Last Friday, Mathieu van der Poel won the E3 Saxo Classic onboard an unreleased Canyon Endurace CFR.
The fact that van der Poel won is hardly a surprise – this was his third successive victory at the one-day race – but the fact he did it on an endurance bike is more shocking.
The Dutchman has become synonymous with the Canyon Aeroad, using it for every race and every stage, regardless of the terrain, begging the question of why he's switched to the Endurace.
We spotted the Endurace out in the wild just last week, and Van der Poel using the bike could just be a marketing stunt hatched by Canyon that paid off spectacularly. But it also signals a shift in endurance bike design, which is a more intriguing story.
The racy endurance bike
Despite being an endurance bike, van der Poel’s Endurace carried all the hallmarks of a race-bike setup.
And remember, this is a CFR (Canyon Factory Racing)-branded bike, with a suitably aggressive-looking layout.
Thinking you’ve seen this kind of thing before? You have. The second-generation Trek Domane launched 10 years ago, and was available in two geometries – a standard ‘H3’ endurance layout, and a H1/H2 fit, which was designed to be a more aggressive geometry without quite encroaching on the Madone’s territory.
The racier layout was refined into the H1.5 geometry for subsequent generations, and remains available today on the Domane RSL frameset alongside the standard Domane SLR (and SL).
Of course, it’s also possible that every new Endurace will get this layout, more similar to the original Specialized Roubaix, a race bike originally developed for the demands of the cobbles at Paris–Roubaix.
But I think this is unlikely, given the Endurace’s established position in Canyon’s bike hierarchy, and the emerging trend away from overly aggressive, long-and-low fits.
Less aggressive, more aero
As Simon von Bromley noted when he analysed the photos of Florian Sénéchal’s bike taken by contributor Daniel Benson at the Tour of Bruges, the new Endurace CFR looks very much like the Aeroad race bike.
It’s likely that the upcoming Endurace is following a similar path to the Trek Domane, which manages to accommodate the extreme fit requirements of pro athletes but still lends itself to longer days in the saddle and the roughhouse nature of the cobbled classics.
Sénéchal was running a 10mm spacer under his new swept one-piece cockpit, but the head tube didn’t look especially short, while the space left behind the front tyre’s trailing edge suggests the front wheel might be pushed a little more forwards than on the Aeroad.
If it does have a slacker head tube angle, that will make the steering less reactive, which is ideal for the hectic nature of a cobbled classic, and for tired endurance riders.
Remember, bikes such as the Factor One are already on the scene, with claims that a taller front end is faster because the rider can hold a more aerodynamic position. This means any loss from the increased head tube surface area is more than compensated by the optimised rider position.
Plus, the frame appears to benefit from a narrower seat tube profile than the Aeroad, which would improve comfort, alongside clearance for wide road tyres.
Factor in the potential energy savings from a slightly more comfortable ride position, and it’s a modern recipe for real-world speed.
What about the Endurace CF SLX and SL?
No doubt, the Endurace CFR will come with a hefty price tag, and it’s more likely that you and I will be able to afford the second- or third-tier bikes. So what might we see here?
If my theory holds true, I suspect the CF SLX and SL-grade bikes may come with an even more relaxed geometry, similar to the current-generation Endurace.
It’s also possible that Canyon will offer the SLX in a more relaxed layout, but with the aerodynamic tube profiles seen on the unreleased CFR, and then keep the SL with its current frame design.
That said, in previous generations, the geometry has been the same across all models of the Endurace, and it would be a shame if Canyon decided to reserve the aero gains for those with deeper pockets. After all, that appears to be the point of the new Endurace – it’s a race bike, but one all of us could ride, and perhaps should.
