Jasper Philipsen sprinted to a convincing win at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne yesterday, improving on his third-place finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before.
The sunshine was starting to weaken on Sunday afternoon when the Belgian fast-man finally rolled into the post-race interview zone to speak to the media. During this time, I spent a few minutes taking a look at his bike before he was whisked away again.
Philipsen raced to the win on his team issue Canyon Aeroad CFR , widely considered to be one of the best road bikes . Canyon has sponsored Alpecin-Deceunick for several years now.
It’s a fairly stock setup, but there are a few interesting details to be observed. Philipsen, like his teammates, rides the Aeroad CFR with a Dura-Ace groupset, Dura-Ace C50 wheels and Canyon finishing kit. The team switched from Vittoria tyres during the winter to Pirelli P Zero TLR RS tubeless models, and Philipsen won on 30mm tyres at Kuurne.
The bike was covered in race splatter and was UCI security tagged post-race, but had a ‘2’ sticker next to the Philipsen top tube name sticker. Did the Belgian win on his number-two race bike?
Philipsen’s Aeroad was racked with second and third place finishers Olaf Kooij and Hugo Hofstetter’s machines (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Worn bar tape at the shifter for Philipsen, perhaps he likes the worn-in feel or preferred not to have it changed pre-race (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
A detailed fuelling plan for the Belgian, 45 grams of carbs per hour for the bottles (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
The Canyon Aeroad handlebar is width adjustable (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Philipsen has the more aggressive Canyon ‘Pro’ CP0049 stem that is 120mm long (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Philipsen raced with the Canyon Thru Axle levers installed front and rear, perhaps to save time if a wheel needed to be removed (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Dura-Ace C50 wheels have won an awful lot of races (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Spot the monster bottom bracket shell on the Canyon Aeroad CFR (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
Does this ‘2’ mean this is the no.2 race bike? (Image credit: Tom Wieckowski)
