White road bikes may be all the rage right now, but it’s a brave manufacturer who chooses to apply the colour to a bike that is going to get covered in mud on its first proper outing.
But, when the result looks as good as Chris Boardman’s Pro CX cyclo-crosser, who cares what it will look like covered in mud. We’ll find out soon enough; meanwhile, out of the box, it exudes a quality air that belies its sub-£1000 price tag.
The frame paint is thick and even, the welds between the ‘super-butted’ 7005 aluminium alloy tubes smoothed off, the transmission and finishing kit nicely fiinished in a coherent shace of black and the wheels, on the face of it, ready for some serious log-hopping.
Seatpost, bars and stem are the proven Ritchey Comp, dual control levers and derailleur mechs SRAM’s excellent Rival and the chainset a proper 46/36 cross-suited FSA Gossamer Pro Compact running in a BB30 bottom bracket assembly. Tektro CycloCross cantilever brakes look more than capable of taking care of stopping duties and get auxiliary brake levers as ridden by top pro ‘cross riders…
The frame has a full-house of mountings for bottles (two cages) and rack, with mudguard eyes on the fork ends and frame dropouts, making it a fine potential all-rounder without obviously compromising on cyclo-cross ability.
Perhaps the most impressive item on the spec list, however, is the full-monocoque uni-directional carbon fibre fork, which looks wonderfully sturdy and a great visual match for the flowing contours of the head tube. The Boardman website shows this bike with a white fork whereas ours is nude carbon, but the ride will be the key. Watch this space.
Boardman Pro CX £999.99
