2018 Pro Bike: Movistar's Canyon Ultimate and Aeroad bikes get a makeover

There aren’t all that many changes to the bikes being raced in this year’s WorldTour professional cycling peloton, but there are a few new paint jobs, the most noticeable being Movistar’s fetching new light blue fade.

- 2018 WorldTour race bikes - The complete list of this year's race bikes

The Spanish pro team is sticking with German direct-sales brand Canyon in 2018, with a choice of Ultimate CF SLX and Aeroad CF SLX bikes. Most of the team, largely made up of climbers and Grand Tour hopefuls, appear to prefer the Ultimate, probably because it’s lighter

Nairo Quintana once told me at a Canyon bike launch that he wasn’t overly concerned about aerodynamics because he is sheltered by his team and the peloton a lot of the time.

The Canyon frames are once again decked out with Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupsets and matching Bora carbon fibre tubular wheels. Movistar is one of the few teams using the Italian company’s groupsets and wheels in a peloton largely dominated by Shimano.

There's no sign of the team using disc brakes yet, despite Canyon now offering a full range of disc-equipped Ultimate and Aeroad race bikes. Movistar would likely be one of the last teams to adopt disc brakes in my opinion, but I could be wrong. 

- Review: Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Disc 8.0 Di2

The biggest shakeup to the team bikes is the new paint job. A light blue to dark blue fade replaces last year’s navy and green paint job, with contrasting white Canyon logos and white stripe along the top tube. The bar tape has been well matched to the light blue and the team is using white Fizik saddles, but are we down with mismatched tape and saddle colours? What do the rules say?

The team is mostly using Canyon’s own one-piece carbon fibre handlebar and stem, but a few of the team bikes are fitted with conventional handlebars and stems, also supplied by Canyon.

Power meters are a common sight on professional race bikes these days, and Campagnolo doesn’t make its own (will it join the power meter ranks soon?) so the team using Power2Max meters from the German company that has enjoyed an elevated profile in recent years.

Garmin Edge computers are used to track the data supplied by the power meter.

Finally, Fizik supply the saddles, Continental the tyres and Elite the water bottles and cages.

- Your complete guide to Canyon’s 2017 road bikes

Photo © BettiniPhoto.net & Movistar Team