bike gets a 69° headtube, 74° seattube, and 430mm chainstays, and comes in a four size range (S-XL)

The new XC bike gets internal cable routing through the top bearing cap of a modular 1.5″ headset, including stealth dropper routing potential for the 30.9 seatpost. The Boost frame features clearance for up to 29 x 2.4″ tires, a 73mm threaded BSA bottom bracket, and a future-proof SRAM UDH standard rear derailleur hanger.

Cervélo ZHT-5 – Pricing, options & availability

For now, the new Cervélo ZHT-5 is available exclusively in one of two complete bike builds, with a frameset option also expected in the future.

A 5300€ SRAM GX Eagle AXS complete bike is the most affordable way to get the new XC race frame, already race-ready paired to a 100mm RockShox SID SL Ultimate fork and 27mm internal Race

This all-new lightweight carbon Cervélo ZHT 5 mountain bike takes road racing heritage further off-road, as Jumbo-Vismo targets World Cup XC racing and the Paris 2024 Olympics over the horizon. Already having taken to racing in the dirt with dedicated gravel & cyclocross bikes, this new XC hardtail is ready for top-tier cross-country racing with benchmark lightweight, big tire clearance, and modern XCO race-ready progressive geometry…

Face ARC carbon wheels.

The top tier build is then the 9999€ ZHT-5 XX1 AXS with a full XX1 carbon build kit, the same SID SL Ultimate, and Reserve carbon wheels laced to DT Swiss 350 EXP wheels.

The new bike is available now in limited numbers, while more specs (including mechanical shift builds) will be coming in Spring 2023 in time for XC racing season.

Cervelo.com