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Top spot on the podium went to Mathieu van der Poel’s Canyon Aeroad for the second time in three spring Monuments. Van der Poel’s bike features a slight update to the Aeroad’s seat tube. Canyon has not yet confirmed any details on what appears to be a forthcoming update to its aero platform, but the bike appears otherwise very similar to the current Aeroad. Van der Poel won Roubaix on an almost identical setup to that which he rode to second place at Flanders a week earlier and rode to victory at Milan-San Remo last month.Van der Poel raced on the Dura-Ace C50 wheelset …… wrapped with 32 mm tubeless tyres, specifically Vittoria’s still-unannounced “Corsa Pros”. These wider tyres are one of only two obvious changes to Van der Poel’s bike in a race which has seen almost the entire peloton change bikes over the past few decades. The other obvious change Van der Poel opted for is the good old-fashioned double-wrapped bar tape. This once-ubiquitous Roubaix hack is seemingly a dying trend in the modern Roubaix peloton. I’ll keep including these when we have them. One of these days I’ll pull them all together and look for any interesting changes or trends from race to race. The updated Aeroad Van der Poel is currently racing shifts the seatpost clamp from midway down the rear of the seat tube to the more common forward-facing mount at the junction of the top tube and seat tube. 172.5 mm crankarms, 54-40 chainrings, 11-30 cassette … if you’re wondering. A UCI commissaire breaks out the iPad for a selfie with the winners bike, maybe?Jasper Philipsen made it almost the perfect day (not quite Mapei 1,2,3-level perfect) for Alpecin-Deceuninck and Canyon, placing his Aeroad (current model) on the second step of the podium. Philipsen, like the rest of the Alpecin-Deceuninck and Fenix-Deceuninck squads, has been racing these two-tone purple Aeroads this season. Paintwork and slight update aside, Philipsen’s setup was pretty much identical to Van der Poel’s. Dura-Ace Di2, C50 wheelset, 172.5 mm 54-40 crankset, 11-30 cassette, and Vittoria 32 mm tubeless tyres. Philipsen passed on the double-wrapped bar tape, but did run a sprinter/satellite shifter on the drops. Best to tag your wheels in a race where riders might need/drop a wheel anywhere with anyone. Philipsen’s version of the smiley face feeding plan. R9200P powermeter for the Shimano sponsored Alpecin squad. Wout van Aert treated the new Cervelo Soloist to its first Monument podium. Cervelo touts the Soloist as a “light and aero” bike for road racers who don’t have the WorldTour support crew and need a bike that’s “easy to work on and easy to travel with”. I’m pretty sure Wout has a decent support crew, and the reason given for choosing the Soloist was down to tyre clearance, although his usual rig, the S5, is capable of clearing up to 33 mm of rubber. Whatever the reason, it surely must be a good thing to see one of the world’s best riders race and podium at one of the world’s biggest races on something other than a brand’s most expensive top-of-the-range offering. Vittoria’s new Corsa Pros claimed all three spots on the podium and five of the six podium spots when including the Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. Van Aert raced with the 30 mm version. A Jumbo-Visma mechanic told us the green paint on the valve indicates the tyre is fitted with inserts.In a race with more falling down than any other the “SaveMyBar” from CloseTheGap.cc makes even more sense. Jumbo-Visma run the bar plug bumper in the hope it might prevent damage from a crash or during travel should the bar take a hit at the drops. The Soloist features a pretty racey geometry, but still Van Aert rides with a 140 mm stem. Pro! Time for a new FSA sticker.Van Aert had those 30 mm tyres on Reserve’s 40|44 wheelset, which probably provides a well-matched tyre:rim width given those tyres likely inflate a little larger than 30 mm on the 25 mm internal rim width and the front rim’s 33 mm external rim width. Like pretty much every SRAM-equipped team in both races, Jumbo-Visma ran 1x drivetrains. Van Aert raced with a 54-tooth chainring on 172.5 mm crankarms. The Cofidis women and men had the new Look light/aero frame at Roubaix. We believe this is the new 795 RS, dropping the Blade from the name and much of the depth from the tubing of the current 795 Blade RS.Dropped and flared seatstays, truncated tubing, integrated bar stem, big chunky bottom bracket – the new 795 ticks all the modern boxes. It looks (no pun intended) like a solid offering from the iconic French brand. Whether the new bike can catapult Look back to its former position as one of the most prestigious marques in the peloton remains to be seen. The Zaaf squad has had a turbulent time of late. The team is racing Enve’s new Melee frameset, SES 4.5 wheelsets, aero bars, and stem.If there was a tech trend at Paris-Roubaix 2023, it was the near-extinction of the Roubaix-specific bike. I took this photo of the SD Worx bikes lined up before the start thinking the entire squad was racing on the Tarmac SL7 …… but as it turns out, Christine Majerus had opted for the most Roubaix-specific of all Roubaix bikes in the S-Works Roubaix from Specialized (that’s a lot of “Roubaix”).Team TotalEnergies did roll out the fleet of Roubaixs, but otherwise, almost every team opted for the same frame as a week prior in Flanders with just wider tyres and the odd double-wrapped bar tape. Factor was among the first to set about designing a light aero bike for everyday/race use, which would also serve as a team’s go-to for Roubaix. This is an Ostro VAM belonging to Israel-Premier Tech’s Mia Griffin. Griffin is the first Irish rider to participate in (and finish) Paris-Roubaix Femmes.The EF Education-TIBCO-SVB team of eventual winner Alison Jackson raced Cannondale’s new SuperSix Evo Lab71. This is Zoe Bäckstedt’s SuperSix and is practically unchanged from how the team set up its new bikes for Flanders. The new SuperSix features an incredibly narrow seat tube. Team Jayco AlUla raced on its usual fleet of Liv Langmas …… bar a couple of riders who had opted for Liv’s new aero platform in the EnviLiv. Matej Mohorič’s Merida Reacto demonstrates a) how versatile the modern aero bike is with the only change from his usual setup being a shift to 32 mm tyres, and b) how …… the …… pro bike photography sausage is made.Some of the women’s Jumbo-Visma squad opted for Cervelo’s Caledonia, including Nienke Veenhoven whose bike is seen here. Arlenis Sierra’s Ultimate amid a fleet of Movistar Canyon Aeroads on Saturday.Interestingly, a few of the Movistar men raced with these black forks on Sunday. The forks are new or at least a prototype, but the team would not be drawn on what exactly was new about the otherwise identical-looking forks. Canyon would not comment other than to say, “the feedback we receive at Paris-Roubaix will help us to continue creating innovations for the future.” Reading between the lines, though, the forks are new and could make their way onto all Aeroads in future. The entire Arkèa-Samsic squad swapped out the spec carbon one-piece handlebar/stem typically found on the new Oltre in favour of these separate bar-and-stem combos for Roubaix. Hugo Hofstetter crashed twice in GP Denain, twice breaking that one-piece handlebar on different bikes in the one race.
I asked Binachi representatives outside the Arkea bus if the move to allow bars and stems for Roubaix was a precaution following that incident. The representatives were emphatic that the change had nothing to do with Hofstetter’s crash, explaining the team had tested the two-piece setup as early as January this year and its use in Roubaix was in response to rider’s requests for traditional round bars for better grip over the cobbles.Most of the team were riding with more traditional round bars, which undoubtedly do offer a more secure grip. However, at least one rider had swapped out the Bianchi bars for these aero-shaped Vision bars. The Bianchi representatives explained the Oltre bar is also exceptionally stiff, which may well be desirable on the road, but not so much across the cobbles. The entire team is expected to switch back to the Oltre bar ahead of the next races, making a lot of work for the mechanics both before and after the Hell of the North.
Regardless of the reasoning for the swap on Sunday, it’s been a rough start to life for the new Oltre. While the Trek-Segafredo women’s squad raced the new Domane RSL …… the men all opted for the Madone. One team representative explained that the men choose the Madone for its aero benefit as their race starts with 100+ km of smooth tarmac and the race speed is increasing year on year. The mechanic was marking the seat post position here, something you’ll find on most pro bikes, but this was only added the morning of the race to Pedersen’s standard team edition-colourway Madone. The Dane had been racing a Project One-painted bike in prior races this spring.Team DSM also opted for their now familiar new Foil, again with just wider tyres …… and an easter egg for John Degenkolb from his kids. It was Easter Sunday, after all.
