Oliver Naesen was riding the new Eddy Merckx Corsa Road Rim steel bike for the final Tour de France stage into Paris. He swapped the usual carbon Stockeu69 ridden by AG2R La Mondiale for the Corsa to mark the launch by Eddy Merckx Cycles of its new high end steel MyCorsa range.
Naesen’s Corsa Road Rim bike is made of a mix of Columbus Spirit HSS lightweight steel and Columbus XCR stainless steel tubing. The rest of Naesen’s thoroughly modern spec consisted of a Shimano Dura-Ace mechanical groupset, with a Rotor 2inPower crank power meter, Look Kéo Blade Carbon pedals and a KMC chain.
Although Naesen's bike had external cabling, Eddy Merckx offers internal cabling and electronic shifting options too
Naesen rolled on Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon wheels with Vredestein Fortezza Senso T tubular tyres. His cockpit was Deda Superzero and he used a Fizik Antares R1 saddle with a Deda Zero100 seatpost.
Three standard and bespoke frameset options
The new Eddy Merckx MyCorsa range is welded from Columbus Spirit XCR steel tubing. Eddy Merckx Cycles says that its steel frames are almost as light and stiff as a carbon frame, but offer more comfort.
Custom build included sticker with Naesen's bike's geometry
There are three off-the-peg steel options in the MyCorsa range. The Strada, priced from €2499 is a rim brake road bike and available with either Campagnolo Potenza or Shimano Ultegra shifting, in sizes from XS to XL, while the similarly priced Hageland is a disc brake gravel bike. This comes with either SRAM Rival 1 or Shimano Ultegra and in the same size range. Finally, the Criterium is a hybrid rim brake model with Shimano Claris shifting and is priced at €899.
Corsa logo on Naesen's bike
There’s the option of a fully custom geometry and paint scheme, configured for either road or gravel use, with 42 colours to choose from, as well as the standard models. Eddy Merckx quotes prices starting at €3299 for a custom frame and fork.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
