WorldTour bikes: Nairo Quintana’s Canyon Ultimate CF SLX

This is the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX that Movistar’s climber/general classification rider Nairo Quintana rode in the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca on Sunday, and upon which he’ll race the Volta a La Comunitat Valenciana (VCV) from Wednesday this week.

The Colombian broke from the peloton with a little less than 50km to go in Mallorca and got a significant lead before being hauled back in. Fortuneo-Vital Concept’s Dan McLay eventually won the sprint.

We love the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX here at road.cc, making the 9.0 model runner-up in our Superbike of the Year 2016-17. 

The Ultimate CF SLX isn’t as aerodynamically efficient as Canyon’s Aeroad, for example, but it does have aero features and it’s certainly very fast. We found the bike to be stable and composed at all speeds with the tiniest of inputs keeping it in line.

It’s lightweight too – the one we reviewed weighed 6.5kg/14.4lb, although Quintana’s has to be at least 6.8kg (14.99lb) to meet UCI regulations. The frame weight is a claimed 780g. Stiffness through the wide press-fit bottom bracket junction is impressive, as it is at the front end.

Changing the standard style seat clamp for an integrated version leaves a significant amount of seatpost exposed, which will then flex under load. What that means from a riding point of view is that you never suffer from any muscle fatigue or soreness from being battered by rough roads.

The fork legs allow a bit of fore and aft movement to control vibrations at the front end, and while the bike still feels direct and stiff, the bangs and crashes don't make it through to your hands or forearms.

Check out our Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 review here.

At 1.66m (5ft 5in) tall, Nairo Quintana rides a small sized bike (he used to ride an XS) with a 546mm stack height (the vertical distance from the centre of the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube) and a 385mm reach (the horizontal distance between those two points).

Movistar uses top-level Super Record groupsets from Campagnolo with EPS electronic shifting. 

Read our Campagnolo Super Record review here. 

The power meter comes from Power2Max. It’s a crank based system.

Ride information is displayed and recorded on a Garmin Edge 1000 computer which sits on a K-Edge mount.

The Canyon H32 handlebar is wrapped in super-tacky tape from Lizard Skins, and the stem isn’t quite slammed – there’s a spacer between it at the top of the headset cover.

Like all other WorldTour riders, Quintana races on a variety of wheels, the depth depending on the terrain and conditions. These are Campagnolo Bora Ultras in a 35mm depth. 

The tyres are Continental Competition ProLtd in a 25mm width. You’ll see these all over the place in the pro peloton. 

Quintana uses Look Kéo Blade pedals. Again, these are very widely used.

The saddle is a Fizik Antares with carbon rails. The Antares is aimed at riders with a middling level of spine flexibility.

Like many of the other components, the Elite Cannibal bottle cage has a Movistar blue/green finish.