{"id":236391,"date":"2025-07-04T03:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236391\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T03:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T03:28:15","slug":"mathieu-van-der-poel-and-jasper-philipsens-2025-tour-de-france-canyon-aeroad-crfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/236391\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen\u2019s 2025 Tour de France Canyon Aeroad CRFs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen\u2019s bikes were propped against a shed in Northern France. And by god did they look good.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-11 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Both bikes were set up for the expected fast speeds of this year\u2019s largely flat opening stages. Each bike sported a set of Shimano Dura-Ace C60 wheels shod with 30mm Pirelli P Zero Race TLR RS tyres.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-08 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

The team is sponsored by Shimano, so the Dura-Ace theme continues with the pro-standard 54\/40T chainrings and Shimano\u2019s power meter.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-03 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Both riders bucked the trend for shorter cranks with their more traditional 172.5mm sizes.<\/p>\n

Shimano seems to have tightened up on cases where sponsored teams got inventive with non-standard chainrings, but I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see Philipsen use a 56T outer ring on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-05 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Out back, a perfectly clean 11-30T cassette and a tidily waxed chain.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-09 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Van der Poel has long been a fan of a white saddle and he continues to use a Selle Italia Flite Boost Kit Carbino with custom decals on the opposite side. Pairing this with black bar tape troubles me, however.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-07 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Poking their way through Philipsen\u2019s tape, though not a feature of Van der Poel\u2019s setup, was a set of Shimano\u2019s sprinter shifters.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-02 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Both riders opt for Canyon\u2019s most aggressive Aeroad stem option, with this Pro Base providing the lowest position. Helpfully, the brand prints the vitals on the side, so no tape measure is needed to see Van der Poel is using a 120mm stem.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-04 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

The Alpecin mechanics also included a tidy finishing touch with these small number holders bonded onto the seatpost.<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-10 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

I must admit, as I gazed longingly at the gold speckle of Van der Poel\u2019s paint, I thought of how such a design would perfectly match a pair of Oakleys I have. If this isn\u2019t reason to buy a new bike, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n

And soon, armed with just a dream and a lot more money, I might be able to order this very bike.<\/p>\n

The designs, which show off the possibilities of Canyon\u2019s upcoming custom design programme, hint at Alpecin Deceuninck\u2019s yin and yang approach to winning stages.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, at the team\u2019s press conference, both riders outlined their ambitions for the race, with Philipsen\u2019s coming early on stage one.<\/p>\n

\u201cYellow is an objective,\u201d the Belgian sprinter admitted. \u201cThis is probably the first time the yellow is possible for me. When the Tour started in Brussels in 2018, I was still young. This is a real first opportunity for me to take the yellow jersey. There won’t be many in the future, so it’s an important day on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-06 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

The 2024 green jersey winner was, however, pragmatic about the number of opportunities available to the fast men in this year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want to ruin my Tour if I don’t win on Saturday. The Tour lasts 3 weeks and there are lots of opportunities to come, but Saturday is probably the nicest one.”<\/p>\n

\"VanVan der Poel and Philipsen Canyon Aeroad CFR-12 (credit: Liam Cahill)<\/p>\n

Van der Poel, meanwhile, looks set to target punchier, classics-style stages, though he alluded to the Pogacar-sized problem with that ambition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GC contenders who are really good in the Classics race will be up there. They’ll be fighting for position and bonus seconds too, so it will be hard, nervous racing, with a lot of riders who can win a stage like this one.”<\/p>\n

Sunday will reveal whether the Alpecin mechanics will need a special yellow Aeroad frameset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen\u2019s bikes were propped against a shed in Northern France. And by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-236391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114792847450242177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}