The race may be won on the asphalt, but it can be lost on the cobbles. He will have been limited in his equipment choice by sponsors. I suspect he’s gone with the tubeless option as it may have given better puncture protection but his particular choice of (maybe limited) equipment let him down. I suspect the 105 rule doesn’t even enter the mind of the racers. They will go for the set up designed to provide the greatest comfort and puncture protection.
Tyre and pressures are often a very closely guarded secret at Paris-Roubaix. I reckon there are so many variables at play.
100% this. Until you can ride a tubeless tire until the team car catches up, it’s going to be a hard sell for pros. Who was it that recently won riding several K on a flat tub?
You can bang on the rim and survive much more on a tubular than on tubeless. Additionally, I don’t think the “open-tubular” construction type works in a tubeless format because you need the additional structure of coated/fortified sidewall to maintain shape and seal. Finally, why the hell weren’t the Vittoria riders on a tubeless Rubinho? It’s Roubaix.
I doubt it was a sponsor issue. It seems half the bunch were on Vittoria tubulars (including some of the teams sponsored by Continental according to Cycling Tips).
Anybody putting 2 & 2 together re: Van Marcke & saying ‘Nee’ to Di2? To me, that was the real equipment failure story of the race. Who knows how Kristoff would have done & anyhow there is probably a better tubeless setup that would work.
Sepp was in a position to contend. His equipment failure for sure cost him a podium spot and probably a victory.
There have been a couple of instances of the rear mech getting banged and going into lockdown mode this year. I think it happened to Sagan in a semi-classic a few weeks ago.
I think it’s a leap to say that Sep’s equipment failure cost him a probably victory - he may have been in the lead group, but he wasn’t free and clear at that point, and he’s not known for his sprint. At one point he and Lampaert pushed each other going around a corner - was that when the mech issue happened, or was it some other time?
What I heard is that the Di2 went into crash recovery mode. I can’t tell from watching the race exactly where it happened but if you watch just before Pollit’s attack you can see Sepp on the radio…that’s at about the 14km mark? Sagan couldn’t follow, Sepp tried to close…after they got off the cobbles the moto cameraman gives you a closeup of Sepps rear wheel & you can see it’s stuck in the 11. That’s at 13km.
Roubaix is Roubaix. What works anywhere else on their calendar doesn’t really matter, it is only what will work there.
Those vittoria’s that he chose to race can’t even survive a few rides on farm roads around my town, let alone Paris_Roubaix, they shouldn’t have even been in consideration. Did he even at least use the Corsa Control like it seemed the Vittoria tubular riders were on?
No matter how wide a rim he was on, Kristoff is large for a pro rider and 28’s and 30’s dominated the tire selection of the field, most of whom are smaller than he is. Numerous riders who did very well chose less aero frames and larger tires as riders have for a long time there.
That race has and always has had very specific requirements, rolling resistance and aerodynamics are great things to consider the rest of the year, neither of those mean anything standing on the side of the road watching the race leave you behind.
