Mathieu van der Poel breaks his handlebar - Canyon: Aeroad CF SLX and CFR out of use for the time being

The pictures went around the cycling world: on 2 March, at the professional race "Le Samyn", Alpecin-Fenix pro Mathieu van der Poel (NED) broke off part of the handlebars of his Canyon Aeroad on a cobblestone section. Fortunately, van der Poel did not crash - he was even able to finish the race and help his team-mate to victory.

However, the pictures of the broken handlebars prompted Canyon to take action: experts immediately travelled to Belgium - in the meantime, the cause of the broken handlebars and identical handlebars in Germany are being investigated.

"Experts from the Canyon development department and quality management immediately started to get to the bottom of this incident. We want to ensure with absolute certainty that no one is harmed until we fully understand what is causing this phenomenon," says Roman Arnold, founder of Canyon Bicycles. Canyon is therefore informing all affected Aeroad customers and asking them to stop using the bike for the time being," reads a press release.

The affected cockpit (CP0018 and CP0015) is only installed in the current Aeroad models CF SLX and CFR. The Aeroad CF SL model is not affected. All buyers of this model have already been informed by Canyon.

"We are doing everything we can to equip the affected Aeroad models as quickly as possible with a cockpit that meets both our and our customers' demands for quality and safety 100 per cent," emphasises Armin Landgraf, CEO of Canyon Bicycles. It has also already been decided that all professional teams will switch to other bikes with immediate effect: Until further notice, the professional athletes will therefore revert to their Aeroad from the previous season or the current Ultimate.

Canyon does not want to pre-empt the investigations. Meanwhile, speculation is rife on the internet as to whether there has already been previous damage. On the Belgian cycling website Sporza.de Mathieu van der Poel's father is quoted. He claims: "In Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne he hit a car with the same driver".