Canyon’s unreleased Aeroad raced by Movistar at Critérium du Dauphiné

We told you earlier in the week that F1 driver Valtteri Bottas had been seen riding an unreleased Canyon Aeroad CFR aero road bike, and now it looks like the updated model is being raced by Movistar at the Critérium du Dauphiné in France. 

As the name suggests, the Aeroad is Canyon’s aero road bike, and it sits alongside the lightweight Ultimate at the top of the range. The existing version of the Aeroad was launched in October 2020, although it suffered a couple of early issues with the cockpit and seatpost. It was all a bit of a palaver for a while back there, but the issues were eventually resolved.

> Is F1 driver Valtteri Bottas riding an unreleased Canyon Aeroad? 

For the 2020 launch, Canyon claimed improved aerodynamics (of course), reduced weight (equally predictable), and enhanced comfort (naturally). Canyon gave a size medium frame weight of 915g and a fork weight of 425g. 

> Check out the best aero road bikes in 2024

One feature no one expected was the width-adjustable handlebar/stem that could be folded down for easier travel. The cockpit provided up to 40mm of adjustment with a tube-inside-a-tube design, a little like a seatpost that you move up and down inside a seat tube. It looks like Canyon has moved away from that design with the new Aeroad.

From what we can see, the bike is now fitted with a new handlebar/stem that’s similar to the cockpit found on the latest Canyon Grail in some respects. Although it’s a different shape and doesn’t have the same flare to the drops as Canyon's existing CP0039 or CP0047 (which each come with 16° of flare), it does have a similar ‘Gear Groove’, which is that section you can see at the front of the stem area. The idea of the Gear Groove is that it allows you to mount various Canyon accessories, such as lights and, as you can see here, a computer mount.

Other changes to the new bike look to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, although it does have enclosed dropouts on the drive side, pictured below, as does the updated Pinarello Dogma F that's being raced by Ineos Grenadiers.

In silhouette, it doesn’t look a million miles from the existing Aeroad, but when we get a view from the back, you can see that the seatstays join together just above the top of the wheel/tyre. There’s no gap in the area behind the seat tube now. We presume this is for aerodynamic reasons – this is the Aeroad, after all – but Canyon has yet to give any details.

We also reckon that the seatpost on the new model looks slimmer than the one on the existing Aeroad. Maybe!

Canyon told us over a year ago that it had slightly changed the Aeroad’s frame shape around the junction between the top tube and the seat tube. Rather than a sharp corner on the inside of that junction, the frame was made to slope more to reflect a new position for the seat post wedge bolt, Canyon having moved it to the front side of the seat post. It looks like it has stuck with this system here.

> Check out the unreleased Canyon Aeroad Mathieu van der Poel rode to Paris-Roubaix victory 

Canyon worked on the previous version of the Aeroad CFR with aero experts Swiss Side and we expect that to have been the case with this latest update, although that has yet to be confirmed.

Stay tuned to road.cc and we’ll give you more info as soon as we get it. When will that be? We're confident the official launch will be sometime before the start of the 2024 Tour de France on 29th June.

www.canyon.com