Pro bike: Kaden Groves’ Canyon Aeroad CFR

The Australian has enjoyed plenty of success in the past atop Canyon’s aero bike, including four Grand Tour stage victories in 2023

04:29, Friday 26th April 2024

Tom Hallam-Gravells

Online Production Editor

Kaden Groves' Canyon Aeroad CFR at the UAE Tour

Alpecin-Deceuninck
- Nationality Belgium
- Founded 2009
- Team Principal Christoph Roodhooft and Philip Roodhooft
- UCI Code ADC
- Bike Sponsor Canyon
Kaden Groves
- Team Alpecin-Deceuninck
- Nationality Australia
- Age 25
- UCI Wins 22
- Height 1.76m
Canyon
Canyon Bicycles GmbH is a German manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, triathlon bikes and e-bikes based in Koblenz, Germany.
Shimano
Shimano is a bike component manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. The company is one of the industry’s most popular manufacturers and it makes up around three-quarters of the bicycle component market by value.
Sella Italia
Selle Italia is a saddle manufacturer based in Asolo, Italy. The company prides itself in being one of the market leaders for high-end saddles across the world.
Vittoria
Vittoria is an Italian bicycle tyre manufacturer. The company produces over seven million tyres yearly for a wide range of cyclists, from road racers and commuters to BMX riders and mountain bikers.

Victories have proven to be elusive so far in 2024 for Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who is yet to find the winning touch this season.

The Australian will be hoping to set that record straight in the coming months and return to the 2023 form that saw him rocket to four Grand Tour stage wins, including a sole triumph at the Giro d’Italia and three victories at the Vuelta a España.

Each of those results were taken aboard the Canyon Aeroad CFR, a bike that Groves is teaming up with once again this season. We caught a glimpse of the bike earlier in the year while Groves was making his season debut at the UAE Tour.

Canyon Aeroad CFR: New look but same performance

While Alpecin-Deceuninck’s new denim-inspired kit choice garnered plenty of attention when it was unveiled, the new design for the team’s bikes went a little under the radar.

The colour changes depending on which angle you look at it from

That isn’t too surprising as it’s very similar to the design used last season barring, in a case of ‘if it isn’t broken don’t try to fix it’, some slight tweaks. The most obvious is a move to a slightly different and more shiny shade of purple, which is now used across the entirety of the bike. It’s a simple but eye-catching design, although the special paint will catch the eye in different ways as the colour changes depending on the angle you look at it from.

Of course, looks won’t be enough to propel Groves to wins and for that he can rely on the machine under the paint, which happens to be one of the most successful bikes in the WorldTour peloton. This season alone, the Canyon Aeroad has already won three of the four Monuments. Jasper Philipsen kicked things off with a win at Milan-San Remo, before Mathieu van der Poel backed that up at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

The Canyon Aeroad's deep down tube

Even without knowing its all-conquering background, the bike looks like it oozes speed. It’s an aero bike in the most obvious sense, with deep tubes, an aero cockpit and a chunky seatpost.

Groves’ Grand Tour set-up

A 54/40t Shimano Dura-Ace chainset

For the UAE Tour, Groves set his bike up with a 54/40t Shimano Dura-Ace chainset, paired with an 11-34t cassette. We spotted him using the exact same gearing options at the 2023 Vuelta a España, where he won three stages. It’s clearly his preferred set-up and one that provides a good balance thanks to the wide-range cassette that most pros are now taking advantage of.

The chainset was completed with 172.5mm cranks and an in-built Shimano Dura-Ace power meter.

28mm tyres rule the pro peloton

The days of narrower tyres are now long gone and it’s hard to find many bikes in the pro peloton that aren’t specced with 28mm-wide options - barring Specialized-sponsored teams.

Groves’ bike didn’t buck this trend courtesy of its 28mm-wide Vittoria Corsa Pro TLRs, which also happen to be one of the most popular tyres in the peloton too.

28mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, set up tubeless

28mm-wide Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, set up tubeless

These were equipped on Shimano’s Dura-Ace C60 wheels, with their 60mm depths. They’re on the deeper end of the scale but tip the scales, for a pair, at around 1500g. It’s not the lightest wheelset in the peloton but is still light for aero hoops.

Canyon turns in-house

Canyon's Aerocockpit was released alongside the latest version of the Aeroad in 2020

The bike was completed with Canyon’s in-house components, including the CP0018 Aerocockpit. This was released alongside the latest generation of the Aeroad in 2020 and conforms to many of the norms you may expect, such as full integration. However, it is designed for ease of use too and allows a rider to adjust the width by up to 40mm through its detachable ‘cockpit wings’.

The Selle Italia Novus saddle features a cut-out

At the rear of the bike, Canyon’s Aero Seatpost has a chunky profile that is in keeping with the rest of the bike. It was home to Groves’ saddle of choice, the Selle Italia Novus Pro Team.