Canyon’s sponsor two WorldTour teams – Katusha and Movistar – and riders from both squads have two road machines at their disposal at the Tour de France: the super-light Ultimate CF SLX and the recently revamped Aeroad CF SLX.
What machine each rider picks is down to personal preference and veteran Italian Luca Paolini, who is riding his fourth Tour, pulls this Ultimate CF SLX from the rack each morning, while the team-mate he helped propel to Milan-San Remo victory, Alexander Kristoff, has claimed two stage wins on the Aeroad CF SLX we profiled at the start of the race.
The Ultimate CF SLX in its current form has been part of the Canyon range since the back-end of 2012 and was crowned RoadCyclingUK’s Bike of the Year last year. Paolini’s machine is dressed in a full Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset (including Dura-Ace pedals), with Mavic providing the rolling stock and Ritchey the finishing kit.
Paolini stands at 5’9″ tall and rides a small frame, with a 74cm saddle height. Let’s take a closer look at the 37-year-old’s machine.
