Sponsored: From World Championships to Grand Tours, the Canyon Ultimate is a winner, and the latest model is already on top of the world
It’s launch day. Canyon has just released the latest version of the Ultimate, its all-singing, all-dancing racing machine.
Since the very first Canyon Ultimate was launched in 2004, the German brand’s hero road bike has reached the very top of the professional sport, being ridden to victory at the biggest races on the planet by some true icons of cycling.
This new iteration, featuring full cable integration, improved aerodynamics and stiffness, and a UCI rule-breakingingly light frame, has already got off to a flying start as one of the peloton’s worst kept tech secrets at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.
As just the fifth generation of Canyon Ultimate in 18 years, it’s a big changing of the guard that reflects a new era of road bikes and road racing, so what better time to look back at the milestone victories of this iconic platform?
And with Movistar’s Enric Mas currently second overall at the Vuelta with just days to go before the finish in Madrid, there could be more success to talk about sooner rather than later.
The first win
Who remembers round tubes? The first Pro Tour win on the Canyon Ultimate came early in the 2007 season at the Tour Down Under as Unibet.com’s Baden Cooke won Stage 3 from a big breakaway riding the second-generation bike.
Although not a big moment for a rider that had already won a Tour de France green jersey, for Canyon it was the start of something very special.
The first World Championship win
By pure chance, the Canyon Ultimate paired with an Australian rider seems to be a winning recipe.
And the Ultimate started to really soar with Australia’s greatest rider in 2009 as Cadel Evans soloed to World Championships Road Race glory in Mendrisio. Beating the likes of Joaquim Rodríguez, Sammy Sánchez, Fabian Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert – again on the second-generation Ultimate – it was a legendary win that solidified Evans’ place in cycling history.
It was Australia’s and Canyon’s first road World Championship.
The first Monument win: Philippe Gilbert
Not even a month after the World Champs triumph, Evans’ Silence-Lotto teammate, the legendary Gilbert, bagged his first of his five Monument wins aboard the Canyon Ultimate.
It was the first of back-to-back victories for the Belgian and the Ultimate at the Race of the Falling Leaves and truly put Canyon among the top tier.
The big bunch sprint win: André Greipel
With the later introduction of the Aeroad, the Canyon Ultimate is often used by pros largely as a climber’s bike, however the gorilla himself André Greipel romped to a bunch sprint win on the Ultimate at the 2011 Tour de France.
After a hilly stage that proved too much for many sprinters, Greipel and the Ultimate beat Mark Cavendish in a tight photo-finish just in front of José Joaquín Rojas and Thor Hushovd.
There was no denying the bike’s all-out speed.
The Milan-San Remo win: Alexander Kristoff
The sprinter’s classic. The Canyon Ultimate. The biggest win of Alexander Kristoff’s career.
The Team Katusha rider bested Cancellara, Ben Swift, Juan José Lobato and Cavendish to win his first Monument in 2014.
Despite being a bigger sprinter, Kristoff made his way over the Cipressa and Poggio with the pack and still had the energy to beat the bunch to the line, his Canyon Ultimate the perfect accompaniment to help him bag the big bucks.
The first Grand Tour win: Nairo Quintana
World Championships, Monuments, stages. They’re huge, but they’re not a Grand Tour win.
In 2014 Nairo Quintana became the first Colombian to win a Grand Tour at the Giro d’Italia, it was also the Canyon Ultimate’s first Grand Tour victory.
After two magisterial performances up Val Martello and on the mountain time-trial at Monte Grappa, Quintana and his third-generation Canyon Ultimate beat Rigoberto Urán and Fabio Aru to his – and Canyon’s – first Grand Tour win.
The Vuelta win: Nairo Quintana
The fourth generation Canyon Ultimate was introduced in at the end of 2015 and it didn’t take long to get its first massive win.
The 2016 Vuelta a España saw a showdown between great rivals Quintana and Chris Froome, and while Froome got the better of the Colombian at the Tour de France – where Quintana finished third and Froome first – this time was different.
His big win came at the iconic Lagos de Covadonga, putting precious time into Froome as well as Robert Gesink, Michele Scarponi, Esteban Chaves and Alberto Contador to get himself into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
Quintana, and the Ultimate, conquering once more.
The second World Championship win: Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde has ridden the Canyon Ultimate more than most. The 42-year-old has been at Movistar since 2011, with the German brand supplying the team’s bikes since 2015, and as a pure climber, the Ultimate is his weapon of choice.
In 2018 the Spaniard made history as the oldest road race World Champion at the tender age of 38 on board his fourth-generation Ultimate.
On the brutal course in Innsbruck, Valverde came into the final run-in with Romain Bardet, Michael Woods and Tom Dumoulin but managed to outsprint them all to take a famous victory.
The Amstel Gold win: Kasia Niewiadoma
Of course being at home on the climbs, the Canyon Ultimate is well suited to the Ardennes Classics. Its men’s teams have won all three of Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège over the years but arguably the most memorable of the lot came from the Canyon/SRAM team in 2019.
Kasia Niewiadoma is known for going all-in from a long way out and distanced the pack with 2km to go at Amstel Gold, outclimbing the rest of the favourites on the Cauberg.
In a true nailbiter, future Movistar and Canyon rider Annemiek van Vleuten began to bridge across as the road flattened and it went all the way to the line.
Niewiadoma had too much though and Van Vleuten couldn’t catch her. A famous win.
The second Giro win: Richard Carapaz
The Canyon Ultimate has seemed like a magnet for historic first-times over the years and in 2019 achieved another as Movistar’s Richard Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian to win a Grand Tour at the Giro d’Italia.
Getting the better of Vincenzo Nibali, Primož Roglič and Mikel Landa, Carapaz catapulted himself into the highest echelon of Grand Tour riders, taking two impressive stage wins along the way, including out-punching Caleb Ewan and dominating the Colle San Carlo climb to take the maglia rosa.
The new Canyon Ultimate: a winning start
The fifth generation Canyon Ultimate broke cover at the Dauphiné in June and could be seen being ridden by a couple of Movistar riders both there and at the Tour de France.
It was being spread out by the time the Vuelta a España rolled around in August and has already hit the heights even before today’s official launch courtesy of Jay Vine.
The Australian took two incredibly impressive wins on two of the toughest mountain stages and firmly stamped his authority on the King of the Mountains jersey, meaning you’ll have no doubt seen his new Canyon Ultimate decked out in blue polka-dots.
Sadly Vine was forced to abandon the race after a crash early on Stage 18, but a podium spot is almost certain for Movistar’s Enric Mas, one of the riders who has had the most time on the impressive new bike.
What else could this generation of the Canyon Ultimate win? Anything and everything.