[Photography courtesy of El Toro Media]

It's been a few weeks since what looked to be a new Canyon gravel bike with own-branded suspension forks hit the interwebs, and now we've seen it in person at none other than the Gralloch UCI Gravel World Series event in Scotland. 

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@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-043.jpg, by El Toro Media

The bike we saw belonged to Freddy Ovett, a former pro road cyclist turned gravel pro (and son of Olympic gold medal-winning runner Steve) who has a long list of sponsors, including Zwift and, of course, Canyon. 

Ovett's Grail came equipped with the new Canyon fork - and it has been confirmed that it is in fact manufactured with DT Swiss, as per the 'Engineered by DT Swiss' graphic on the crown of the fork. 

@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-064.jpg, by El Toro Media

Sadly, we didn't get a chance to chat to Ovett, so we don't have all the technical details, although whether he'd be allowed to share them yet is also an unknown. But what we do know is that it's confirmed Canyon is now making a foray into the world of gravel bike suspension. 

In the past, the brand has released gravel bikes with RockShox forks, but never under the guise of the Canyon name, albeit with a bit of DT Swiss engineering. We expect it to offer around 30-50mm of travel, as we've seen with other gravel suspension bikes. Well, that's a category I didn't think would be a thing...

@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-076.jpg, by El Toro Media

One thing that could make the Canyon Grail look a little dated in its current form is the 45mm maximum tyre clearance. This fork certainly looks able to accommodate bigger tyres than that.

But beyond the super exciting top secret suspension fork that's now out in the open, there's the small matter of the rest of the bike. 

@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-061.jpg, by El Toro Media

From first glance, it doesn't look that different to the current Grail, Canyon's race-focussed gravel rig, but one well-hidden giveaway is the small door found on the downtube, which the current model doesn't have.

Though we're surprised that a suspension fork has found its way onto the Grail, as the Grizl has historically come in suspension-equipped models, we can guess that the Grail was employed for that racy angle, which makes the choice to run a suspension fork even more interesting. So, has Canyon laid down the gauntlet for a new wave of bouncy race bikes? Or, might we actually be looking at a new Grizl with Grail badges?

Either way, while we weren't at Gralloch with a protractor, we'd hazard a guess that the head tube angle has been slightly slackened, and the seat tube angle steepened. It does look like the internal headset cable routing has remained, and the storage in the down tube has also made it onto the new model. 

@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-052.jpg, by El Toro Media

As for the rest of Ovett's setup, we can see he's running Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels and rather interestingly, two different tyres, perhaps for grip and comfort up front and lower rolling resistance at the rear.

Up front, Ovett was running a Goodyear Peak SL 2.25in tyre, which is markedly wider than the 45mm rear tyre - and confirms that the new Grail (or Grizl) can, in fact, accept mountain bike width tyres. 

@ELTOROMEDIADOTCOM - GRALLOCH 2025-040.jpg, by El Toro Media

While Canyon hasn't officially announced the new Grail, nor the suspension fork, it's now out in the open. Thanks to Ovett, it's already been ridden to a top 15 finish in a UCI gravel race. 

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