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The sun wasn’t out at the 2025 Paris-Roubaix, though you could feel it was trying.
The sky tried to spit, but the mood was as vibrant and excited as ever on the start line. And as ever, with the race rolling out from the start line in Compiegne, there was a treasure trove of tech to delve into. Unlike the past few years, this year certainly seemed to bring interesting setups. So, shall we delve in?
Below is part one of our Paris-Roubaix tech gallery. We have details on the teams opting for a 35mm wide tyre, Josh Tarling’s massive 62t chainring, and one of the cutest top tube cue sheets we’ve ever seen.
Intermarché-Wanty is using every little bit of tire clearance it has
If you’re reading this after the finish, I’m willing to say that a few of the Intermarché-Wanty guys had wheel changes once they’d taken on a few of the grubby sectors because there is no way their wheels were going to rotate with even the slightest of dirt on them. Just look at the photos of the minimal gap between their Cube Litening Aero C:68 X forks and the Hutchinson Racing Lab tubeless tyres in 35mm.
Others were being a touch more realistic with wheel rotation hopes, by using the Hutchinson Blackbird Racing Lab All season tyres in 32mm, another product that was only released a few weeks back. Those tyres were wrapped around the Newman Streem Allround wheels in a 49/54 mm depth.
Interestingly, Intermarché-Wanty seemed to be the only team I spotted that was using a wheel with a carbon spoke.
Oh, and this might just be the best top-tube cue sheet we’ve seen. A wonderful reminder of the bigger picture.
Why is Tudor Pro Cycling on gravel wheels?
Swiss team and wildcard invitees Tudor lined up on the BMC Teammachine. We’ve seen the UCI ProTeam racing much of the season on what might be the most expensive bike in the peloton: the Teammachine R Masterpiece, a lighter, Swiss-made version of the standard Teammachine R.
So why weren’t they riding the very best version here? Two reasons: the Masterpiece is only slightly lighter, and BMC can currently produce just 30 frames per year. Fair enough.
The real standout tech at Tudor, though, was their wheel setup: every rider was on the DT Swiss GRC 1100 gravel wheelset, paired with 32mm Schwalbe Pro One tubeless tyres. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a team opt for the DT Swiss gravel wheels, as the 24 mm internal and 36.5 mm external rim widths match the wider tyre profiles much more seamlessly than DT Swiss’ road wheels.
And since the team is sponsored by SRAM, running a 1x drivetrain was an easy choice for the relatively flat Paris-Roubaix. Every rider used either a 56- or 54-tooth chainring up front, matched to a 10-33t cassette at the back.
35mm tyres set the stage at Bahrain Victorious
35mm tires were on show at Bahrain in the form of Continental Grand Prix 5000 All Season TR. The team had a mixed bag of chainrings in many sizes there was of course the standard Shimano chainrings but in sizes not available to use mere mortals, but also chainrings from CarbonTi and Digirit. The largest was on Kamil Gradek’s bike with a 56/44 setup.
I managed to sneak a look at the mechanics’ phone to see what tyre pressures they were running, and it looks like through the week, they’ve played with different pressures, but for race day, they’ve settled on 3.2 bar (46.4 PSI) and 3.3 bar (47.9 PSI) for most riders.
Pogacar is back to the Colnago V4RS
Last but certainly not least was Pogacar’s collage V4RS. We saw him on a prototype V5RS this year, but it’s the standard V4RS for Roubaix. There’s no major change on his bike from other races. Just a tiny bit of for under the shifters, our guess is that it’s for a touch of comfort rather than the blades rattling, as that’s not a thing.
Chainrings are from Carbon Ti, and custom in a 55-40T. That is matched to what looked like a 11-30t cassette. Wheels are his standard Enve SES 4.5 with the hugely popular Continental 500S TR tubeless tyres in 32mm. We got a look at his bike earlier this week, so check it out here.
Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale’s Van Rysel RCR-F
Let’s start with a French team and one I got to hang out with earlier this week. Just a few weeks back, their bike sponsor and title sponsor brand, Van Rysel, officially released the new aero bike from the French brand, the RCR-F. The team had all star Oscar Chamberlain on the new bike, but he stuck with the all-rounder RCR. And after riding both earlier in the week at a Van Rysel event, I can understand why.
The RCR-F is a bike that, if you’re not professional, you’ll find outrageously stiff. It’s a bike that wants to force you into one of two aero positions on the bike, and a bike you’ll struggle with if you don’t do pilates. It’s a 100% uncompromised race bike, and they’ve watered nothing down to make it appeal to the average consumer, which I respect massively. That includes comfort, and that is why Oscar will have used the RCR.
I’m no pro, but I found it the ideal bike in their line-up to take on the cobbles. If you want to know more about Decathlon AG2R gossip and dad tips, then please check out this interview here with Chamberlain and Naesen.
Let’s talk tech. The team were on 32mm Continental 5000S TR tubeless tyres with no inserts across the board. Pressure was 3.2 bar (~46.4 PSI) out front and 3.3 bar (47.9 PSI) out back. If anything goes wrong on the cobbles, they don’t need to wait for a mechanic with an Allen key. Instead, they have skewers already installed in the thru-axles.
EF Education-EasyPost sticks with the basics
EF Education-EasyPost were one of the first teams using tubeless tyres at Roubaix a few years back, so there’s no change there; Vittoria Corsa Pros in 32mm throughout with inserts on Vision Metron SL 45 or 60 wheel sets. Every team, including EF Education-EasyPost, who are sponsored by Vision, were using the “older” SL version of the metro wheels rather than the recently released Metron RS version.
As one of the few teams on Speedplay they were running one of two models, the Aero or standard version. The only noticeable difference in kit at EF was their swanky custom lids. Poc and Muc-Off partnered to produce the ventral in a pretty striking colourway.
Mathieu van der Poel opts for ‘smaller’ chainrings
Alpecin-Deceuninck were pretty coy in letting me near the team bikes. Don’t worry, though; no conspiracies here, as they did let the UCI check them over!
But Mathieu van der Poel was using the same bike he’s used this year: a custom-painted Canyon Aeroad CFR. The tyre choice was the new Pirelli P-Zero Race RS, a lighter, more supple version of the P-Zero Race and a tyre that was released just over two months ago. These were 32mm in width shod on the same wheels he’s used for the past few years, Shimano Dura-Ace.
There are zero deviations in that department across any of the Shimano components, as the team is one of a few that the Japanese company officially sponsors. Chainring size was surprisingly small, or, dare I say, 54-40t, matched to 11-30T cassette.
Why is Cofidis on an unmarked Campagnolo rear derailleur?
Cofidis moved from Shimano to Campagnolo this season for their group supplier, and unsurprisingly, the Italian company had the team on the Super Record groupset. Chainring size was 55-40t for all, with 10-29T cassettes across the board.
What caught our eye, however, was that a few components went unbranded, with just a small classic Campagnolo winged logo on them but no model name. Is this a sign of something new to come, or are the components just minimalist team issues?
Oddly, in this day and age, we don’t see much double-wrapped tape, but we did at Cofidis. One rider’s bar and stem setup stood out with its double taped bars.
Josh Tarling used a 62t chainring at Paris-Roubaix
Ineos Grenadiers have a solid squad for the race; not just Ganna but Tarling and Conner Swift could, at the time of writing this be dark horses for the podium. Each of those riders had a different setup, however.
The most notable setup belonged to Josh Tarling, who opted to go one-by, much like he did last year. Chainring size was 62t mashed to what looked like a 11-32t cassette; the mechanics were reluctant to let on his running gear fully and certainly wouldn’t acknowledge that he was racing on Princeton Carbonworks Dual 5550 wheels.
Filippo Ganna was on the same setup he has used all season, using Shimano Dura-Ace C50, a 54-40t chainring up front, and an 11-34T cassette out back. The only deviation was using 32 mm Continental 5000S TR tyres.
Lotto Cycling Team rides on unreleased Oquo wheels
Lotto may have had some custom colourway Orbea Orca Aero bikes on the roof of the team cars as spares, bikes that they used in last week’s Flanders, a paint scheme to celebrate their 40th anniversary in the peloton.
What was perhaps most noticeable were the new wheels from Oquo. These, I’m informed, are prototypes wheels with wide rims for gravel and road. They are 50 mm deep and wider than the current LTD 50 wheelset, with a seemingly ~25 mm internal rim. This may be the reason they seemed to be the only team I spotted using 30mm tyres; that extra inner rim width would allow the 30mm Vittoria Corsa Pros to blow up to be wider than their stated size.
XDS-Astana stays the course
Team XDS Astana are, as I’m sure you are aware now, the first team to be sponsored by a Chinese bike brand, XDS is a company that, believe it or not, sells over 1.3 million bikes a year, with some being snapped up regally on the company’s Chinese version of TikTok account via a quick bidding event. Yeah, I know! Certainly a different marketing ploy.
All in all, there’s no change for the team on the mechanical side of things apart from Cees Bol with an unbranded FSA alloy stem that is ridiculously long. He’s matched that to a standard FSA bar in 36 cm width.
Team Picnic PostNL might have the best paint scheme at Paris-Roubaix
Sticking with teams using wheels that we don’t see too often. Team Picnic PostNL are now sponsored by Ururs, a wheel brand that usually sticks with sponsoring Pro Tour Italian teams, but then again, there aren’t many of them any more. The team were on their stock standard Lappiere Xelius DRS 9.0.
I’m going out on a limb here and claiming the team has the best paint scheme in the peloton; it’s understated but lovely.
One last thing while we’re talking about the Dutch squad, I’d like to extend our well wishes to John Degenkolb, a rider who at this race always looks like his in his element, but due to the savage crash at Flanders, he isn’t here but instead due surgery. Get well, John.
Wout van Aert is aboard the Gravaa Kaps automatic tire pressure adjustment system
We’re saving the most interesting tech for last. Wout Van Aert is doing a Ferrand-Prévot, by using the Gravva automatic tire pressure system. The system allows the rider to inflate and deflate the tyre on the fly; deflation is instant, but inflating the tyre is only by 0.1 bar per 100m. It’s not a massive problem when they’ll be traveling at over 45kmph for the race.
Saturday wasn’t the first time it was used to victory in a UCI-sanctioned race as Marianne Vos won the Gravel World Championships on the system back in October 2024. Van Aert seemed to be one of two riders using it.
There’ll be more tech soon, including a video, so please stay tuned.
Cheers
Dave
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