Pro bike: Emma Norsgaard’s Canyon Aeroad CFR

We caught a glimpse at Canyon's aero road bike at the recent Women's UAE Tour

06:42, Saturday 2nd March 2024

Tom Hallam-Gravells

Online Production Editor

The Canyon Aeroad

Movistar Team
- Nationality Spain
- Founded 2018
- Team Principal Sebastián Unzué
- UCI Code MOV
- Bike Sponsor Canyon
Emma Norsgaard
- Team Movistar Team
- Nationality Denmark
- Age 24
- UCI Wins 14
- Height 1.72m
Canyon
Canyon Bicycles GmbH is a German manufacturer of road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, triathlon bikes and e-bikes based in Koblenz, Germany.
SRAM
SRAM is a components manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. The company mainly produces drivetrains, for a wide variety of disciplines, alongside many other components. SRAM’s has acquired other brands within the industry such as Zipp, RockShox and Quarq.
Zipp
Zipp is a cycling component company owned by American manufacturer SRAM. Zipp specialises in carbon fibre wheels as well as producing a number of other components with the sole mission of making cyclists faster.
Continental
German brand Continental is one of the world’s leading tyre manufacturers and has been creating bicycle tyres since its inception in 1871.

Emma Norsgaard has been riding Canyon bikes for over three years now, since joining Movistar in 2021. It’s proved to be a successful partnership to date, returning eight pro victories, including a stage win at the 2023 Tour de France Femmes, plus a hat-trick of Danish time trial titles.

Most of those victories were taken atop Canyon’s Aeroad. A pure aero machine, we got our hands on the bike at the recent Women’s UAE Tour. Here’s what we found.

Read more: 2024 Women’s WorldTour bikes, wheels and groupsets: A complete guide

A seasoned race winner

The Aeroad CFR is Canyon's aero road bike

Released in 2020, the current Canyon Aeroad is now a seasoned veteran and one of the older bikes in the pro peloton. Age is but a number, though, and the Aeroad continues to deliver results at WorldTour level. It most notably assisted Norsgaard’s former teammate Annemiek van Vleuten in 2023 as the Dutchwoman won two of the three Grand Tours in her final year as a pro. La Vuelta Femenina was the first race to be tamed, before the Giro d’Italia Donne followed.

Van Vleuten came up short of a hat-trick at the Tour de France Femmes, denied by Demi Vollering of SD Worx, but Norsgaard still ensured that it was a successful race for the team by winning stage 6 of the race. That victory came atop the Canyon Aeroad and the bike hasn’t changed much since then.

Movistar's colourway has only undergone minor alterations

When we say much, we mean basically not at all. Even the team’s livery is basically the same, barring very minor colour changes to the seat tube - which now has a line of grey - and the seat stays.

Read more: Enric Mas’ Vuelta a España climbing bike: Canyon Ultimate

Canyon’s own-brand components

When the latest Canyon Aeroad was released, it came with the expected revisions to the frame, but also new finishing components.

Canyon's aero cockpit

Up front this included the CP0018 Aerocockpit. As can be seen on Norsgaards’ bike, and is to be expected by the name, it cuts a traditional aero silhouette. It’s also a one-piece bar and stem with no cables in sight, something that you’d think is a given for an aero road bike, but we’ve seen pros using two-piece systems over on the men’s side of the peloton this season, including Quinn Simmons.

The seatpost was home to Norsgaard's transponder

Sticking to the aero theme, the SP0079 Aero is a meaty seatpost and was home to Norsgaard’s transponder.

SRAM Red

2023 proved to be a memorable year for SRAM. The aforementioned victories from Van Vleuten delivered two Grand Tours for the American brand, before Vollering completed the job for SD Worx at the Tour de France Femmes, another SRAM-sponsored team. A SRAM clean sweep was also replicated on the men’s side of things by Jumbo-Visma.

SRAM enjoyed lots of success in the Women's WorldTour peloton in 2023

The loss of Van Vleuten probably won’t worry SRAM too much, considering the current strength of SD Worx who are sure to deliver plenty of victories in 2024. Movistar will want to contribute plenty to that win tally too, as will Norsgaard, who was using the a 52/39t set-up on her SRAM Red groupset at the Women’s UAE Tour.

That was paired with what appears to be a 10-34t cassette, providing plenty of gearing.

Read more: Complete guide to road bike groupsets 2024

More SRAM in the guise of Zipp

SRAM-owned brands contributed more of the components in the form of the Zipp 353 NSW wheels. Zipp’s wheels are almost instantly recognisable thanks to their undulating rim profiles.