There were some exotic bikes on display at Eurobike, with most brands pulling out all the stops and slapping the credit cards down on some properly bling kit to adorn their flagship bikes.

It’s certainly an approach that works. Cannondale had this beautiful Scalpel right on the corner of its stand on a plinth, and there must have been twenty people standing around, staring up it at, when we wondered past.

It’s black stealth build drew us in closer. We clocked the carbon Enve rims straight away. Then the carbon Lefty fork, the Shimano XTR rear mech, Cannondale SL cranks and SRAM XX front mech.

2012 is the first year that the company’s race-ready full suspension bike gets treated to a 29er upgrade. The Fox shock offers 100mm of travel using single pivot linkage design with pivot-less dropouts, the same as the 26in bike, but unlike its smaller wheeled siblings there’s a proper main pivot. 16mm axles are borrowed from the Jekyll.

Frame weight, including shock, is just 1.9kg, so expect this complete build to be hovering somewhere in the region of 21lbs, at a guess. Details include a PressFit 30 bottom bracket, post-mount brakes and 142×12 rear thru-axle.

Last year we rode the 26in version of the Scalpel, you can read that review here