eBay Finds: Pierre Rolland's 2018 Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-MOD Disc bike
French climber's climbing machine from his former team up for grabs
He's moved on to pastures new at B&B Hotels-Vital Concept now, but for sale here on eBay is French climber Pierre Rolland's Cannondale SuperSix EVO Hi-MOD Disc bike from the 2018 season, when he was riding for EF Education First-Drapac.
If you're just-a-little-snootily concerned that Rolland would never have ridden with his handlebars positioned like that, take a breath. The seller notes in their listing that they changed the stem to give themselves a more upright position: "I was riding it for charity rides and not for optimum speed," they admit.
Rolland, meanwhile, truly announced himself with his optimum speed when he won stage 19 of the 2011 Tour de France at Alpe d'Huez, and promptly bagged another stage win at the Tour the following year, beating Thibaut Pinot and Chris Froome to the ski resort of La Toussuire, on stage 11, on his way to a career-best eighth place overall.
Rolland left his Europcar squad at the end of the 2015 season to join Jonathan Vaughters' team, which had had Garmin as its main sponsor for so long, but by then was called Cannondale, and it became EF Education First-Drapac in Rolland's final year there in 2018. And today, it's called EF Pro Cycling – but the team's still on Cannondales.
The bars of this carbon-framed SuperSix EVO Hi-MOD Disc have been wrapped with new tape, and the chain could apparently do with replacing, but otherwise what you've got here is a bona fide WorldTour team bike, as ridden by a top professional.
Rolland perhaps never truly found his feet with Vaughters' team in the three years that he was there, although the glaring exception to that is his solo stage victory on stage 17 of the 2017 Giro d'Italia, when the Frenchman outsmarted a group of around 25 riders inside the last 10km, while teammate Michael Woods policed any chasers.
Now a veteran of 10 Tours de France, Rolland should form part of the eight-rider squad chosen by his UCI ProTeam-level B&B Hotels-Vital Concept team, who he joined in 2019, and who have been handed a wild-card place for this year's race.
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Any super-fans out there can get their hands on this size 54cm bike of his, equipped with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic groupset, for a pretty pricey US$5,999.99 (£4,765). But, if picked, Rolland will be out to prove himself once more at this year's Tour – a race he last rode in 2018, in fact, possibly on this very bike…
We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line.
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