Paris-Roubaix, tubeless tires and punctures

Seems like most of the teams (men’s and women’s) went with tubeless tires. And listening to the GCN crew, it seems like there was a higher incidence of punctures this year compared to others. I know some is down to circumstances, like whether you can see your line in order to dodge potholes etc, but…wondering if there are any statistics as to which team/tire had the most punctures, and which had the least?

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I think we need to understand what were punctures vs. flats….my gut reaction is that the number of flats today were primarily due to burping vs. actual punctures.

Regardless, as I noted in the race thread, I don’t think tubeless is ready for Roubaix. At a minimum, I think they need to include inserts. But my guess is that a lot of teams revert back to tubs next year.

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I do wonder how much sealant was used :neutral_face: I am never going that fast but with me tubeless usually seals within a couple of revolutions and would certainly get you to the end of a sector. It can make a right mess of your frame though :joy:

Are there regulations in place to stop the use of gravel bikes with 40mm+ tyres?

They are the only tubeless tyres I’d use for something like paris-roubaix.

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I don’t think so but I would have thought you’d have to put a lot more effort in to keep up on the tarmac sections.

No, but you have to remember that the is only 50k of cobbles out of a 250km race…heck, they do a century before they even touch the first cobble.

teams need to think about efficiency on the road just as much about performance on the cobbles. Also chainring sizes, etc.

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The average speed was 45.79kph (28.45mph) for 257km, so no, 40mm gravel tyres would not be a good choice!

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Just to add complexity I didnt hear mentioned on the broadcast at all, the nerd alert podcast when they were at Sea Otter interviewed an employee of vittoria who mentioned that a significant number of riders using their tubeless tires would also be running inserts at Roubaix.

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If there were an increased number of flats at Paris-Roubaix this year, then it would be nice to get a count or at least an estimate. For now the reports seem to be observations. We do know that one of the most high profile flats (Wout) happened on a tubular.

As for Tubeless, the last 4 winners (2 women, 2 men) of Paris-Roubaix have won on tubeless. Yes, adoption has been slow if you consider that the first Pro Tour win on Tubeless happened 14 years ago when Philipe Gilbert won Omploop Het Volk on a set of Hutchinsons. And there have been hiccups, like when Alexander Kristoff ran tubeless in the 2019 edition of Paris-Roubaix. He’d run them the week before in Flanders and had a good result but at Roubaix he punctured multiple times. Maybe it was because he ran 25s? But more teams than not now run tubeless including in the harshest race of them all.

Many teams that are running tubeless are running inserts (attn TrainerRoad Podcast). The Vittoria insert is particularly interesting. When the tire is up to pressure, the insert is pushed down into the rim. When air is lost, the insert balloons to take up the space allowing the rider to roll on a flat until aid comes.