Pro bike check: Mathieu van der Poel's custom Canyon Aeroad

The Elite Vico oil slick bottle cages blend in nicely with the rainbow theme of the bike.

Reigning road race world champion Mathieu van der Poel has been enjoying his time in the rainbow bands already this year with a historical Classics campaign. Since he drew a close to his spring campaign at Liège-Bastogne-Liège where he finished on the podium, Van der Poel did not race again until lining up in Florence at the start of the Tour de France. 

On his way to claiming victory at E3 Saxo Classic, Ronde Van Vlaanderen, and Paris-Roubaix, Van der Poel rode a very simple white Canyon Aeroad with only small and modest hints of his world champion status. 

For the biggest race in cycling Van der Poel’s Aeroad, although still subtle in comparison to the previous world champion colourways, is now a little bolder with rainbow stripes adorning the down tube, fork and seat tube. 

It's not just the paint job that is new, Van der Poel is also riding a currently unreleased Canyon Aeroad that was first spotted at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Although at first glance the new frameset looks to share a near-identical silhouette to the current Aeroad there are some clear changes to further optimise the bike to be as slippery through the wind as possible. 

The understated paint scheme uses the same glossy white undercoat that Van der Poel has been riding throughout this season, but going for a paint splatter effect leaves the white undercoat space to peek through, which helps to makes for a more understated look.

The new bike looks to be a refresh to the existing platform rather than a redesign with a series of small tweaks updating the bike's aerodynamic credentials.

Behind the seat tube, a new smoother junction joins both seat stays together before they find their way to the seat tube.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

When we got our hands on Van der Poel's bike it was ahead of the punchy opening stages in Italy. As a result, the standard pro 54/40 crankset was paired to an 11-34 cassette.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

A detail that is all too easy to miss is located on the underside of the top tube that lists the stats on the Glasgow World Championship road race course, including how long his race-winning attack was.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

Van der Poel's riding position is about as aggressive as it can be with the Canyon Pro Base integrated cockpit slammed as low as it will go with the bars looking to have a negative rise to drop the bars even lower.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

Although the Pro Base cockpit was labelled as 120mm in length with our trusty tape measure it measured closer to 130mm. (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

Van der Poel clearly cares for comfort on the bike with his bars measuring 42cm end to end. By modern standards, this is fairly wide but it doesn’t seem to be holding the World Champion back.  (Image credit: Future)

One of the features of the Aeroad's integrated cockpit is the ability to adjust the bar's width. This is done on the underside of the bar with two bolts on each side locking the bar into place at one of the pre-determined widths.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

As a Shimano-sponsored team, Alpecin-Deceuninck is rolling on the Japanese brand’s Dura-Ace wheels with Van der Poel opting to use the mid-depth C50 rather than the deeper C60.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

It is not just the frameset that has received the rainbow makeover. Van der Poel’s Selle Italia Flite Boost Kit Carbonio Superflow saddle also sports a rainbow motif and his initials on the back left portion.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

To blend in with the rainbow design Van der Poel has some oil-slick Elite Carbon Vico bottle cages.   (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

Shimano takes care of measuring Van der Poel’s explosive attacks with the Dura-Ace crankset featuring the brand's dual-sided power meter.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)

The fork shows the details of the rainbow design with the blue and red bands hidden by the transponder sleeve. Also notably the dropout of the new fork is completely smooth from the outside.  (Image credit: Josh Croxton)