Paris-Roubaix tech predictions: 6 things we expect to see

Paris-Roubaix is, and has always been, a highlight of the season for tech nerds like us. it’s the biggest race of the Spring Classics - perhaps alongside Flanders - and the sheer brutality of the course leads to teams pulling out all the stops to help their riders get to the finish line as quickly - and ideally safely - as possible.

It’s Thursday afternoon as I type this, meaning less than 48 hours until the women’s race, and another 24 before the men.

Ironically, while I’m currently on a plane - a so-far-uneventful Ryanair flight (there’s still time) - I’m not bound for Northern France. My destination is a bike launch in Italy, leaving my esteemed colleague Will to handle all things tech on the ground.

And despite having done an excellent job of washing my hands of any Roubaix responsibility, the Hell of the North is front and centre of my mind.

So with little more than a safety card printed on the seat in front of me for entertainment, I began daydreaming about the tech we might expect to see, and before I knew it, the Notes app on my phone was open.

And that leads me to this. With that scenic route of an introduction complete, here’s a handful of tech trends I expect to see at Paris Roubaix in 2025.

We’ll see lots more 35mm tyres (but not at the start)

In 2025, I think we’ll see more teams running 35mm tyres (or 34mm in the case of Vittoria-sponsored teams, since that’s the brand's max).

Last year, almost everyone was running 32mm tyres, with the exception of Bahrain Victorious who risked 35mm Continental GP5000s despite less than a millimetre clearance against the front mech.

I don’t think we’ll see more than 35mm, but I do think we’ll see more teams maxing out what little space they have in their frames.

In 2024, it was rumoured - but unconfirmed to my knowledge - that Mathieu van der Poel started aboard a narrower tyre and during a calm moment, switched to a different bike with wider tyres for the cobbled latter half of the race. I don’t think anyone will make a song and dance out of this, but I think a few teams might take the same approach. 

Someone will race on a gravel bike

This might be a safe one, since Israel Premier Tech did it already in 2024, but I think one of the outsiders, who can surf the wheels and enjoy an aerodynamic draft, will roll out less aerodynamic gravel bikes with wide tyres to try and find an advantage later in the race.

Wider tyres are a definite benefit on the cobbles, and the longer wheelbase and slower handling of a gravel geometry will offer a more stable ride on the rougher surfaces too.

Smaller teams with smaller focus on the race

This is a thought that transcends beyond tech, and into wider team strategy, but I think smaller teams will just get through Paris Roubaix with as minimal effort as possible, rather than throw all their resources at it to sneak a surprise result.

The reason for this is the UCI relegation system.

It has forced smaller teams to be more tactical on which races they focus on, and to chase points in order to secure their WorldTour status in future years.

This means the team’s key riders, who might sneak a result at Roubaix on a good day and a well-timed peak, are instead focussing on smaller races where the chance of a win - and more points - is more realistic.

So where a nominally small team like Uno X might once have spent months dreaming up a groundbreaking tech setup to help Søren Wærenskjold win the race, that’s no longer a likely scenario, because all that effort comes at the expense of races like the Tour of Norway, where the team has a genuine chance of winning overall.

All-out aero kit

Back to a safer, more straightforward prediction, but despite the 260km parcours and inevitable toilet stops, the aerodynamic advantage of a skinsuit will be impossible to resist, and so I believe everyone will wear one, both in the men’s and women’s races respectively. 

This is basically the norm now, but for such a flat, potentially windy race other aero tech will be everywhere. I’d be surprised if anyone inside the top 10 isn’t wearing aero overshoes and an aero helmet, for example. Aero is ‘everything’ after all.

Self inflating tyres will feature, but they won’t win

In recent months, Visma-Lease a Bike have been using a self inflating tyre system from Dutch brand Gravaa to varying success. Marianne Vos used it for her gravel world championships win, and Matthew Brennan snagged a win aboard the tech at GP Denain a few weeks back, but I don’t think it’ll win at Paris-Roubaix.

In fairness, this is more because I don’t think anyone from Visma Lease a Bike will be able to outwit Pogačar and Van der Poel. The only one who can, Wout Van Aert, hasn’t used it in a race yet, so I don’t think he’ll make Roubaix his first. My colleague, Will, disagrees on this point and thinks he will use it, so we will have to wait and see. 

Still, the tech will get a run out one way or another we suspect - perhaps under Brennan - and for the sake of the brand, I hope it goes away without a hitch.

1x insurgence but a 2x win

1x groupsets are becoming more and more popular. SRAM sponsored athletes are using them alongside gravel derailleurs and I’m sure we’ll see this again at Roubaix. Likewise, given the flat parcours, I’m sure a handful of Shimano sponsored teams will roll out 1x groupsets with massive chainrings - like the 62T we saw Josh Tarling use in 2024.

Still, for the same reasons as above, I can’t look past Pogačar and Van der Poel for the win, and their history with 2x tells me they’ll stick with what they know.