Lapierre has their first carbon gravel bike with the all-new Crosshill CF. In a world of aero-influenced bike design where almost every new bike looks like the next, this Lapierre Crosshill CF stands out with its uniquely curved and shaped rear end. Designed to be a performance-focused platform to slot in between their alloy adventure gravel bike and carbon endurance all-road bike, the new carbon gravel bike has already popped up at UCI Gravel World Championships.
But it’s not just a race bike.
Lapierre reinterpreted the open flexing stays of their successful XC race hardtail to create a carbon gravel bike with extra comfort for those extra long rides and multi-day adventures…
2025 Lapierre Crosshill CF comfort carbon gravel bike
The unconventional seat cluster with seatstays that bend and curve in multiple directions around the seattube is impossible to ignore. I suspect that the design of the new Lapierre Crosshill CF carbon gravel bike will have both lovers and haters. But the Flexstays concept is hard to argue with in terms of rider comfort – the key feature at the heart of this new carbon gravel bike design.
By separating the front and rear triangles and giving those extended, bowed seatstays plenty of places to flex, gravel road buzz can be tuned out before it gets to the rider’s back, making it so you can pedal longer over rougher terrain, without sacrificing ‘sporty’ performance. It’s not a new concept.
But this new carbon Lapierre Crosshill CF gravel bike looks to take it to the next level – especially targeting endurance and ultra-distance gravel riding & racing.
Gravel race-ready
Designed to work with short-travel gravel suspension forks, the carbon Crosshill CF looks a bit more like an adventure bike. But Amber Kraak raced the new Lapierre Crosshill to a podium spot at the Dutch Gravel Champs a week ago, then a solid 18th place at Gravel Worlds this past weekend. Think about it this way, while almost every other rider was on an aero bike with relatively skinny tires, Kraak was riding a bike with a suspension fork, high-volume tires, and a dropper seatpost. So it still seems to deliver on the performance front, too. Have a look at her racing in the mud at Dutch Nationals here, courtesy of the Royal Dutch Cycling Union.
A big part of that is all-new race-ready geometry.
Compared to the alloy Crosshill, Lapierre highlights that the new carbon Crosshill CF features:
- slightly slacker head angle to 71-71.5° for improved stability over rough gravel roads
- shorter toptubes & incrementally shorter frame Reach for a more compact fit and comfortable riding position
- steeper seattube angles (1.5-3.5° depending on size) for more efficient pedaling and forward weight balance
- 5mm shorter chainstays (430mm) for more responsive handling without compromising max tire size
- 4-5mm higher bottom bracket for improved cornering clearance and increased manueverability
- additional XXL size (6 sizes, from XS-XXL)
How did they get here?
Until now Lapierre only offered the Crosshill as a budget aluminum do-it-all bike – from casual gravel to bikepacking. Since 2016, it was their first official gravel bike, but still more of an affordable all-rounder with trekking & commuter roots. If you wanted something lighter and faster, their only option was the carbon Pulsium Allroad with just 32mm tires (and several mms to spare) but not even the SAT elastomer they introduced on the Pulsiums for added comfort & endurance back in 2017.
But now with gravel racing getting rougher and more technical, Lapierre took a page out of their mountain bike development to create a more comfortable carbon gravel race bike that still delivered race-ready performance.
What’s new?
Directly inspired now by their latest ProRace CF carbon XC hardtail, the new carbon gravel Crosshill CF features the same 3D Tubular rear triangle concept. Again, it’s the same idea we’ve seen since 2015 on their Xelius & Aircode road bikes to “dissociate the seatstays from the seat tube to improve their flexibility over a longer length and disperse vibrations and other shocks through the top tube instead of directly to the seat tube“.
Lapierre says that here on the new carbon gravel bike, the double S-bend seatstay design “provides up to 12% more vibration absorption at 40km/h” than a conventional carbon frame layout.
Tech details
The new Lapierre Crosshill CF gravel bike comes in 7 complete builds – all sharing the same UD SL carbon frame, although mostly with the rigid carbon fork. But there are 2 adventure-inspired builds, getting 30-40mm travel suspension forks.
- full UD carbon SL frame & fork, made from standard modulus fibers for “greater elasticity and responsiveness”
- lightweight layup optimized for lateral rigidity, responsive ride & increased vertical flexibility
- integrated fully internal cable routing through the headset, but spec’d with 2-piece adjustable cockpits
- 1x or 2x chainring compatibility, with removable front derailleur mount
- full mechanical and electronic shift compatibility
- UDH for compatibility with all rear derailleurs, i.e. Transmission-compatible
- 700c x 45mm max tire clearance
- 12mm thru-axles and flat mount disc brakes
- BB86 PressFit bottom bracket
- soft rubber chainstay guard for a quiet ride and frame protection
- conventional external seatpost clamp for 27.2mm round seatpost
- 2 conventional sets of bottle cage mounts inside the main triangle, plus 2-bolt toptube bag mount
- 2-bolt cage mount on each fork leg
- full coverage fender mounts front & rear with removable seatstay bridge bracket
- UCI-approved for gravel and road racing
- 1000g claimed frame weight (size M, unpainted) & 404g (raw, uncut steerer)
- complete builds feature gravel-optimized cockpits with semi-integrated routing, alloy stems, and separate riser handlebars with 12° flare to their drops.
- alloy bars (5.0, 6.0 & 6.0S) get 114mm drop & 12mm rise. aero carbon bars (7.0, 8.0 & 8.0 S) get deeper 122mm drop but higher 20mm higher rise for a broader position range
2024 Lapierre Crosshill – Pricing & options
Complete carbon gravel bike builds start at 2800€ for the Crosshill CF 5.0 with a Shimano GRX 2×12 drivetrain and house-brand alloy wheels. Or 3200€ for the Crosshill CF 6.0 with the same GRX drivetrain, but a crankset upgrade and alloy DT Swiss G1800 wheels. Or for 3700€ you can get a Crosshill CF 6.0 AXS that upgrades to a SRAM Rival Xplr AXS groupset and higher-spec DT GR1600 alloy wheels.
The real standout in the affordable builds is the banana yellow Lapierre Crosshill CF 6.0 S for just 3500€, built with a SRAM Apex Xplr AXS 1x wireless electronic groupset, a 40mm travel SR Suntour GVX32-S gravel suspension fork with remote lockout, and the DT G1800 wheels. This is likely one of the most affordable carbon gravel bikes you will find with a wireless groupset and a suspension fork, although that means it’s no featherweight at a claimed 10.3kg complete.
Move up to the Crosshill CF 7.0 at 4200€ and you get GRX Di2 2x and the carbon Lapierre riser handlebar, once again back to the full carbon fork and the alloy DT GR1600 wheels, at 9.0kg.
The rigid builds finally top out with the 6000€ Crosshill CF 8.0, built up with SRAM Force Xplr AXS, carbon riser handlebar, and carbon DT Swiss GRC1600 wheels, at a claimed 8.7kg.
Then, there’s one final premium gravel suspension build. The 7000€ Lapierre Crosshill CF8.0 S gets a lighter & shorter 30mm travel RockShox Rudy Ultimate suspension fork with lockout, a Force Xplr AXS groupset, the carbon bar, and then those carbon DT GRC1600 wheels.
Availability
It may have only just popped up on the racing scene, but all 7 complete bike builds are available now in 6 stock frame sizes (XS-XXL). Hot up your local Lapierre dealer bike shops now.