Feast your eyes on the beautiful Rock from those masters of bicycle design Colnago.

This example was taking pride of place on Shimano’s stand, as the company sponsors the Colnago Arreghini Sudtirol team in which Italian champion Eva Lechner rode this very bike to a podium finish at the last round of the XC World Cup in Windham, US last year.

The Rock was first introduced to the company’s range last year, and as such is the first time we’ve seen one this side of a printed catalogue. The full carbon fibre frame is produced in several parts, with importantly the front triangle moulded as one piece.

Geometry has been designed around 80-100mm forks with a semi-integrated headset keeping the stack height of the front end low. Looks just the ticket for budding XC racers looking for something a little different from the usual brands popular at most UK XC races.

The result of the carbon development by Colnago is a frame weighing just 1kg (2.20lb), that’s on a par with the best road frames out there. The bike pictured weighs just 21lb, dressed as it is with a full complement of the newest Shimano XTR bit, which is pretty damn light. We’re told that a sub-20lb build is perfectly possible. That we want to ride. 

It doesn’t come cheap though. A frame (including the headset) will set you back £1649.95.

Colnago are handled in the UK by www.windwave.co.uk, and you can get further information by popping over to www.colnago.com