Cannondale, Rapha, and POC joined forces with Palace Skateboards to make the Education First (EF) Pro Cycling team’s 2020 Giro d’Italia kit — and turned some heads in the process.
Now, The Pro’s Closet will raffle off one of the few original Cannondale SuperSix EVO’s from the race. The bike is the grand prize, and the matching Rapha team jersey and POC team helmet go to the runner up.
What’s on the block? Cannondale x Palace x EF Pro Cycling gear
James Whelan rode the bike for EF Pro Cycling in 2020. While he crashed in stage 2, the results for EF and the Cannondale SuperSix were a lot better. New signing Ruben Guerreiro won the blue jersey as the race’s best climber. And Whelan’s bike looks to be tip-top now — down to the brash cartoon duck insignia from Palace.
The story goes that the team developed the kit to stand out in the peloton without leaning on its usual purple-and-pink loadout. Seeking distinction from the overall leader’s pink jersey, they put together the gaudy design, which BikeRumor previously called “completely bonkers.”
Even if you don’t win the grand prize, the runner up for the auction gets one in a size medium, along with a (more understated) EF Pro Cycling POC Ventral Air Spin Helmet.
EF’s 2020 Giro d’Italia bikes were also aesthetically quieter than the jerseys, but still popped thanks to the graphics. Cannondale splattered SuperSix EVO, SystemSix, and SuperSlice TT bikes with graphics to match the Rapha collection.
The 56cm Cannondale SuperSix EVO on the block has high-spec electronic shifting and disc braking thanks to its Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 R9170 11-speed groupset. Its carbon tubeless compatible wheels are Vision SC 55’s. On the open market, you’d pay five grand on the low end for the groupset and wheels alone.
Raffle details
To get in the raffle, you don’t have to pay anywhere close to that. But you will probably have to get astronomically lucky. The Pro’s Closet limits entries to one per person. Cost? $10.
The raffle will be live for exactly a week. It starts this Thursday, March 17, at 12 p.m. EDT, and ends at the same time on March 24.
It’s hard to say whether entrants will number in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions or pretty much any other number of people who caught the Cannondale x EF x Palace buzz two years ago.
For EF Pro Cycling fans or anyone who couldn’t take their eyes off that brightly festooned team, though, the cost of entry figures to be a pittance.
