With the dust settling on Paris-Roubaix and a long drive back through the tunnel to the UK for the Cyclingnews tech team, we’ve put our heads together to reflect on what we’ve learned.
Throughout our days on the ground in Northern France, we’ve spotted a host of new, old and unusual tech hacks as teams sought to smooth the cobbles of Hell.
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32 is the new 28
Even a couple of years ago 32mm tyres were considered quite wide for the rough cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. Most road bikes couldn’t handle them, at least not with any real clearance. Now, with the latest generation of aero bikes being able to handle 32c tyres with relative ease, almost all teams were using this size, to the point that the ubiquity of 32mm tyres was reminiscent of the days of everyone running 28mm tyres with the occasional 30mm as this was what most rim brakes would allow.
The UCI was out in force with a new tool to check nobody was running anything too wide (as a proxy for tyre height, oddly), and while Tadej Pogacar was using 35mm tyres that plumped up to a value noticeably wider, nobody was exceeding 35mm in stated tyre width at least.
Tyre clearance is advisory when you don’t buy your frames
Tadej Pogačar certainly led the big tyre brigade, with his front tyre barely having enough room for a cigarette paper between rubber and carbon, but he wasn’t alone in trying to eke out every last millimetre of clearance.
Decathlon CMA CGM also had 35mm front tyres fitted, and like UAE, they also fitted a smaller 32mm rear; the back end of a bike flexes a lot more than the front, and so tyre rub is more of a risk. Even so, there were plenty of frames that were pushing it to the limit, but teams know that Roubaix bikes get battered.
A great many had battle scars on them already before the start of the race, indicating that they are probably second…
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