CANYON CELEBRATES AEROAD CFR’S PARIS-ROUBAIX SUCCESS WITH SPECIAL TENSOR EDITION RIDDEN BY MVDP

• Artwork on new Aeroad CFR Tensor edition shows the stress impact of the Paris-Roubaix cobblestones on frame.

• Following two successive editions of Paris-Roubaix where Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen have finished 1-2 on the podium, Mathieu will be aiming for glory with Aeroad CFR Tensor edition this weekend.

Embargoed until Thursday 10th April, 11:00 CEST: One of the most iconic bikes in the WorldTour pays homage to Paris-Roubaix, as Mathieu van der Poel lines up at the race this Sunday with the Aeroad CFR Tensor. He’ll be attempting to win his third edition in a row.  

The Aeroad CFR is Canyon’s flagship aero race bike, and its 15-year development is intrinsically linked to Paris-Roubaix, the world’s toughest one-day race. The bike includes features directly requested from Mathieu van der Poel with his favourite race in mind: wider tyre clearance for comfort on the cobbles, a strongly reinforced front fork, and a hermetically sealed headset to keep out grime.

Canyon’s CFR engineering team also use Paris-Roubaix as the ultimate reference point for the bike, visiting the race every year to test the frames before and after the race, with their learnings going directly into improving every next iteration of the bike.

The Aeroad’s Design Engineer Lukas Birr: “Roubaix is the pinnacle testing ground for a road bike. Smooth tarmac does not put a lot of stress on the bike, but the short distance between these really rough, high cobbles creates a very intense ‘excitement’ frequency. These big impacts go through the frame one after the other, shaking the bike violently and putting stress through it. This means that things could loosen up over the duration of the race: headset play, clamp connections, and so on. If a bike withstands all of this, it withstands every other use case, for sure.”

Away from the race, Birr and his team use specific ‘shaker’ testing tables to replicate the impact of the cobbles, as well as simulations to see which specific parts of the frame receive the most stress, and therefore which need most strengthening through carbon lay-up.

Paris-Roubaix also directly influenced the new front fork on the Aeroad CFR, following the dreadful weather conditions of the 2021 race when the bikes were tested to their absolute limits. At that time the Canyon engineers developed a new fork that could withstand even the worst weather conditions, with a hermetically sealed headset and titanium bearing seat among other extra features. That epitomises Canyon's development philosophy: leave no stone unturned.

The ‘Tensor’

This new special edition of the Aeroad CFR wears the evidence of the rigorous testing that Canyon undertakes on the bike on its frame design.

The bike’s name ‘Tensor’ comes from a simulation plot test used in the measurement of the stress progression; the darker colours on the ‘Tensor’ frame’s paint job showing areas where the greatest impacts occur.

“In order to put the carbon fibres in the right directions when we build new frames, we want to understand what's happening — where the loads are coming from and where the loads are going to. This is how the tensor plotting simulation helps us: the arrows on the simulation show whether part of the frame is in compression, or in tension,” says Canyon Simulation Engineer Phillip Oppermann.

“We have structurally optimised the Aeroad to achieve a carbon lay-up that reaches our stiffness targets, while being strong and robust when racing across the Roubaix cobbles. Even though the Aeroad is an aero bike, we still want it to be as light as possible, therefore we optimised the carbon layup by looking at the ‘tensor plots’ of our simulations to not only pass the tests but make the layup as efficient as possible so we save weight while maintaining stiffness and strength targets.”

Canyon’s attention to detail and care around trialling and testing the Aeroad at Roubaix is reflective of the wider Canyon Factory Racing (CFR) philosophy. CFR is Canyon’s advanced development programme, a relentless push for the next level of ride performance.

By combining meticulous German engineering with a ‘no compromises’ approach to innovation, CFR bikes can win the biggest races in the world, in any discipline – whether on tarmac streets, rough cobbled roads, the banked corners of an iconic velodrome or anywhere in between on road and trail.

As Lukas Birr says: “CFR to me is the mindset of developing the best possible product that we can for the pros to win races. To do so, we have to never be satisfied, and always see room for improvement. It’s about developing extra test rigs, going out and actually riding the bike on the cobbles ourselves, and getting our hands dirty in the process.”

Ride like Mathieu

Mathieu van der Poel will ride the Aeroad CFR Tensor bike at 2025 Paris-Roubaix and, as of Thursday 10th April, this bike is now available to purchase for fans to ride the exact same spec as Mathieu. This is Canyon’s only Aeroad that comes with Shimano Dura-Ace wheels,  exclusive Canyon Pro decals and high-performance Pirelli tires, the same choice used by Team Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Bike details:

• Frame: Aeroad CFR R108

• Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace 2x12-Speed Di2

• Brakes: Shimano Dura-Ace hydraulic disc

• Crankset: Shimano Dura-Ace 52/36

• Powermeter: Shimano Dura Ace

• Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace 11-30

• Wheels: Shimano Dura-Ace C50 R9270

• Tires: Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR RS Team Edition

• Cockpit: CP0048 Pro Decals

• Seatpost: Canyon SP0077 Pro Decals

• Saddle: Selle Italia Flite Boost SF Carbonio MVDP

• Retail Price: € 10,499 

From Thursday 10th April you’ll find the new Aeroad Tensor CFR exclusively on Canyon.com or through the Canyon App, where you can also find bike service information, compatible spare parts and exploded drawings.