Same as me. There’s clearance for up to 30mm tyres on that bike. I know which one I’d be on!!!
It’s so stiff and uncomfortable on anything other than a Mallorcan smooth road, it seems a scary choice for cobbles, but I guess the tyres will help a lot.
What tyres and pressures are you using just now? And what wheels do you have?
4000S, 90psi (I’m 66kg), DT Swiss PR 1400 DICUT OXiC. It was set up for doing an Haute Route last year.
Ok. I wondered if you had the Rovals and was going to possibly suggest a tubeless set up.
I am not averse to the idea of getting new wheels for Roubaix. Liking the ideal of the G-One 30s, tubeless tyres.
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Let’s schedule a TR meetup. I’ll be solo for the ride, so if you fancy another teammate to draft off of, we could ride together, or meet up after for recovery beers!
How about gear ratios for Flanders? Any thoughts on what’s needed at the bottom end?
I cycled the route (not as part of the sportive) in an unfit state with 11-28 (with compact on front) and was fine except on the Koppenberg but in RVV you mostly have to walk up that anyway due to congestion. You’ve probably seen this already but if not it’s good: The 5 Hardest Cobbled Climbs In Flanders - YouTube
I have a compact 34-50 front gears and back i have an 11-28…pretty standard…it all depends on your fitness of course but on most “hills” i never need to use my easiest gear, only on paterberg and koppenberg in the event itself. Depending on how fast you go, watts go on the steepest parts over 300-400watts…will try to find my data of 2 years ago and post it.
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The fact that the cobbles are wet and slippy with mud in April during the race & sportive mean that you can’t stand basically at all on any of the significant cobbled climbs, so to be comfy, gear a bit lower.
I weigh over 100kg and was fine with 52-34 & 11-32, probably would’ve been fine with 11-30 also though.
It’s about having low enough gears to go slowly and weave around the thousands of other people who are going even slower, swerving or stopping or falling front of you. All while seated.