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Team CSC (now Saxo-Bank) cleaned up at the 2008 Tour, taking the Yellow Jersey, White Jersey, and second and third places in the climbers classification, all on Cervelo bicycles. In fact, CSC has dominated professional cycling for the last few years, finishing No. 1 in the UCI ProTour standings in 2005, 2006 and 2007. This top-rate test lab has enabled the superior engineers at Cervelo to develop and refine ideas into some of the best bikes on the market. For 2009, Cervelo has renamed and refined their lineup, and while most of the buzz has been about the new P4 TT bike, the bike with the most impact will be the striking new S3.

Imagine the SLC-SL and the R3 SL evolving into one supreme being, and you'll have a picture of the S3. The front triangle is a refined version of the revered Soloist. It still has custom Cervelo airfoil tubing designed for bicycle speeds, a Stealth Aero head tube, and an aerodynamically designed sloping top tube. Refinement comes in the form of internal cable routing, which tucks the cables into the top tube right behind the head tube and conceals them from the wind until they emerge to activate their assigned components. While this is an important aero advantage, the best thing about it is that it looks so much cooler, keeping your cable outing sanitary and organized.

Moving to the rear triangle, the seat stays were modeled off of the super-compliant R3 seat stays, and still provide comfort while being redesigned into a thin, wind- cheating foil. What looks totally new, and what most people notice first when they pick up the S3, are the chain stays. They're big and beefy, looking like they leave no room for a tire between them. The seat stays start tall at the bottom bracket and thin out as they travel rearward, but the bulk simply turns into width to keep as much stiffness as possible in the design.

The S3 comes in at under 1000 grams, and exhibits stiffness characteristics that are off the charts. With the addition of compliance- tuned seat stays and the superior aerodynamics of the Soloist tube shapes, the S3 is the most versatile race bike ever made.