Video: Movistar's Canyon time trial bikes ready for Giro d'Italia team time trial

Today marks the star of the Giro d'Italia, with a 21.7km team time trial around the streets of Belfast. That means the dedicated time trial bikes will be on display, and GCN have taken a closer look at the Canyon Speedmax CF that Movistar will be riding.

There is a huge amount of technology in time trial bikes. These are bikes designed with the sole purpose of going as quickly as possible, and Canyon reckon that the Speedmax is among the most aero in the peloton. For the riders and the mechanics there are some important decisions to make, such as gearing, wheel choice and handlebar position, and this video gives a few indications of what's on offer.

"We have special chainrings depending on the rider, from 54 to 56t, some teams are using bigger, but I think 56t is enough," says Andreas Walzer from Canyon Bikes. "The other thing is the wheelset, a normal disc on the back and on the front a different height rim, depending on the rider," he adds.

Canyon's Speedmax, first introduced just a couple of years ago, makes extensive use of what Canyon call Trident tube profiles. The tubes have curved leading edges and angular, chopped off tails – which sounds similar to Trek’s KVF design but it’s actually a quite different shape.

Integration is vital to increasing the aero performance, and the Speedmax is incredibly neatly packaged, with almost no exposed cables and hidden brake calipers - inside the fork and behind the bottom bracket. A key element of the Speedmax is the fork/handlebar/stem design. The fork features a strut in front of the head tube, the stem section fits on top and then flows into an aero-profile base bar.