Pro bike: Fernando Gaviria’s Canyon Aeroad CFR

Gaviria looks to be the latest rider to be using SRAM’s Red groupset in a one-by configuration

10:14, Sunday 25th February 2024

Alex Hunt

Junior Tech Writer

Movistar Team
- Nationality Spain
- Founded 1980
- Team Principal Eusebio Unzué
- UCI Code MOV
- Bike Sponsor Canyon
Fernando Gaviria
- Team Movistar Team
- Nationality Colombia
- Age 29
- UCI Wins 53
- Height 1.8m
Canyon
Canyon Bicycles GmbH is a German manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, triathlon bikes and e-bikes based in Koblenz, Germany.

At the 2024 UAE Tour this week Movistar's Fernando Gaviria lined up on his Canyon Aeroad CFR.

The Aeroad is one of two bikes at the disposal of Movistar for road stages, with the other being the more lightweight-focused Ultimate. Having propelled Mathieu van der Poel to World Championships victory, along with plenty of other pro victories, the Aeroad is one of the most successful bikes in the peloton.

Aeroad by name aero by nature

The Canyon Aeroad CFR is designed with the intention of being as fast through the air as possible, and making the use of computational fluid dynamic development the brand was able to make the latest generation Aeroad significantly faster than its predecessor.

The rear triangle of the Aeroad frameset is decidedly chunky in an attempt to squeeze every aero advantage from the frame

Upon release of the current Aeroad Canyon said: “It’s up to 7.4 watts faster. Up to 170g lighter. Up to 14% stiffer. And all that with absolutely no drawbacks when it comes to the bike’s celebrated levels of comfort.”

Read more: Why do these Canyon Aeroad bikes feel so different?

It is hard to argue with that last part with the Aeroad the most successful bike in the Spring Classics last year, where racing often takes riders onto the infamous pave of northern Europe.

One-by continues to grow in popularity

Gaviria is best known for his sprinting ability and with the parcours of stage 4 of the UAE Tour containing very little in the way of climbing, he opted to run a single chainring configuration. Although seen last year predominantly by Jumbo-Visa (now Visma-Lease a bike) SRAM sponsored teams across the board look to be adopting this setup for flatter races.

With no climbing on the cards Gaviria had a single 54-tooth chainring paired to an 10-28 cassette

One-by set-ups can have the advantage of being both lighter and more aerodynamic than traditional double-chainring configurations. It also allows for a small chain guide to be fitted where the front derailleur would typically sit. In a race where an inner ring is redundant, adding some additional chain security is no bad thing in the chaos of a sprint finish.

Read more: How to convert a road bike to a 1x set-up

Ahead of stage 4 at this year's UAE tour, Gaviria had opted to run a 54-tooth chainring paired to a now considered close ratio 10-28 tooth 12-speed cassette.

All-rounder rims over pure aero

With a course susceptible to crosswinds it makes sense that Gaviria opted to run Zipp’s mid-depth all-rounder 454 NSW wheels rather than the deeper 858 NSW. The 454 NSW wheels feature the wave-like profile that both Zipp and Princeton Carbon Works have been using for some years now. The profile is aimed at increasing stability in crosswinds which helps with smoothing the detachment of air on the trailing edge of the wheel.

With potential cross winds in the open terrain of the UAE Tour Gaviria is using the mid-depth Zipp 454 NSW over the 858 NSW

The 454 has a rim depth of between 53 and 58mm making it a strong choice for potentially windy conditions blending the aerodynamic advantage that deep section rims provide with the stability of a shallower wheel. Mounted to the rims are a set of 28mm Continental GP5000S TR tyres set up tubeless.

Read more: The huge problem with modern tyres and wheels

Finishing Kit

As a SRAM-sponsored team, Movistar are using Time Pedals for 2024 with the company coming under SRAM's extensive umbrella in 2021. When we got our hands on Gaviria's bike he had a set of the Tim X-Pro 10 pedals fitted which are interestingly the third model down in the range after the X-Pro 15 and 12.

Gaviria has some choice words of encouragement adorning his one-piece cockpit

The cockpit is Canyon’s CP0018 integrated one-piece bar and stem finished with Lizard Skins DSP tacky bar tape. In the middle of the cock pit is a note written in Spanish that read: ‘No Anticipare te enculo’ which translates to some rather colourful language. This is presumably some 'motivational' words to get him in the zone before the melee of a bunch sprint begins.