Tiffany Cromwell’s all-new Canyon Grail: A gravel bike built for speed

Prior to its release, Canyon’s new Grail was put through its paces by Cromwell at the Gravel World Championships

13:38, Thursday 12th October 2023

Tom Hallam-Gravells

Online Production Editor

Tiffany Cromwell's Canyon Grail for the Gravel World Championships

Tiffany Cromwell
- Team CANYON//SRAM Racing
- Nationality Australia
- Age 35
- UCI Wins 6
- Height 1.66m
Gravel World Championship
- Dates 8 Oct
- Race Length 0 kms
- Start Spresiano
- Finish Pieve di Soligo
- Race Category Elite Men
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.

After months of rumours, Canyon officially launched the latest edition of the Grail on Thursday, although the release didn’t come as too much of a surprise.

The bike had broken cover multiple times throughout 2023 at some of the sport’s largest races and tasted plenty of success, including at the hands of Tiffany Cromwell who triumphed atop it at Unbound 100.

Fast forward to the Gravel World Championships at the beginning of October, just days before the Grail was officially unveiled, and Cromwell was riding the bike once again on route to an impressive top-10 finish in Veneto.

Tiffany Cromwell's Canyon Grail

We got our hands on that World Championships bike and it’s a seriously impressive machine, with a more race-oriented design than ever before.

Read more: All-new Canyon Grail gains in-frame storage and seamless bar integration

Canyon Grail: what’s new?

Remember the two-tiered hoverbar that made the previous Grail so famous? That’s been replaced by the more aerodynamic CP0039 cockpit, a decision that gives a clear indication of what the new bike is all about: winning bike races.

Cromwell used the new CP0039 cockpit which has replaced the hoverbar

While Canyon hasn’t completely revamped the bike, beyond the handlebars, there are lots of smaller adaptations that give it a slight nudge further towards the racing end of the scale. That’s not to say that it has prioritised performance over everything else, far from it. It’s still a pure off-road machine, but it’s now designed to be faster at it.

This is displayed by the other headline feature, the ‘Aero Load System’. This is Canyon’s solution to carrying essentials on the bike, providing new in-frame storage on the head tube plus a frame bag called the ‘LOAD FidLock QuickLoader'. Canyon has essentially made the bike more practical, but in an aerodynamic way.

The new Grail has in-frame storage on the head tube

Considering the clear race-oriented nature of the bike, it’s no surprise then that Canyon-sponsored athletes have been putting the Grail through its paces at the biggest gravel events in the world this year.

Read more: Pro gravel bike - Peter Stetina's Canyon Grail

Gearing for the climbs and flat

While certain riders bucked gravel trends by going 2x, including men’s winner Matej Mohorič, most stuck to a traditional 1x set-up. Cromwell was one of those riders, combining a mix of SRAM Red and Eagle components. The end result was a 48t chainring with, by our count, a 10-52t cassette.

The 48t SRAM Red chainring was paired with a SRAM Eagle cassette

Unlike last year, the second edition of the World Championships posed a much bigger challenge for riders with considerably more climbing and, living up to the name, gravel. A fairly large chainring combined with a wide-range cassette caters to all needs, providing something easy enough for vicious climbs, and more of a power gear for flatter sections.

The 10-52 cassette provides a wide range of gears

As is usual for gravel riding Cromwell used a chain catcher. They’re a fairly common addition for 1x set-ups, theoretically preventing the chain from jumping off - it doesn’t always work out that way, though.

Read more: Did Matej Mohorič win Gravel World Championships on an unreleased Merida bike?

Tyre choice: all-in for speed

Along with the gearing, tyre choice poses the other big conundrum for gravel riders. It’s a race, so being fast is the name of the game, but the terrain complicates things. Selecting the right tyre is about balancing rolling resistance with grip.

Cromwell struck that balance through the Schwalbe G-One RS, a semi-slick tyre with a smooth centre tread and additional grip along the side. By gravel standards, this tyre is on the speed side of the scale.

The Schwalbe G-One RS is built for speed

However, some riders do push things even further by going completely slick, most notably Keegan Swenson who has gambled multiple times this season by using the Maxxis Velocita AR, including at the World Championships.

Read more: Keegan Swenson's Santa Cruz Stigmata - UCI Gravel World Championships bike

Those tyres were teamed up with a wheelset from SRAM’s in-house Zipp brand, namely the 353 NSW. Zipp’s wheels always catch the eye due to their undulating rim profiles and the 353 NSWs are no different, benefitting from an uneven 45mm rim profile that caters to both lightweight and aerodynamic needs.