Movistar pro bike: Iván García Cortina’s Canyon Aeroad CFR

For the first time since 2018, Movistar’s Iván García Cortina made his season debut away from native Spanish shores. Joining a stacked field, the Spanish rider and his Canyon Aeroad bike kickstarted their 2024 season in Adelaide, Australia, at the Santos Tour Down Under.

It proved to be a quiet entry into the new season for the Movistar man whose thirteenth-place finishes on stages 1 and 3 were as good as it got. The 28-year-old will be hoping to build on those foundations over the coming months and add to his three career victories, and he’ll be aiming to do it atop Canyon’s aero road bike, the Aeroad. Here’s a closer look at the bike.

• Read more: Tour Down Under tech gallery: New bikes, shoes and custom components

Canyon Aeroad: 2023 success

The Canyon Aeroad will be a familiar bike to many, especially after its exploits in 2023. It was ridden to two Monument victories by Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), with victory at Milan-San Remo followed by a Paris-Roubaix triumph. More success followed at the Tour de France where the bike claimed four victories, making it one of the stars of the season.

• Read more: Best men's WorldTour bikes of 2023: Which brand won the most races?

The Aeroad in question was released at the end of 2020, over three years ago, which is a relatively long time in terms of release cycles. That means that a new version shouldn’t be too far into the future and we may already have caught a glimpse of some of the updates in 2023 when Van der Poel rode a version that sported one subtle change: the seatpost clamp was moved from the seat tube to the top tube. It’s a practical more than a performance change, but a change nonetheless.

© GCN

The Canyon Aeroad has deep tube profiles

Cortina’s bike was the original 2020 version and it’s a pure aero bike in every sense of the word: think deep tubes, chunky stays and an aggressive geometry. Its design was developed in collaboration with aerodynamic experts Swiss Side which is becoming a more familiar name in the peloton, having hopped aboard the newly-named Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale as wheel sponsors.

© GCN

The Canyon Aerocockpit

The updated bike came with some notable new features, including the CP0018 Aerocockpit which is present on Cortina’s bike, providing an aero boost while also creating a sleek, integrated look.

Movistar and SRAM partnership continues

Movistar are one of the rare outliers in the WorldTour peloton who don’t use Shimano groupsets. Instead, the Spanish team have been partnered with SRAM since the beginning of 2021 when they waved goodbye to Campagnolo after 37 years of working together. That was good news for SRAM but bad for Campagnolo which has endured a decline in recent years and is now absent from WorldTour level.

• Read more: 2024 Men's WorldTour bikes: A guide to the bikes, groupsets, and tech of the top-tier teams

SRAM is also relatively rare, only used by four times compared to Shimano which dominates the peloton, having teamed up with 14 teams.

© GCN

SRAM groupsets are used by four WorldTour teams

As is to be expected, Movistar uses SRAM’s top-tier Red AXS groupset with in-built Quarq power meters. Cortina had a 54/41t set-up ahead of the second stage when we encountered the bike, paired with what we believe is a 10-33t cassette. That’s on-trend at the minute and provided ample gearing on what proved to be a relatively tricky stage, although most of the sprinters were still in the mix by the end of the day.

New Time pedals for Movistar

While most of the bike hasn’t changed too much from 2023, the team have switched from Look to Time pedals, in this case, the XPRO. That move doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering that Time was acquired by SRAM in 2021, the same year that the American brand teamed up with Movistar for the first time.

© GCN

Movistar have moved to Time pedals

The SRAM theme continued throughout the rest of the bike, starting with Zipp - which the American brand owns - 454 NSW wheels. One of the more distinctive wheels in the peloton, the wheelset features the ‘Sawtooth’ profile with its undulating rim depth that peaks around the spoke nipples. All of this helps to make it the brand’s “most aerodynamic and stable wheel”, according to Zipp.

© GCN

Zipp's wheels feature undulating rim profiles

Continental’s Grand Prix 5000 S TR tyres joined the wheels, in a 28mm width.

© GCN

Continental's Grand Prix 5000 tyres are a popular choice in the pro peloton

Canyon’s on-brand components completed the build, including the Aerocockpit and the SP0079 Aero Seatpost.

Bike Specification