Canyon's new aero road bike debuted at the Critérium du Dauphiné in France today.
A picture of the Canyon – believed to be called an Aeroad CF SLX R28 – emerged on the Team Katusha Facebook page Friday with the message: “The brand new Canyon bike for Yurii Trofimov for the rest of the race. Can you find the difference?”
Well, we like a challenge, and though the bike image of Trofimov – who won stage 4 of the race – is grainy, it appears that the primary changes are a new, meatier fork, a flatter top tube, and a seat tube that follows the curve of the wheel. The latter development should give an aerodynamic improvement over the standard Canyon Aeroad CF. Canyon also appear to have developed a flush top tube design with the clamping mechanism completely integrated.
The down tube — and likely parts of the seat tube and post — appear to feature Kamm Tail shaping, something Canyon uses on its latest time trial bike.
The current Aeroad CF at left and the Aeroad SLX at right
The new bike also appears to have direct-mount brakes front and rear, and an integrated cockpit, likely made for Canyon by Ritchey given the shape of the handlebar/stem junction.
While the steerer tube is certainly round, it looks like the stem clamp and headset spacers are elongated in profile.
The rear triangle appears to be redesigned, too, with the seatstays meeting the seat tube much closer to the bottom bracket. If the new bike does use the SLX suffix, it’s likely to be lighter than the standard CF too.
BikeRadar has contacted Canyon for details but is still awaiting a response.
The new Canyon means at least three new road bikes had their race debut at the Dauphiné this year; BikeRadar also profiled the new as-of-yet-unnamed Trek and the new Pinarello Dogma F8.