Gargantuan chainrings, $1,300 hubs, and prototype tyres that barely fit: Paris-Roubaix men’s tech gallery
Over 100 images of all the best tech from the pits of the best race of the year
While we didn’t get to see a World Champion go back to back at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Tadej Pogačar entering the fray for the Hell of the North certainly gave us some electric racing.
While my colleagues have been doing a truly stellar job of keeping you abreast of all the best stories from the weekend, for my part I’ve been bombing around the pits at the start of the race to sniff out all the best tech on show. If you haven't already seen my Women’s Paris-Roubaix tech gallery then you really need to make a note to read it after this. There’s finally parity in terms of cool tech on show.
The men’s techscape was dominated as it has been in recent years by large, single chainrings, and wider tyres, but as ever there’s more to a tech gallery than just the headline bits and pieces. We’ve seen the judicious use of glue at Visma, as well as self-inflating tyres, and at Intermarché there’s a bike that’s had its tyre clearance so comprehensively exceeded I am amazed it made it through the day, plus a drastically modified SRAM derailleur.
Without further ado, then, here’s my Paris-Roubaix tech gallery. Crack a beer, feast your eyes, and let’s all get a little bit nerdy.
Let's start off with one of the main protagonists (as ever), Tadej Pogačar. Before the race we caught the team on recon. While he didn't use them in the race these appear to be a new pair of Scicon sunglasses.
Pogačar's carbon chainrings, from CarbonTi, had his own logo laser cut into them.
He used 32c Continental tyres for the big day, not leaving much room for the front derailleur, but more than some teams, as we will see later.
Juan Sebastián Molano was running round handlebars, unlike the rest of the team.
Pogačar ran these squares of foam under his levers to stop them biting into his hands on the cobbles.
António Morgado's shifter hoods look like they might be a little illegal to me. The hoods are very inwardly turned.
Tim Wellens had a 3D printed computer mount to hold his Wahoo.
Pogačar had his trademark hulk sticker, plus tape all the way to the stem.
He also uses an aftermarket gold derailleur hanger from Framesandgear.
Oddly, the team car turned up with the aero Y1Rs bike as a spare for a few riders. This one was for Mikkel Bjerg.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had red helmets for the race in support of the Wings For Life World Run.
The riders were also using a 32c width version of the latest Specialized Mondo tyre.
Except Ryan Mullen, who was madly using 26c Specialized Turbo Cotton tyres, not even the Hell of the North variant! I suspect he got off before the cobbles began.
Mullen had his shifter blips glued straight to his bars.
While it is a flat race and aero matters a lot, most teams had some exceptions in their setups in the name of roadside mechanical assistance. Thru-axle keys were left in on a great many bikes, including that of eventual winner, Mathieu van der Poel.
Like most bikes, Van der Poel's Di2 cable was secured to the derailleur hanger in some way.
I know it looks like his usual white Canyon Aeroad, but this is a different bike. It's only mostly white. More on that later.
No lunatic front chainring here, but a larger one than he'd run more generally I believe.
See, I told you it was only MOSTLY white. It's a special 'Tensor' edition paint scheme, with markings showing where the stresses happen on the frame over the cobbles.
32c Pirelli P-Zero Race TLR RS tyres for Van der Poel, which clearly worked for him on the slippy cobbles.
Here are some more of those tensor lines on the seatstays.
Someone's hungry! Jack Rootkin-Gray had a tonne of carbs on board at the start.
The mechanic for EF gets the tyre pressure just so for the start.
The team bikes were pretty stock, save for some riders running tape all the way to the stem.
32c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres with room to spare.
Aero Wahoo Speedplay pedals. The dimpled surface faces downwards - I have more on that later.
OK, I've teased you enough - here's Josh Tarling's whopping 62 tooth chainring, very much the biggest of the day.
His bike was also running £1,000 (or about $1,300) Tactic hubs. Some bling to rattle over the cobbles, though at the finish he was on a bike with White Industries hubs instead. Not too bad, but not quite as premium.
Tarling had a few spare bikes, most of which had enormous carbon chainrings.
Here's another, though this one is Digirit branded.
Now, here's a head scratcher. The Ineos bikes don't usually have stripes on the forks. The team wouldn't tell me anything, so speculation only here. It could be an aero thing, with the stripes acting as trip strips, or it could be something else entirely.
It could just be because it's the end of a very long week and a half on the road, but this fork looks a slightly different shape to the usual Pinarello Dogma F fork. Maybe it's nothing, but Pinarello has previous for making Roubaix-specific bikes, so something to keep an eye on. (Unless I am actually going mad).
Thinner in the lower third, then thicker at the base again. This was definitely a Roubaix bike though, as it was also running a massive Velobike stem and round bars.
These wheels aren’t stock either, they’re Princeton models rather than the usual Dura-Ace set the team uses.
Princeton Dual 5550 Evolution wheels to be precise, with a 24mm internal width and a price tag of $4,500. That'll be an expensive one to replace if it ever went wrong.
The wheels feature a slightly wavy profile, and border on the all-road.
The Ineos bikes had the neatest derailleur cables of any bikes this weekend.
While Tarling was using a whopping chainring, Connor Swift was also using an aftermarket Drag2Zero aero chainring.
32c Continental tyres all round at the Ineos bus.
OK, remember those aero pedals? Here's how they look under the shoe. I’ve been trying to get this shot for ages!
While it didn’t secure them the win as it did in the women’s race, the team were all using the Gravaa tyre pressure adjustment system. I’ve had a ride on it on the Roubaix cobbles already, so have a read after to hear my initial impressions.
Van Aert had a dedicated data screen showing the pressure in each tyre.
Despite being seen in recon using the aero Cervélo S5, Van Aert raced Roubaix on the Soloist, perhaps due to concerns about mud clearance following the rain overnight.
Here’s a close up of the Gravaa system’s valve, which allows air both in and out on command.
Van Aert also ran a very slimline chain catcher. Instead of hugging it on either side it simply sits atop the chain, preventing it from hopping off (in an ideal world).
As ever at Roubaix we saw some riders having their tyres leave the rim. The Visma mechanics came up with a novel, but old-school solution to this issue by simply gluing the tubeless tyres to the rim with tub glue. You can see some air bubbles trying their best to escape, frozen in time at the rim-tyre interface.
A standard road cassette at the rear end for Van Aert.
The Visma kit has no sponsor logos, instead showing a ‘yellow b.’ team insignia, indicating that they may well be making their own kit nowadays.
Movistar took a series of increasingly drastic measures to keep their computers attached to the mounts. Black tape, covering half the screen, seems a bit much but I bet it worked.
At least the tape here is only covering the buttons!
And one rider simply placed his trust in the Garmin Lanyard. I hope it worked for him…
The relatively new squad Unibet Titema Rockets showed up on Sunday to their first-ever Monument. Their Cannondales are certainly a rival to those of EF for the jazziest of the bunch. This was the bike of Slovakian champion Lukaš Kubiš, so it has a white paint scheme.
The rest of the team bikes are this brushed blue effect.
Incredibly, given all the ludicrous high tech on offer at the race, the Unibet team secures their race numbers with (checks notes) an old fashioned wingnut. If it looks stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.
26.2psi would be a very low pressure (or VERY high if it’s in bar), even in a 32c tyre, but I can’t think what else this would be.
Another instance of the derailleur getting perilously close to the rear tyre.
Swag or not? You can argue about this in the comments. They’re a bit much for me but they certainly garnered attention.
Garmin power pedals for all the Unibet riders.
The paint on all the team bikes had this faux-brushed/etched effect.
I’m genuinely undecided about whether I like it or not. It’s brash, bold, and stands out, but I think I’m a bit of a traditionalist.
Fair play to Unlimited Colours though, it was executed very well.
Against the yellow team bus the white really pops.
I’m not sure these aero socks are from Van Rysel, and the shoes definitely aren't. I can’t remember which rider this was - I was too busy looking at his shoes - but on his right foot he’d sliced an X into the outers at the widest point of his foot as the shoes were clearly too narrow for him.
Just like the women's team, the men of Lidl-Trek were running a modified SRAM drivetrain, forcing together a 13sp XPLR rear derailleur with a 12sp road cassette.
Here's the cassette - count the sprockets if you like.
Jonathan Milan's bike scored a perfect zero for hidden motors.
Mads Pedersen had his aero bottles secured in the cages with strips of butyl inner tube.
Here’s a closer look at the additional grub screw that’s been added to the XPLR derailleurs. It appears like a small groove has also been milled out of the inner face of the inner parallelogram arm too.
Here’s friend of every tech journo under the sun, Taco van der Hoorn's bike. I can’t think of anyone running a more extreme position.
35c prototype Hutchinson tyres on Van der Hoorn’s bike, with (and this isn’t an exaggeration), just enough room to fit a cigarette paper between the frame, derailleur and the rear tyre.
There was a bit more room up front, but not much!
My wrists hurt just looking at this image.
Here are those prototype Hutchinson tyres. The team told me they were a larger version of the Blackbird, but the tread is different.
While I didn’t nail the focus (you can’t win ‘em all). The derailleur cable is about 1mm from the tyre here.
In other exciting news, the whole team was using Shimano GRX rear derailleurs. The mechanics told me that, thanks to the stronger clutch, it stopped ‘ghost shifting’ over the cobbles.
This Prologo bar tape was first seen at Opening Weekend last year. It’s covered in rubber spines for better grip.
This is a new design though. I couldn’t see any logos but I suspect it’s just a new design from Prologo.
The emergency allen key next to an in-race GoPro. Heavily laden.
On Van der Hoorn’s spare bike he was running All Season versions of the Hutchinson Blackbird tyres. Also, check out the valveless tubeless setup; very aero.
Bigger chainrings than stock for Van der Hoorn too, though still in a 2x configuration.
At Tudor, DT Swiss GRC 1100 gravel wheels were the order of the day, with a wider internal width to better support the wider tyres.
Despite having such a wide set fork, the team’s BMC Teammachine R bikes actually have relatively narrow tyre clearances.
While many teams covered their satellite shifters in tape, some just glued them straight onto the bars.
Team branded seatpost height stickers are a cut above the usual paint pen.
Another large, 1x chainring. This time at the Jayco-AlUla team bus.
Nothing really to see here other than a pleasant colourscape. It’s my gallery, and I try to build it as I’d like to see it if I was a reader, so… Bon appétit I guess?
Not many riders use the larger Garmin computers, but those that do get plenty of space for stats.
BOA-enhanced Elite Struka bottle cages at the Arkea-B&B Hotels bus. It might make it harder to grab a quick drink, but it certainly helps stop them falling out.
Details matter at the top of racing. Some teams use black butyl tubes to hold the race transponders, others pale red latex. The Arkea mechanics use a celeste colour latex tube, to match the Bianchi bikes. Top notch stuff, that.
Yves Lampert was using a 32c version of the new Specialized Mondo tyres.
They do go wider, but there ain't room in the frame.
An emergency lever for Lampert, secured with a velcro strap or two.
I bet Taco could squeeze a bit more tyre in there, but it’d be very tight indeed.
The Soudal team have custom ‘Wolfpack’ K-Edge aluminium computer mounts.
More GRC gravel wheels, this time at the Uno-X Mobility team bus.
I have been told the team was only using separate bars and stems to dial their fit in, but this 3D printed, Deda branded spacer is a new addition, suggesting that some riders are happy enough to continue using it indefinitely.
Gold paint pen in the gap at the stem clamp so the bar rotation is always exactly the same.
This is a big stack of spacers to run under a stem with a carbon steerer tube, especially with such a long stem, and double especially over cobbles. I am told that Deda provided the team with an extended 70mm steerer tube bung to offer it additional support, but even so this gives me the willies.
While the Cofidis women used 34c tyres, the men were sticking to 32c all round.
Fred Wright is always good for a bike check. Round bars for the former British champ.
As per last year, Wright was overcooking the frame’s clearance by cramming in a set of 35c Continental GP5000AS TR tyres. It’s sketchy, but it’s faster on the cobbles.
It’s not quite so close as Van der Hoorn’s bike, but there’s not much in it between the tyre and the front derailleur.
Mercifully there’s a little breathing room around the fork crown.
Matteo Moschetti opted to use the fully rigid Synchros seatpost on his Q36.5 Scott Foil.
Jannik Steimle on the other hand (sensibly) opted for the version with the compliance insert.
It’s old news now, but the team were using the new Zipp wheels with integrated TyreWiz pressure sensors.
32c tyres all round for the squad, which on reflection was still by far the most common size across both men’s and women’s races.
A square of duct tape in this Israel-Premier Tech bike keeps the computer from rattling in the mount.
If you’ve made it this far, and especially if you’ve made it through the mega women’s tech gallery too, this is my treat to you. Yes I did get to pet him. Yes he was as soft as he looked. Yes he was a very good boy.
That's your lot for tech content from Paris-Roubaix. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I'm going to go and grab a beer, have a big dinner, and then fall asleep in my clothes before driving back to Britain in the morning.
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Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.