Canyon has teased what appears to be a new Aeroad ahead of the Tour de France.
Team Movistar riders have been spotted at the Critérium du Dauphiné – a key pre-Tour stage race, prestigious in its own right but often used as a ‘warm up’ – riding a slightly different Aeroad design, with two key changes.
The integrated front-end has a tell-tale giveaway in the form of Canyon’s ‘Gear Groove’.
This feature was first introduced on the new Canyon Grail gravel race bike, where an out-front mount, light or aero extensions can be attached to the handlebar via a dedicated mounting point.
While the new Aeroad’s bar features the Gear Groove, it doesn’t appear to use the same flared design at the drops as Canyon’s current gravel cockpit.
What the new bar does appear to retain from the existing Aeroad, however, is the width adjustment – which, on Canyon’s current bars, allows the rider to tune their fit by 40mm.
The integrated bar also seemingly continues to offer stem height adjustment without the need to cut the steerer tube.
Canyon introduced its system, which bears a fair resemblance to a quill stem, with the 2020 Aeroad. Given the new bar spotted in France does not feature stem bolts, we would assume that the system is still in use.
Other changes are a little more subtle and can be easily missed in the bike’s relatively unchanged silhouette.
The back of the bike sees the seatstays join the seat tube without a gap between them.
This small change is likely to have been made in pursuit of a tiny aerodynamic saving, so it will be interesting to hear from Canyon about its influence on drag.
Another small change can be found at the base of the head tube. Here, there appears to be a more angular junction behind the fork crown.
But once again, we will have to wait for the official release to know more.
Like the new Pinarello Dogma, also spotted by BikeRadar at the Critérium du Dauphiné, we'd expect the new Aeroad to be officially unveiled in the build-up to the Tour de France.
