The third stage of the Tour de France today is the first opportunity for the race's sprinters to claim victory. It is the third day of the Italian Grand Deépart, and winds its way from the start in Piacenza to Turin, covering 230.8km before the race heads back into France.
Belgian sprint star Jasper Philipsen, already a winner of six stages of the Tour and the green jersey in 2023, will surely be aiming for victory today. His Alpecin-Deceuninck team will be doing all they can to ensure the stage ends in a sprint shootout.
Philipsen's Alpecin team are sponsored by German brand Canyon, and the entire team is aboard an as-yet-unreleased Canyon Aeroad, which was first spotted at the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this summer. Cyclingnews' Associate Editor Josh Croxton is on the ground at the Tour, compiling a bumper Tour de France Grand Départ tech gallery, and amid the chaos of driving from hotel to hotel, he managed to grab Philipsen's bike and take some shots ahead of the race kick-off in Florence on Saturday.
Unlike Lidl-Trek, who played with onlookers by putting both Madone and Emonda stickers on their latest new bike (spoiler: it was the new Madone), the 'Aeroad' model name sticker on the top tube removes any potential doubt of what this new bike is exactly. Although, that much was already evident from the similarities to the existing Aeroad.
This bike appears to have received refinements, rather than a huge overhaul, the headtube area, seatstay - seat tube junction and chainstays appear to have received attention, and it looks like there's a new integrated Canyon handlebar that has a stem with a negative slope, we assume to make the front end of Canyon's aero race bike even faster. This is marked up as the CP0049, different to the CP0015 used by pros with the existing Aeroad, and also different from the already-spotted CP0039 'Gear Groove' handlebar that was launched alongside the Grizl.
If you want to learn more about the bikes every team in the race is using, head to our Tour de France bikes guide. We've also done the sums to work out the cost of a Tour de France bike.
You can also check out Tadej Pogačar's all-new custom yellow Colnago.