{"id":2679,"date":"2026-06-10T08:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:37:11","slug":"aero-gravel-bikes-2026-race-bike-trends-wide-tyres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/aero-gravelbikes-2026-racefiets-trends-brede-banden\/","title":{"rendered":"Why every fast gravel bike suddenly looks like an aero road bike on 2.1-inch tyres"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On <strong>The Traka 2026<\/strong> and in the weeks after that <strong>Unbound<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The new race gravel checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you put the pit lanes at Traka and Unbound side-by-side, you always see the same ingredients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Aero front end with wide fork legs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dropped seatstays<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One x-only of one x-focus<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internal storage (downtube hatch)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(Semi-)integrated cockpit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deep wheels (50\u201364 mm)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Band clearance 2.1\u20132.2 inches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mixed tyre setups (front grip, rear semi-slick)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three brands tick almost all those boxes, each from a different starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Canyon: the Endurace goes off-road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new <strong>Canyon Grail CFR<\/strong>-prototype werd door het <strong>Canyon X DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing<\/strong>- rode in a team at Traka. Including. <strong>2.1-inch (53 mm)<\/strong> and <strong>2.2-inch (55 mm) Schwalbe Thunder Burt<\/strong> XC tyres on the bikes, a dropped seat tube for an aero seatpost, and compatibility with the <strong>CP0053 Racing Steering Wheel<\/strong> of the Endurance CFR. Tyres with a size like <strong>54-622<\/strong> and the head tube looked like it did in the big races like the Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Canyon borrows the cockpit platform, frame shapes and aero seatpost from the <strong>Endurance<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Factor: the one-fork on gravel size<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Factor<\/strong> attacked it from the other side. The still unnamed prototype, driven by, among others <strong>Romain Bardet<\/strong>, the strikingly wide, splayed fork of the <strong>Factor One<\/strong> aero road bike. They were <strong>64 mm deep Black Inc wheels<\/strong> on the Michelin version and <strong>2.1-inch Thunder Burts<\/strong> on another. Tools were attached to the top tube with tape, a sign that the internal storage is not yet finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to, the frame can accommodate a clearance of up to <strong>2.2 inches<\/strong>, met <strong>420 mm chainstays<\/strong> and retaining 2x compatibility. Engineer <strong>Mike McGinn<\/strong> Their words: \u201cPeople are warming up to this wild-looking fork, and we know it\u2019s faster.\u201d Team rider <strong>Gustave Orain<\/strong> \u201cAbove 33 kilometres an hour, you\u2019re like, \u2018Okay. I got it.'\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rose Backroad FF: the benchmark you can buy now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Canyon and Factor are still working with prototypes, the <strong>Rose Backroad FF<\/strong> already available, and races are won with it. <strong>Karolina Migo\u0144<\/strong> 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 href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingweekly.com\/gravel\/the-race-winning-bike-setups-of-unbound-gravel-2025-which-tyres-and-drivetrains-ruled-the-flint-hills\">a Thunder Burt 2.10 on the front and a 45 mm G-One RS on the back<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rose developed the Backroad FF from the ground up as a race bike, with more DNA from the <strong>Xlite<\/strong> aero race bike from the old Backroad. The specs confirm the pattern: <strong>50 mm deep GC50 wheels<\/strong>, 1x-focus, integrated cockpit and official clearance up to 45 mm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tyres and wheels: the real shift<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tyre sizes now appearing in race gravel were still in the XC section two years ago. GRAN FONDO <a href=\"https:\/\/granfondo-cycling.com\/best-gravel-tire-review\/\">Big tyre test<\/a> Place it <strong>Schwalbe Thunder Burt<\/strong> Orphan <strong>54 mm<\/strong> and the <strong>Continental Dubnital<\/strong> Orphan <strong>55 mm<\/strong>, while 45 mm is described as the new \u201csweet spot\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The wheels follow the same direction. <strong>Newmen<\/strong> launched the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bikeradar.com\/news\/enve-streem-g62-gravel-wheelset\">Streem G.62<\/a>: <strong>62 mm deep, 45 mm external, 27 mm internal<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Does \u201call-road\u201d split off from race gravel?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brand rankings suggest as much. Canyon already described a \u201cGravel Spectrum\u201d 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 <strong>Ostro Gravel<\/strong> to develop two additional gravel models, as \u201cabsolute speed isn't required everywhere.\u201d Rose is consciously separating the Backroad FF as a race platform from the broader Backroad line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result: anyone buying a gravel bike for racing this summer will be looking at a minimum of <strong>50 mm clearance<\/strong>, wheel with <strong>27 mm internal width<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At The Traka and Unbound, the same hardware brief appeared for Canyon, Factor, and Rose: aero front ends, dropped stays, deep wheels, and clearance for XC rubber. What does this convergence mean for this summer's gravel market?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[303,299,300,298,301,302],"class_list":["post-2679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brillen","tag-aero-dynamica","tag-canyon-grail-cfr","tag-factor","tag-gravelbikes","tag-rose-backroad-ff","tag-the-traka-2026"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2694,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions\/2694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cyclingreview.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}