Taped wrists, myriad satellite shifter positions, bar-top brakes and more
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Electronic gears were everywhere at Paris-Roubaix this year. Team Katusha rode SRAM Red eTap — with SRAM-branded rings after riding the Tour of Flanders on blacked-out Rotor rings (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Jay Thomson (Dimension Data) had his wrists taped for the race (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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GoPro's new Session 4 was seen on quite a few bikes (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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A Direct Energie mechanic installs a K-Edge GoPro mount in the minutes before the race (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Shimano's hydraulic-Di2 levers are a new sight in the pro peloton (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Direct Energie broke out the BH disc bikes for Roubaix (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Fresh lube on Stannard's chain (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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The so-called climbing switch sees more use on the cobbles than on climbs (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Like others in the peloton, Team Sky riders have various preferences on where to stick the sprint shifters (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Salvatore Puccio raced the K8. Note the absence of the elastomer suspension (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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This is the rear of the unlaunched K8. The chainstays are similar to the K8-S, but the seatstay configuration is different (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Even Giant-Alpecin mechanic Felipe Ennes Joudjakoff got strapped up with a GoPro mount for wheel changes during the race (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Aero road bikes weren't entirely uncommon at Paris-Roubaix. These are Movistar's race bikes (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Focus had seven road bikes — and one cyclocross frameset, the only one of the race that we spotted (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Van Bilsen's teammate Michael van Staeyen prefers one (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Cofidis' Kenneth van Bilsen likes two top levers (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Many riders had GoPro cameras fixed to their bikes (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Minard was the one rider we saw at Roubaix on a cyclocross frame. On muddy editions of the race, some riders prefer the extra clearance that a ’cross frame allows. This year was dry (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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AG2R's Sebastian Minard had a single bar-top brake lever (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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While AG2R's Hugo Houle likes his Blips facing down (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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AG2R's Damien Gaudin likes his Blips facing him (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Turgot also opted for mechanical SRAM Red over eTap (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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AG2R's Sebastian Turgot rocks the tape all the way to the stem (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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The team also raced a yet-unannounced K8 frame. This is the rear of the K8-S (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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The K8-S also has flat chainstays designed for a bit of vertical give (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Handmade tires are supple but are, well, handmade (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Upstart company 4iiii recently added a left-leg sensor to its power-meter system (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Etixx-Quick Step's Iljo Keisse tucks a little sprint shifter right up against the stem (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Only at Paris-Roubaix will you see road pros using bar-top brake levers and Di2 satellite shifters (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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The 2016 Tour will start in northwest France (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Paris-Roubaix is put on by ASO, the same company that runs the Tour de France (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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This bike at the start of Paris-Roubaix isn't aero at all (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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There isn't yet consensus on how or where to mount SRAM's Blip satellite eTap shifters (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Most of Team Katusha rode Canyon's aero bike, the Aeroad (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Etixx-Quick Step's Niki Terpstra likes the same same shifters position as Keisse, but without the tape (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Cannondale brought a mix of the Synpase endurance bikes (with longer wheelbases and taller head tubes) and the straightahead SuperSix EVO race bikes (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Cannondale riders also had a mix of Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and mechanical drivetrains (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Team Sky opted not to use the K8-S for the cobbled Tour of Flanders, but a few riders still used the elastomer-based suspension frame for Roubaix (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Stannard, like winner Mathew Hayman, ran Shimano Di2 (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Ever the sticklers for detail, Team Sky measures and marks each stem (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Team Sky's Ian Stannard took third aboard this Pinarello K8-S (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Wouter's Berner derailleur pulleys have large jockey wheels for a claimed efficiency gain (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Cannondale's Wouter Wippert took it up a notch on the big ring, too (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Removing the top cap gets the stack just a few mm lower (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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Since the Synapse has such a large head tube, many pros run a smaller size frame than normal and a negative-rise stem (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
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The 44t inner ring is a common sight at the pancake-flat Paris-Roubaix (Image credit: Ben Delaney/Immediate Media)
Paris-Roubaix is a race like no other. With more than two dozen sections of brutish cobblestone roads littering the 258km race, the Hell of the North batters bikes and bodies without discrimination. Every year riders and mechanics employ various strategies to mitigate the rattling effects of the rocks.
While certain frames and saddles can help, a rider's primary aid is fat tubulars run at relatively low pressure. Continental and FMB were the most popular choices.
This year electronic gears were everywhere at Paris-Roubaix. This year a pair of teams each rode SRAM eTap and Campagnolo EPS, while more than a dozen squads had Shimano Dura-Ace Di2. There were notable mechanical exceptions to this digital rule. Pre-race favourite Fabian Cancellara rode mechanical Dura-Ace is his final Paris-Roubaix while world champion Peter Sagan switched mid-race from Di2 to mechanical. But the entire podium of Mathew Hayman, Tom Boonen and Ian Stannard used Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, putting to rest the notion that electronic shifting isn’t up to snuff for the cobbles.
While digital shifting has solidified its presence in the pro peloton, a consensus on where and how to mount satellite shifters has not. Shimano sprint shifters and SRAM Blip shifters were affixed all over various parts of the handlebars, sometimes mounted bare, sometimes buried beneath handlebar tape and sometimes wrapped with electric tape.
Good old-fashioned tape was also used to keep computers strapped to stems and cheat sheets of the cobble sectors plastered to top tubes and stems. Many riders wrapped their fingers and wrists with kinesiology tape to reduce the vibrations from the cobbles.
A few teams had riders on two different bikes. Team Sky, for instance, used a mix of the K8-S with the elastomer suspension and the unreleased K8 that has a traditional rear triangle. AG2R had seven road bikes and one cyclocross frameset.
Despite all the cobblestone-mitigation attempts of various technologies, it was the man with the combination of the best luck, the best head and the best legs who won the day. Mathew Hayman captured the 2016 Paris-Roubaix aboard a Scott Foil aero bike.
Check out the deep gallery above for a close look at the bikes and gear of the 2016 Paris-Roubaix.
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