On The Traka 2026 and in the weeks after that Unbound the same pattern was visible with multiple brands at the same time: aero head tubes, dropped seatstays, deep wheels and tyre clearance well beyond 50 mm. It concerned a whole series of prototypes. What's particularly striking is that they are coming to the same point from completely different ends of each brand's range.
The new race gravel checklist
When you put the pit lanes at Traka and Unbound side-by-side, you always see the same ingredients:
- Aero front end with wide fork legs
- Dropped seatstays
- One x-only of one x-focus
- Internal storage (downtube hatch)
- (Semi-)integrated cockpit
- Deep wheels (50–64 mm)
- Band clearance 2.1–2.2 inches
- Mixed tyre setups (front grip, rear semi-slick)
Three brands tick almost all those boxes, each from a different starting point.
Canyon: the Endurace goes off-road
The new Canyon Grail CFR-prototype werd door het Canyon X DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing- rode in a team at Traka. Including. 2.1-inch (53 mm) and 2.2-inch (55 mm) Schwalbe Thunder Burt XC tyres on the bikes, a dropped seat tube for an aero seatpost, and compatibility with the CP0053 Racing Steering Wheel of the Endurance CFR. Tyres with a size like 54-622 and the head tube looked like it did in the big races like the Tour.
Canyon borrows the cockpit platform, frame shapes and aero seatpost from the Endurance, and increases the clearance to XC level. Where the current Grail was around 42mm, the prototype accepts tyres you'd earlier expect on a mountain bike.
Factor: the one-fork on gravel size
Factor attacked it from the other side. The still unnamed prototype, driven by, among others Romain Bardet, the strikingly wide, splayed fork of the Factor One aero road bike. They were 64 mm deep Black Inc wheels on the Michelin version and 2.1-inch Thunder Burts on another. Tools were attached to the top tube with tape, a sign that the internal storage is not yet finished.
According to, the frame can accommodate a clearance of up to 2.2 inches, met 420 mm chainstays and retaining 2x compatibility. Engineer Mike McGinn Their words: “People are warming up to this wild-looking fork, and we know it’s faster.” Team rider Gustave Orain “Above 33 kilometres an hour, you’re like, ‘Okay. I got it.'”
Rose Backroad FF: the benchmark you can buy now
While Canyon and Factor are still working with prototypes, the Rose Backroad FF already available, and races are won with it. Karolina Migoń the Traka 360 reed on a Backroad FF with a mixed tyre setup: grippy up front, semi-slick at the rear. At Unbound, they used a Thunder Burt 2.10 on the front and a 45 mm G-One RS on the back.
Rose developed the Backroad FF from the ground up as a race bike, with more DNA from the Xlite aero race bike from the old Backroad. The specs confirm the pattern: 50 mm deep GC50 wheels, 1x-focus, integrated cockpit and official clearance up to 45 mm.
Tyres and wheels: the real shift
The tyre sizes now appearing in race gravel were still in the XC section two years ago. GRAN FONDO Big tyre test Place it Schwalbe Thunder Burt Orphan 54 mm and the Continental Dubnital Orphan 55 mm, while 45 mm is described as the new “sweet spot”.
The wheels follow the same direction. Newmen launched the Streem G.62: 62 mm deep, 45 mm external, 27 mm internal. In wind tunnel tests at 40 km/h with a 45 mm G-One RS, Newmen claims more than 6 watts of savings compared to their previous wheels.
Does “all-road” split off from race gravel?
The brand rankings suggest as much. Canyon already described a “Gravel Spectrum” at the Grizl launch in 2021, with the Grail as the race-oriented bike and the Grizl as the do-everything bike. Factor says alongside the Ostro Gravel to develop two additional gravel models, as “absolute speed isn't required everywhere.” Rose is consciously separating the Backroad FF as a race platform from the broader Backroad line.
The result: anyone buying a gravel bike for racing this summer will be looking at a minimum of 50 mm clearance, wheel with 27 mm internal width, and a frame that looks more like an Endurace than a classic gravel bike. Anyone who wants adventure should buy a different model from the same brand.
