As far as one-day races go, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are some of the most energy-intensive of the season. Only Liège-Bastogne-Liège can be considered in the same league for energy expenditure, courtesy of its ridiculous elevation profile.
At 260 km long, the 2025 edition of Paris-Roubaix was a little shorter than in previous years, but with a winning time of just over five and a half hours, it was still by no means a short day in the saddle.
Compared to Flanders, riders faced about an hour less of racing before hitting the first sector of cobbles. This means that the relative intensity of Roubaix is likely slightly higher than Flanders, with fewer kilometres of ‘easy’ riding before the intensity ramps up as the fight for position begins.
Ahead of the race's start, I got up close and personal with Van der Poel’s Canyon Aeroad CFR and got a glimpse at the defending Roubaix winner’s fuelling strategy. This revealed just how energy-intensive the Queen of the Classics is if you have your eyes on victory.
Solid food only until the cobbles
Van der Poel’s stem-mounted fueling strategy used icons for solid foods, gels, and liquids; those icons were colour-coded, and exactly what each colour denotes is open to debate. However, by applying some general assumptions based on the team's nutrition sponsor, we can at least get close to working out what the former world champion consumed on his way to a third successive victory at The Hell of the North.
Did we do a good job with this story?
