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Glued-on tubeless tyres, prototype wheels and blistered hands – 2025 Paris-Roubaix Femmes tech gallery

Come for the cobbles, stay for the blisters

Given the EF Education-Oatly team came away with an excellent 2nd place on the podium, this simple message seems to have been very effective. But I'm not sure I can endorse it. When it comes to bike racing, all I have are excuses.

Liam Cahill / Our Media

Liam Cahill

Published: April 12, 2025 at 5:51 pm

The fifth edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift delivered a brilliant race with more attacks than you could keep track of.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma–Lease a Bike) became the first Frenchwoman to win – no less on her very first crack at the race – Paris-Roubaix Femmes, doing it in style with a searing solo attack.

The tech on display was equally impressive, with prototype wheels from Zipp, tyre clearances pushed to – and beyond – the limit, old-school hacks and much more.

Here are our top 2025 Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift tech picks.

Visma Lease-a-Bike team mechanics have applied a layer of Vittoria Mastik (ie, tubular tyre glue) to the external rim-tyre interface to help hold the tyres in place in the event of a blowout. Given the Mastik is clear, it's hard to spot. Thankfully, Roubaix dust sticks to everything. Liam Cahill / Our Media

The Roubaix course snakes its way through very exposed farmland. This Hammerhead Karoo head unit is set up to show wind direction. Knowing where gusts are coming from without waiting to be hit by them might save you some precious energy. Liam Cahill / Our Media

The max speed on this Wahoo suggests this rider finished their day in the team car. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Riders often keep details of the cobble sectors and feed zones within easy sight on their stems. Chloe Dygert had colour-coded notes to help identify upcoming critical points. From left to right, her notes show the distance covered when the sector begins, the sector length, and the star rating. Liam Cahill / Our Media

This UAE AQD rider even had small icons to show which sectors would have wheels and bottles at the end. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Other efforts were a little more basic. But provided the rider understands what is written, that's all that matters. Liam Cahill / Our Media

'FI' means finish, but the rest might as well be double Dutch to us. Liam Cahill / Our Media

If in doubt, a motivational message is the way to go. Paris-Roubaix is, after all, about simply getting to the finish for most of the riders. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Given EF Education-Oatly came away with an excellent 2nd place finish, this simple message seems to have been very effective. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Racing over the cobbles is like holding onto a very aggressive jackhammer while riding at maximum effort. Flora Perkins gave us a far too graphic description of feeling her blisters popping on the cobbles. Funnily enough, riders with these hands seem especially keen on trying 40mm road tyres. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Riders will try to avoid ending their day with countless blisters. This VolkerWessels rider opted for a whole lot of tape, and it seemed to do the trick. Liam Cahill / Our Media

This Orbea Orca Aero takes tyre clearance to the limit. Orbea states a maximum tyre size of 30mm for this frame, but this rider had fitted 32mm Vittoria Corsa Pros. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Chloe Dygert was rolling on Zipp's as-yet unreleased wheels with some electrical tape hiding what we assume is a new name. More difficult to hide is a new TyreWiz, first spotted by BikeRadar at Omloop. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Dygert and the Canyon Sram team opted for 34mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres. They looked as though they ballooned even wider on those new rims, suggesting a very wide internal profile. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Riders will grab whatever bottle they can wrap their battered hands around at Roubaix. Rosa Kloser has borrowed this one from FDJ Suez. Liam Cahill / Our Media

These mismatched wheels suggest this Lotto rider has visited the Mavic neutral service car. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Finally, 2023 winner – and 5th place finisher today – Alison Jackson shared her post-race snacks with a photographer. We're not on first-name terms yet, so there was no Haribo for BikeRadar. Liam Cahill / Our Media

Road and gravel presenter

Liam Cahill is a presenter on BikeRadar’s YouTube channel. He joined the BikeRadar team in 2021 and has amassed eight years of service in the bike industry, reviewing countless cycling products, writing numerous features and presenting award-winning video projects. An ‘international racing career’ saw him pinning a number on in places such as Canada, Italy, France and Wales. He most enjoys presenting videos on pro race tech from events such as the World Gravel Championships, where he’s happy to get among the media scrum for a word with the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Marianne Vos and Valtteri Bottas. Liam loves riding in the mountains, particularly on a sunny day. You can follow his pursuit of the perfect tiramisu on Instagram.

Height: 173cm
Bike size: 52/54