Men’s Paris-Roubaix tech gallery: Gravel bikes, prototypes, and one monumental chainring

One of the pre race favourites, Mads Pedersen, had maybe the wildest setup for the cobbles, choosing a flat bar and full on gravel tyres….
Of course, I’m joking; that is the Lidl-Trek bus driver’s bike. Cool, however maybe not fairly setup for hitting the cobbles at 65kmh.

This, nevertheless, is Mads’ bike. As anticipated he is utilizing a Trek Madone, full with a 56t 1x chainring, gravel wheels, and prototype Pirelli tyres.

The tyres are marked as 32c, however mounted to the Bontrager Aeolus Pro 49v gravel wheels they measure 34.5mm huge.

The rear finish of the Madone, with its distinctive IsoFlow cutout within the seat tube, can accommodate bigger although.

A metallic Wolf Tooth chain keeper retains issues safe over the bumps. Mads’ bottles are given a bit of additional safety by the even handed utility of rubber bands to the bottle cages too.

The tyre is a bit more comfortable within the forks, however there’s nonetheless a great little bit of room both facet ought to he want to use bigger tyres in future editions.

It’s a delicate element, however delicate particulars are what I dwell for as a motorbike nerd… Having the Pirelli sponsor emblem precisely lining up with the rim-tyre interface is gorgeous.

Let’s deal with the enormous 62t elephant within the room then, we could? Josh Tarling of Ineos Grenadiers was rocking this monster carbon single ring, although due to a motorbike change following an incident early within the race he needed to swap to his spare bike, which was ‘solely’ setup with a 60t 2x setup. It was all for nought although, because the Welshman was unceremoniously ejected from the race after the commissaires deemed one among his bottles was far too sticky.

The Roubaix is lifeless, and the Tarmac is the bike of selection for all Specialized sponsored groups as we predicted. Round bars as an alternative of the aero cockpit is not essentially the most fascinating factor about this (and many of the different) Soudal-QuickStep bikes. No, it isn’t the instrument taped underneath the saddle both…

Yes, when you noticed it effectively performed: The crew are utilizing a mixture of highway and gravel wheels. Some riders had a pair of Roval Rapides, some a pair of Roval Terra gravel wheels, however most had a mixture, with a Rapide entrance and a Terra rear.

This wheel setup, with an aero entrance and shallower rear, apparently saved 4 watts over a pair of Terra wheels, with the additional advantage of providing up higher pinch flat safety on the entrance because of thicker tyre mattress sidewalls. In the comparatively turbulent air on the rear aero makes much less of a distinction. Whatever rims they had been utilizing although, the riders had been all on 32c S-Works Mondo tyres, as we suspected.

Instead of getting the via axle key within the clear air on the fork legs, the crew as an alternative opted to tape it to the rear of the seatpost.

Despite utilizing the extra sturdy and extra grippy Vittoria Corsa Pro Control at Opening Weekend, EF had been utilizing the usual Corsa Pro tyres for Roubaix.

Jonas Rutsch was as much as his ordinary antics with an enormous 170mm stem. Personally, I’d fear concerning the further lever size, because the power utilized via the steerer goes to be considerably magnified over a ‘regular’ size stem.

Using non-standard bigger chainrings was par for the course kind of throughout the board. Here Cofidis have opted to make use of a 55t Kronos entrance ring, in a 2x setup.

Despite most groups choosing 32c tubeless tyres, Cofidis caught to their distinctly old-fashioned weapons and went with 30c tubular tyres glued as much as Corima wheels.

Mathieu van der Poel, the overwhelming favorite, opted for an extremely commonplace setup.

No mega chainrings right here, simply his regular 54.40 chainset.

He did use bigger than ordinary 32c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres, with tyre inserts too, however moreover this and double bar tape it was simply his regular Canyon Aeroad.

Team Flanders–Baloise use Eddy Merckx bikes, however one rider was fortunate sufficient to make use of this Panasonic throwback paint version of the bike. As effectively as Cofidis, they had been additionally one of many few groups nonetheless utilizing tubs.

Carbon-Ti brake rotors? It can solely be the UAE Team Emirates.

That Prologo bar tape that we noticed within the girls’s peloton has proliferated right here too, and covers some satellite tv for pc Shimano shifters underneath the tops.

The little bristles are mentioned to supply larger mechanical grip, which means the riders have to carry the bars much less laborious and fatigue much less.

More satellite tv for pc shifters, right here thumb operated, and mounted to the Colnago one-piece cockpit.

Curiously, the restrict of tyre clearance is not normally decided by the body or the forks, however by whether or not the bike is setup 1x or 2x. With a entrance derailleur, particularly a Shimano one, the clearance to tyres might be extraordinarily slim. Here a 32c, plumped by huge rims, barely suits.

The Scott Foil RC bikes of DSM-Firmenich had been kind of commonplace, save for a few cobble mods.

Metal Elite bottle cages, which might be bent in to clamp the bottles more durable, are a basic trick.

Despite the the bikes’ seatposts, which function an elastomer insert so as to add slightly little bit of cushioning, normally being swapped for a stable one, they’ve introduced them again for this weekend.

At the Arkea B&B Hotels camp the riders had been utilizing a mixture of the Bianchi Specialissima and the extra aero Oltre, as seen right here with its putting cockpit.

At Astana I used to be advised the crew has struggled to get chainrings from Shimano, therefore this rider utilizing previous 11sp rings which apparently work simply advantageous with the present 12sp system, although Shimano would doubtless say in any other case.

As ever, slightly little bit of sticky backed Velcro does wonders to cease any rattling, or worse a full ejection.

Chainring points apart, the paint on these Wilier bikes is marvellous. The crew had been all on the customized painted bars, maybe as a result of it might be a disgrace to not, or maybe for funds causes.

At Bahrain Victorious Fred Wright was utilizing the Carbon Ti chainrings I’ve usually come to affiliate with UAE Team Emirates.

The ordinary white Vision Metron cockpit of his British champion’s bike has been swapped for a separate system so he can use spherical bars.

These tyres, 35c Continental GP5000 AS TR ones, had been the largest of the day, with barely any extra room within the fork.

It’s not so long as Rutsch’s stem, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a bigun. He’s not utilizing Prologo’s new bar tape although, regardless of it being a crew sponsor.

Much just like the Scott Foil, this Merida has a seatpost with a shock absorbing dampener in it, however we have now seen Wright use this earlier than, somewhat than it being a brand new mod only for Roubaix.

The all season (AS) model of the GP5000 presents extra grip, higher puncture safety, and importantly is available in a 35c width.

You may barely squeeze one other millimeter extra rubber in there earlier than it fouls on the entrance derailleur.

The Van Rysel RCR Pros of Decathlon-AG2R had been principally inventory, save for some aftermarket chainrings and larger tyres.

Former winner Dylan van Baarle was aboard the Cervelo Soloist right this moment, with 32c tyres and (you guessed it) a 1x setup, although no monumental chainrings for the Dutchman. However, he did not really begin the race.

Despite all of the discuss of hookless rim failures, Lotto-DSTNY had a number of the narrowest tyres on the race at 30c. They had been tubeless with inserts, and the Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels are extra akin to a gravel wheelset, however they’re nonetheless hookless. The 30c tyre dimension is the higher restrict of the Orbea Orca Aero crew bikes, so possibly they wished to go greater however merely could not.

We’ve already lined this prototype Dare in a separate information piece, nevertheless it’s nonetheless worthy of a re-examination. It has a merely monumental head tube, and usually would have an especially chunky one piece cockpit, however one just isn’t but out there in Alexander Kristoff’s chosen 38cm width but so he is utilizing an previous cockpit from the groups present bikes.

A 56t chainring, arrange 1x, appears very becoming given Kristoffs status as a robust rider, and the bike’s aero credentials.

Move apart, highway bikes, that is the primary gravel bike to be raced at Paris Roubaix. Israel-Premier Tech rocked up on Factor Ostro Gravel bikes to the recon, and rode them within the race.

Some place modifications had been wanted to offset the bikes shorter attain – setback seatposts and longer stems kind of did the trick I used to be advised.

Sure, you may match 45c tyres in do you have to want, however which may have been overkill and maybe slightly draggy.

At the again there’s clearance for lots of mud too, and the bike has a barely longer wheelbase.

The Factor Ostro Gravel on the time of launch was essentially the most aero gravel bike available on the market, and to my information nothing since has claimed to be quicker. The tremendous deep head tube and fork crown that sculpts into the primary body are key, and it is nonetheless inside the UCI guidelines for tube depths.

The bars had been single wrapped, and the drops themselves have a great lengthy part to carry when the going will get tough or quick.

The tyres had been setup tubeless as you’d anticipate, and clearly some has leaked both throughout setup or throughout recon. I used to be advised they’d maybe wish to go wider on the tyres, however the entrance derailleur will get in the way in which. Given how shut the clearance was on the Merida of Fred Wright it may need fitted, however solely simply.

As effectively as being the primary gravel bike at Roubaix, it is undoubtedly the primary bike to have bottle bosses on the highest tube. Unsurprisingly not one of the execs had been operating a high tube bag.

Finally, all of the Movistar crew bikes had been double wrapped, however solely on the tops. The Lizard Skins ending tape is successfully only a strip of extra bar tape, so the mechanics had been capable of make it a fairly seamless transition, although I am unable to assist however really feel a neater resolution could be to wrap the second layer underneath the primary one.