Team bikes really are running with the safety tabs intact - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tinkoff-Saxo bikes run without the lower cable cover - James Huang/Future Publishing
Martijn Maaskant's (UnitedHealthcare) Wilier Triestina Zero.7 at Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Martijn Masskant (UnitedHealthcare) finished fourth at Paris-Roubaix in 2008 - James Huang/Future Publishing
A super-padded fi'zi:k Arione Tri saddle for Martijn Maaskant (UnitedHealthcare) - James Huang/Future Publishing
UnitedHealthcare team mechanics tighten up the grip on the Tacx Tao bottle cages with small zip ties - James Huang/Future Publishing
Custom etched K-Edge chain catchers for UnitedHealthcare - James Huang/Future Publishing
UnitedHealthcare riders were on a mix of 35mm and 50mm-deep Shimano carbon tubular wheels - James Huang/Future Publishing
Europcar riders used at least four different Colnago models for Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
30mm-wide Hutchinson tubulars for the Europcar team - James Huang/Future Publishing
Campagnolo doesn't offer top-mounted EPS shift buttons but that didn't stop Europcar's very creative team mechanics. Take one bolt-on accessory mount, add two time trial bar-end shifters, and voilá! - James Huang/Future Publishing
The trigger-type action actually felt more ergonomic than Shimano's thumb-actuated setup - James Huang/Future Publishing
Europcar used strips of grip tape on the riders' Tacx Tao bottle cages - James Huang/Future Publishing
Riders at Paris-Roubaix were mostly on 35mm and 50mm-deep carbon wheels - James Huang/Future Publishing
Jérome Cousin (Europcar) tackled Paris-Roubaix on a Colnago Prestige cyclocross bike - James Huang/Future Publishing
Campagnolo cantilevers and Dugast Paris-Roubaix tubulars for Europcar rider Jérome Cousin - James Huang/Future Publishing
A bit of sandpaper helps hold the Campagnolo Super Record EPS front derailleur in place on this Europcar bike. Adding some extra insurance is an Aivee chain catcher - James Huang/Future Publishing
Dual top-mounted brake levers for Europcar rider Jérome Cousin - James Huang/Future Publishing
Edvald Boasson Hagen's (Sky) Pinarello Dogma K, just after arriving at the start of Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
27mm-wide FMB Paris-Roubaix tubulars front and rear on 50mm-deep Shimano Dura-Ace carbon wheels for Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen - James Huang/Future Publishing
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) opted for aluminium-bodied Shimano Dura-Ace pedals at Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Big 53/44-tooth chainrings for Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) at Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ag2r-La Mondiale captain Sèbastien Turgot arrived at Paris-Roubaix with this Focus Mares CX cyclocross bike - James Huang/Future Publishing
Dual top-mounted brake levers and wide-profile cantilevers for Sèbastien Turgot (Ag2r-La Mondiale) - James Huang/Future Publishing
Teams, take note: there is no better way to call attention to a set of tyres that aren't supplied by your sponsor than to black out the actual logos with marker - James Huang/Future Publishing
FMB's 27mm-wide Paris-Roubaix tubulars were incredibly popular once again - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ag2r-La Mondiale rider Sèbastien Minard was one of very few riders we saw using traditional box-section aluminium tubular rims - James Huang/Future Publishing
Campagnolo's chain catcher uses a completely flat profile that one would expect to work better than the curved profiles of other competitors. The keyed slot up top also prevents it from rotating under load - James Huang/Future Publishing
30mm-wide Dugast tubulars for Sèbastien Minard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) - James Huang/Future Publishing
Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise's Eddy Merckx EMX-525 before the start of Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Most of the Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise team were on Ambrosio Nemesis aluminium box-section tubular rims wrapped with 25mm-wide Vittoria Pavé CG tyres - James Huang/Future Publishing
Course notes waiting to be taped on the bikes - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lampre-Merida mechanics don't bother to cut out holes for the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 sprint shifters; they merely wrap the tape around on either side of the buttons - James Huang/Future Publishing
28mm-wide Continental Competition Pro Limited PT tubulars on shallow Fulcrum Racing Light XLR carbon wheels for the Lampre-Merida team at Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
This Shimano Dura-Ace hood has seen better days - James Huang/Future Publishing
Filippo Pozzato's (Lampre-Merida) Merida Ride was fitted with a cheaper Shimano dual-pivot caliper that had a little more room on the bottom for the 28mm-wide tyres - James Huang/Future Publishing
Filippo Pozzato's (Lampre-Merida) Merida Ride just before the start of Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Single-wrapped traditional-bend bars for Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) - James Huang/Future Publishing
Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) removed his usual Rotor power meter for a set of standard Rotor 3D cranks - James Huang/Future Publishing
An extra clamp on the seatpost provides a bit of insurance against slippage on the cobbles - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tyler Farrar's (Garmin-Sharp) Cervélo R3 Mud - James Huang/Future Publishing
Double-wrapped traditional-bend bars for Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) - James Huang/Future Publishing
Former Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Vansummeren rode this Cervélo R3 Mud - James Huang / Our Media
Johan Vansummeren's (Garmin-Sharp) Rotor 3D crankarms were fitted with a solid chainring spider, elliptical Rotor Q-Rings, and Garmin Vector pedals - James Huang/Future Publishing
When asked, most team mechanics would only say that their riders' tyre were inflated to "between 5.5 and 6 bar". In reality, the pressures used were more like 4.5 bar (65psi) - James Huang/Future Publishing
4.90 bars (71psi) of pressure for this rider - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Bretagne-Séché Environnement team used 28mm-wide Challenge Paris-Roubaix tubulars mounted to Vision TC50 carbon wheels - James Huang/Future Publishing
28mm-wide Continental Competition Pro Limited PTX tubulars with orange sidewalls for the Orica-GreenEdge team - James Huang/Future Publishing
Mathew Hayman's (Orica-GreenEdge) Scott Addict before the start of Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) didn't quite have the legs today - James Huang/Future Publishing
Tom Boonen's (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) course notes for Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Team mechanics commonly use a lot of electrical tape to secure the lines on the handlebars - James Huang/Future Publishing
We've seen these fancy headset on Filippo Pozzato's (Lampre-Merida) race bikes several times in the past - James Huang/Future Publishing
A look 'under the hood' so to speak - James Huang/Future Publishing
Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) uses a 150mm-long stem on his Merida Ride - James Huang/Future Publishing
Fi'zi:k makes custom saddles for the Sky team with truncated center channels - James Huang/Future Publishing
Bradley Wiggins isn't the only rider on Sky who had his bars fully wrapped for Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Sky team mechanics use a short section of split clear plastic hose to protect their Stages power meters from the pressure washer - James Huang/Future Publishing
That's a lot of cushioning - James Huang/Future Publishing
The Sky team goes through a lot of drivetrain cleaner. This container holds 25 liters (1.3 gallons) - and if you look closely, you can see that it actually says "Team Sky" on the label at top left - James Huang/Future Publishing
FDJ.fr's Lapierre Pulsium gets a little love the day before Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
The unusual finish is a good giveaway that the Shimano Dura-Ace outer chainring is bigger than usual - James Huang/Future Publishing
Long-reach Shimano brake calipers for the FDJ.fr team's Lapierre Pulsiums - James Huang/Future Publishing
It's the dawn of a new age for many long-time pro mechanics. Now, instead of adjusting derailleurs with screwdrivers and Allen wrenches, they need laptops - James Huang/Future Publishing
Lots of riders went with more heavily padded saddles than usual for Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
This BMC soigneur cut up an empty water bottle to use as a funnel, making for a much cleaner process - James Huang/Future Publishing
Sorry, no - these Katusha water bottles didn't actually have an array of progressively smaller bottles stashed away inside - James Huang/Future Publishing
Michael Schär's Elite Ciussi bottle cages are bent just a little bit - James Huang/Future Publishing
Colored Allen wrenches are harder to misplace - James Huang/Future Publishing
A fleet of Canyon Ultimate CF SLX machines for the Movistar team before Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
The internal Campagnolo EPS batteries for the Movistar team require a different type of 'lock' to prevent the batteries from draining - James Huang/Future Publishing
Two layers of Lizard Skins DSP tape for this Movistar rider - James Huang/Future Publishing
Ritchey makes these bars and stems for Canyon - James Huang/Future Publishing
Continental provided Movistar with these prototype tubulars, which featured an unusually grippy slick center tread - James Huang/Future Publishing
Movistar riders report that these prototype Continental tubulars roll very fast and yet are exceptionally secure on the cobbles - James Huang/Future Publishing
Shallow Campagnolo Hyperon Ultra Two carbon tubular wheels for the Movistar squad at Paris-Roubaix - James Huang/Future Publishing
Movistar uses Power2Max power meters - James Huang/Future Publishing
The sandwich-style replaceable rear derailleur hangers on Movistar's Canyon Ultimate CF SLX bikes are stiffer than ones that only bolt to one side of the dropout - James Huang/Future Publishing
Cannondale team mechanics use several different types of repair stands, including this thing from BiciSupport - James Huang/Future Publishing
The longer head tubes on Cannondale's Synapse Hi-Mod frames had many team riders using aggressively angled stems - James Huang/Future Publishing
Peter Sagan's (Cannondale) Cannondale Synapse Hi-Mod would see a lot of action today - James Huang/Future Publishing
Cannondale team mechanics bent the riders' SRAM chain catchers to work better with the unusually large inner chainrings - James Huang/Future Publishing
Another Paris-Roubaix has now come and gone and in its wake lies a wide range of bikes and gear that teams adapted to survive the cobbles. It's a mostly standard formula these days – slightly relaxed frame geometries, high-volume tyres, more cushioning at the contact points – but there was still plenty of variation to keep things interesting.
The trigger-type action actually felt more ergonomic than shimano's thumb-actuated setup: the trigger-type action actually felt more ergonomic than shimano's thumb-actuated setup - James Huang/Future Publishing
Take a look at our wrap-up gallery of some of the most interesting bikes and gear that caught our eye in Compiègne, France. And don't worry – we've also got a few more pro bike features to come from the Hell of the North.
James Huang is BikeRadar's former technical editor. After leaving BikeRadar in 2016, he worked at CyclingTips and Escape Collective. He now runs the Substack cycling publication N-1 Bikes.
This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
