Kasia Niewiadoma debuted this custom-painted Canyon Aeroad at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, her first time at the Classics opener as a defending Tour de France Femmes champion. Last year the Polish star finished seventh, and 2025 marked her ninth appearance, but this time she finished in the bunch with the favourites in a nominal 37th place after the two-up breakaway of Lotte Claes of Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women and Aurela Nerlo of Winspace Orange Seal stayed away, with Claes taking the first professional win of her career.
Canyon has just launched its MyCanyon programme, which gives Aeroad CFR buyers more component choices, lets them select the stem length of the PACE bar integrated cockpit, and gives them access to three new artwork collections that include works by Felipe Pantone and Elena Salmistraro. Top Canyon pro riders including Niewiadoma, Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen are among the first recipients of the special paintwork called Opus, and Niewiadoma's Aeroad CFR here features the design by Argentine-Spanish artist Pantone. According to Canyon: "His fascination with the modern world and use of digital design techniques make his art feel constantly in motion. Inspired by motion and technology, Felipe Pantone’s MyCanyon Opus riffs on the ‘organised chaos’ of speed."
At the launch of MyCanyon, the brand promised that each artist-decorated bike would be slightly different from the next due to the handpainted process, but Niewiadoma’s bike looks to the naked eye very similar to the one photographed for the programme’s launch, the black-and-white vectors and panels of spectral noise covering the same areas of the frame. However, the paying public won’t get the Zwift logo at the top of the fork blades or the SRAM logos in red on the seatstays, but now they can order their own name sticker, like the pros. Something that definitely is specific to Niewiadoma's bike is the pro-only Canyon CP0049 cockpit, with its negative rise stem. Although she rides a size XS frame, the saddle-bar drop of the standard consumer PACE bar that comes with the latest Aeroad is clearly not aggressive enough. Canyon told us that Niewiadoma is riding a 90mm stem length and 37cm width here.
Let’s take a look at the build. The Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto team are running the latest SRAM Red AXS groupset, launched last year. The team version of the group has more prominent SRAM logos on the cranks but Niewiadoma’s set-up is relatively standard, with 48/35 chainring ratios and a 10-33 12-speed cassette. With the 10-tooth sprocket, that gives her a top gear of 129.6 inches, and with the 33 sprocket a very low bottom gear of 28.6 inches or just slightly higher than 1:1. The Omloop parcours in the Flemish Ardennes is similar to that of the Tour of Flanders with short, punchy climbs and of course features the very tough Muur van Geraardsbergen, so smaller, more dynamic gearing for quick accelerations and steep gradients is useful. She rides 165mm cranks.
The Zipp 454 NSW wheels are, like the cranks, heavily logoed, and the 28mm Schwalbe Pro One TLE tubeless tyres feature a blue highlight that’s a departure from the usual orange ‘1’ on the sidewall. For Omloop, Niewiadoma used the shallower Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels with 30mm Schwalbe Pro One TLEs, which for a 49kg rider ought to be enough to absorb the worst cobble shocks.
Time pedals aren’t as common as they once were, but since the French brand was acquired by SRAM they’re back in the pro peloton with Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto as well as Lidl-Trek, Movistar and SD Worx. Niewiadoma is using the Time XPRO 12 SL, which the brand claims is the “lightest and most ergonomic pedal system on the market” at 87.3 grams per pedal thanks to a hollow titanium spindle and ceramic bearings. They're pretty expensive too, at €490.
Hammerhead is also part of the SRAM family and supplies the Karoo 3 head unit. Kasia Niewiadoma has a custom yellow Karoo 3 and she used it during the race, but the bike was shot here with a standard one. Without the Gear Groove of the PACE bar, Niewiadoma uses the older 3D-printed computer mount that attaches underneath the CP0049 cockpit. And finally, an Ergon SR Pro Women saddle from the German brand – which incidentally comes from Koblenz, like Canyon – tops off the build.
It’s early days for the 2025 season, and although we may not have seen much of this bike at the front of affairs during opening weekend, expect to see plenty of it going forward as Niewiadoma builds up to the defence of her Tour de France Femmes title.
Kasia Niewiadoma's Canyon Aeroad CFR full spec
- Frame: Canyon Aeroad CFR in size XS.
- Groupset: SRAM Red AXS with 10-33t casette, 48-35t chainrings, and 165mm crank length
- Handlebar: Canyon CP0049 in 90mm stem length and 370 mm width
- Wheels: Zipp 454 NSW Tubeless with Schwalbe Pro One TLE 28mm in the photo (and Zipp 303 Firecrest Tubeless with Schwalbe Pro One TLE 30mm for racing Omloop)
- Pedals: Time XPRO 12 SL
- Bottles and cages: Elite Fly bottles and Elite Custom Race Plus cages
- Saddle: Ergon SR Pro Women in S/M
- Seatpost: Canyon SP0077 with 1.5 cm offset
- Computer: Hammerhead Karoo 3
