Yesterday, a part of the bars on Mathieu van der Poel's Canyon Aeroad appeared to break off... of course the Dutchman carried on and helped his teammate Tim Merlier to victory at Le Samyn anyway, but understandably it raised plenty of concerns about the safety of the bike Van der Poel was riding.
Canyon has now said all pros will ride the previous Aeroad or the current Canyon Ultimate until the problem is resolved, and all customers who have bought the Aeroad CF SLX and CFR models will be issued a 'stop riding' notice.
The statement begins: "On Tuesday 2 March, at one of the opening classic races "Le Samyn", a part of the handlebar of our Alpecin-Fenix pro Mathieu van der Poel (NED) quite obviously broke off during the race.
“Experts from the Canyon development and quality management departments immediately began analysis and testing to understand the cause of this incident. The affected cockpits (CP0018 and CP0015) only installed on the current Aeroad models CF SLX and CFR. The Aeroad CF SL model is not in any way affected by this issue.
Canyon's founder Roman Arnold said: "Mathieu fortunately did not fall. We want to ensure with absolute certainty that no one comes to harm before we fully understand the root cause.
Canyon's CEO added: "We are doing everything we can to equip affected Aeroad models as quickly as possible with a cockpit that meets both our and our customers’ demands for total quality and safety.”
The statement ends: "It has already been decided that all professional teams will switch to alternative bikes with immediate effect. Until further notice, the pro sport athletes will be using the previous model of Aeroad or the current Ultimate."
More on this tomorrow.