Alejandro Valverde to ride new Canyon Aeroad at the Tour de France

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It looks as though Alejandro Valverde will use the all-new Canyon Aeroad aero bike at the Tour de France, after the Spaniard was seen riding a new Canyon aero bike for the team presentation ahead of the Grand Depart on Thursday.

Arkea Samsic's Warren Barguil was also spotted using the as-yet-unreleased aero bike, and Canyon-SRAM have teased the bike on their Instagram profile ahead of La Course by Le Tour de France. 

Arkea Samsic and Movistar have both also teased the bike on their respective Instagram pages. 

This is far from the first appearance in competition for the as-yet-unreleased aero bike from Canyon. The bike was first spotted almost a year ago beneath Mathieu van der Poel at the late-season Belgian classics ahead of the World Championships, however, the Dutchman returned to using this Canyon Aeroad in Yorkshire. 

More recently, the bike has also been spotted beneath Warren Barguil at the Critérium du Dauphiné, as shown in our back-to-racing tech gallery. 

However, this is the first time teams have shared images of the bike on social media, which suggests Canyon is ramping up its efforts to promote the bike ahead of an impending launch. Although as yet, the German brand is yet to publicly announce a launch date. 

The standout differences between Aeroad-old and Aeroad-new include a completely integrated cockpit, an oversized bottom bracket area, thicker seat stays and chain stays, as well as a deeper seat post. 

The fact that Valverde and Barguil - a former polka dot jersey winner - are aboard the bike, could lead us to think that the new Aeroad is going to follow the Specialized Tarmac SL7 as an aero bike that meets the 6.8kg UCI weight limit. However, given Barguil switched back to the Canyon Ultimate for the climbing stages of the recent Dauphiné, we're led to believe that the new bike will remain a pure aero offering, to be used on flat or rolling stages. 

We'll be keeping an eye out on both riders' choice of bikes on Stage 2, the route's first mountainous day that takes in the Col de la Colmaine and Col de Turini.