Last month we introduced the frame that serves as the centrepiece for this summer’s alloy race bike build – now it’s time to dress it with a groupset.

To quickly recap, our build is based around a Canyon Ultimate AL SLX frame. It’s one of the current crop of lightweight alloy frames (along with the likes of the Trek Emonda ALR, Bowman Palace and Cannondale CAAD10) at a claimed 1.2kg and has been chosen as the focal point of a build which, we hope, will show the value of aluminium as a material from which base a high-performance machine, without breaking the bank.

The frame, which comes with a full carbon fibre fork, carbon fibre seatpost, and aluminium stem, costs £639, and, given the lower price of aluminium over carbon fibre, that gives us a bit more cash to splash on the groupset.

So, with that in mind, let’s crack on with part two of the build.