MATHIEU VAN DER POEL COMMITS HIS CYCLING FUTURE TO CANYON WITH UNPRECEDENTED 10-YEAR AGREEMENT 

This partnership agreement gives World Road Cycling Champion Van der Poel longest-known contract in modern-day cycling   

Canyon Bicycles ("Canyon”), one of the world's-leading bicycle brands, today signed a historic deal with Mathieu van der Poel, one of the world's best-ever riders, thereby confirming the long-term future between the Dutch athlete and his bike brand of choice.   

Mathieu came to Canyon’s headquarters in Koblenz, Germany today (Monday 18 March) to sign the contract. 

Canyon can expect the current Road and Cyclocross World Champion to take its bikes to the top of the podium for many years to come. He has a phenomenal track record on Canyon bikes, with 163 victories in Road, Cyclocross and Mountain Biking since late 2017, when his partnership with Canyon started.  

Canyon is doubling down on its partnership with this contract of unprecedented length for a cyclist in the modern era, to secure Mathieu a place in the pantheon of all-time greats.   

Mathieu’s winning mindset is shared by Canyon Bicycles, that, since its origin in 2002, has been investing in athletes and performance cycling as a way to pioneer technological innovations.  

CEO Nicolas De Ros Wallace: “At the heart of the collaboration is a collective desire to continually push boundaries and elevate performance. Mathieu’s quest for the best is a true inspiration to our engineers and product development teams.”   

Mathieu van der Poel: “Canyon has been an incredible partner. We have developed bikes that have helped me succeed in Classics, World Championships and Grand Tours. But I’m still incredibly hungry for success. There are several milestones on my radar, including the Paris Olympics this summer.”  

Image caption: Mathieu was in Koblenz, Germany on 18 March to sign the deal, meeting with Canyon CEO Nicholas de Ros Wallace, as well as the CEO of reference shareholder GBL, Ian Gallienne, among others.  

Echoing his sentiments at the finish line of 2024 Cyclocross World Championships, Mathieu van der Poel pointed out the shared ethos and trust that lead to race-winning bikes: "In Road, Cyclocross and Mountain biking, Canyon’s R&D teams devote everything to creating bikes to win races, and I'm proud to fuel those product developments. We share the same winning mentality and, with this new contract, we're fully aligned on our ambitions for the next stage of my career." 

Canyon’s commitment to Mathieu van der Poel is a strong sign of the group’s investments in providing the world’s best athletes with the finest possible material to continue to win the highest profile races. Roman Arnold and GBL, as co-owners of the company, are aligned on this long-term view.   

In a separate deal, Canyon extended its terms with Alpecin-Deceuninck, continuing the winning relationship with the team that started in late-2017.   

Alpecin-Deceuninck Team Management Philip and Christoph Roodhooft: "Since we signed with Canyon we have had a long-term vision to create the first-ever multi-disciplinary team, built with the best and most talented riders of their generation. That is only achievable with the support of partners who build world-class high-performance products and share the same hunger for victory. Our new contract with Canyon is a significant milestone in the future development of all the talented riders who join Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck riders." 

Mathieu will next be in action at the Belgian classics E3 and Gent-Wevelgem followed by the Spring monuments, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.   

1. Embargo: 17:00 CET, Monday 18 March 2024

2. Images: High res versions available here.  Please credit either "CANYON-ERTZUI" or "pic by ©kramon/Canyon" as stated in the image file name.

3. Press enquiries:

- CANYON: Contact Ben Hillsdon, Global Communication Manager at Canyon, bhillsdon@canyon.com

- ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK: Contact Nico Dick, Press Officer at Alpecin-Deceuninck, Nico@wt-cm.be

4. About Canyon:

Canyon is one of the most innovative bike brands in the world. The concept began in founder Roman Arnold’s garage and grew to be the world’s largest direct-to-customer manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, triathlon bikes, gravel bikes, hybrid bikes, and electric bikes. Canyon has earned its glowing reputation for innovation through consistently using advanced materials, thinking, and technology. The iconic Canyon design is easy to identify. Alongside being boldly competitive and ever-expanding, Canyon is committed to making the global cycling community accessible for every rider. While Canyon partners with some of the finest athletes on the planet, its mission, ‘Inspire to Ride’, highlights how they work to promote the power of cycling to everyone. Canyon products are exclusively available online at www.canyon.com.

5. About GBL:  

GBL is an established investment holding company, with seventy years of stock exchange listing and a net asset value of €16,7 billion at the end of December 2023. As a leading and active investor in Europe, GBL focuses on long-term value creation with the support of a stable family shareholder base. As a responsible company and investor, GBL perceives ESG factors as being inextricably linked to value creation. 

GBL aims to grow its diversified high-quality portfolio of listed, private and alternative investments. GBL is focused on delivering meaningful growth by providing attractive returns to its shareholders through a combination of growth in its net asset value, a sustainable dividend and share buybacks. GBL is listed on Euronext Brussels (Ticker: GBLB BB; ISIN code: BE0003797140) and is included in the BEL20 index.  

6. About Alpecin-Deceuninck:   

Alpecin-Deceuninck is a UCI World Tour cycling team based in Belgium. Initially founded in 2008, the team began its partnership with Canyon in 2018, switching to its current headline sponsors in time for the 2022 Tour de France. The team exclusively use Canyon bicycles and predominantly compete in Road racing with some team members competing in Cyclocross, Gravel and XC mountain biking.   

7. About Mathieu van der Poel:  

Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel rides for Alpecin-Deceuninck and is the reigning Road and Cyclocross World Champion. He has won four of cycling’s six monuments – the Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold and won two Grand Tour stages, wearing the leader’s jersey in the Tour de France and Giro D’Italia.   

He has won the Cyclocross World Championship title six times, one away from the record seven victories by Erik De Vlaeminck in the 1960s and ‘70s.   

His mountain bike victories include the European XC Championships in 2019 and Dutch National Championships in 2018.  

His victory record aboard Canyon is taken from the ‘number of wins per year’ table (2018*-2024) which can be found here:  List of career achievements by Mathieu van der Poel - Wikipedia   (*plus 2 wins in late-December 2017) 

Mathieu rides a Canyon Aeroad CFR for Road racing, an Canyon Inflite CFR for Cyclocross and a Canyon Lux World Cup during Cross-Country races.