2015 WorldTour bikes: Movistar’s Canyon Aeroad CF SLX

Canyon continues to sponsor Spanish professional cycling team Movistar for the 2015 season, a partnership which began last year. Canyon also sponsor the Katusha team, making them one of just two brands that sponsor more than one squad in the professional peloton.

It’s a partnership that has proved successful. In 2014 Movistar’s Nairo Quintana won the Giro d’Italia aboard the Canyon Ultimate, and had a special pink bike painted to mark his victory. While the Ultimate will be the main choice for the majority of stages and races, we expect to see the new Aeroad CF SLX being used a lot more than the previous version of the company’s aero bike.

The new Aeroad first broke cover at the Tour de France last year with the Katusha squad. I got to swing a leg over one of the first production models at the end of last year, and found it to provide “breathtaking speed with sweet handling.” You can read the full review here. 

Now the Movistar team are riding it, this bike was photographed at the recent Tour Down Under. The team are one of the few sponsored by Campagnolo, so it’s a full Super Record EPS groupset paired with Bora Ultra deep section carbon fibre wheels. Tyres are supplied by Continental and saddles from Fizik.

Every team uses a power meter, but gone are the days when most teams used an SRM. This year Movistar are using a Power2Max power meter, which is very similar to the SRM in that it replaces the chainset spider.

This bike was photographed with Canyon’s new one-piece aero handlebar and stem. Aerodynamics are increasingly informing the design of most bicycle components, and there has been a noticeable rise in the availability of aero bars in recent years. Along with this new Canyon bar,. Cervelo, Specialized and Vision all have new aero handlebars out at this year.

With no change of title sponsors for the team, the bikes are painted in the same blue and green colour scheme, but with a slight variation on the application of the green decals.

Photos reproduced with kind permission of Campagnolo.

View some more 2015 WorldTour bikes here.