Paris-Roubaix tech gallery: A deep dive into the tech from the men's race

The dust has just about settled over the cobblestones of northern France once again after another gruelling edition of Paris-Roubaix. This year's race saw the record for the fastest-ever edition broken by rampaging winner Mathieu van der Poel with the race run off at an average of 46.841 kilometres per hour.

The Dutchman finished alone to claim victory from teammate Jasper Philipsen and Wout Van Aert respectively after Van Aert was dealt a cruel hand with a late puncture.

Paris-Roubaix also means special equipment for teams and riders and Cyclingnews was at the race and got a close-up look at a lot of the team's race tech. Tyre pressure management systems had been a key talking point in the run-up to the race and Team DSM and Jumbo-Visma riders used systems from Scope and Gravaa respectively.

Where typically, we've seen Roubaix showcase more experimental suspension systems in the frame, or innovative custom-orientated measures on the bars or saddle, this year almost all of the tech innovation surrounded tyres.

Beyond Scope and Gravaa's systems, the use of tubeless tyres has now become almost ubiquitous - with Vittoria's yet to be released Graphene-infused tan wall Corsa Pro tyres being used by all three riders on the podium. Specialized also used the race as a launching pad for its brand new S-Works Mondo tyre - though the team failed to feature in the sharp end of the race.

By contrast, in the women's race we saw a return to tubular tyres by some teams - most noticeably Trek, who innovated with tubeless tyres across the team in 2021. Much talk surrounded the use of foam inserts within tubeless tyres, and we'll be diving deeper into which teams may have exploited that technology in the coming days.

Conversely, several riders however suffered from mechanicals, punctures and tubeless blowouts on the races challenging cobblestones, meaning tubeless tyres may not have totally made their case yet.

Beyond the tyre issue, though, Roubaix proved to be as weird and wonderful as ever. So look closely, and prepare to absorb our deep dive into 2023's Roubaix tech below.