Racing bikes & technology at Paris-Roubaix: Visma mechanic spills the beans
Sebastian Lindner
· 10.04.2024
The Visma | Lease a Bike team bus only gets a little hectic a few minutes before the start of Paris-Roubaix in Compiegne. The black and yellow racing bike with start number 14 needs a little more attention. Two mechanics are skilfully replacing the rear wheel of Christophe Laporte's bike. The European champion apparently has a few last-minute changes to make.
The extent to which they ultimately helped him, however, remains to be seen. The Frenchman, who was tackling his first race since Milan-Sanremo after serious gastrointestinal problems and was therefore not one hundred per cent fit going into the race, had to stop early on one of the first cobbled sections with a defect. His rear wheel was flat.
Wheel configuration weeks in advance
"In addition to good preparation, you always need a little bit of luck at Paris-Roubaix," says Dirk van de Ven from the team bus. And: "Normally, all we have to do now" - less than half an hour before the start - "is put the water bottles in the holders."
Totally relaxed, he takes the time to describe his work and that of his colleagues in preparation for the race. Van de Ven has been a mechanic at Visma | Lease a Bike since 2015. Before that, the Dutchman worked in a bike shop that bought up the pros' outdated equipment. This is how he came into contact with the team. The Dutchman has time to chat, because the actual work of preparing the bikes has long since been done.
"We do the configuration for the bikes weeks in advance, everything has long been tested and ready. There is no reason for last-minute actions," says the Dutchman. "We rode them in training on Thursday during the track reconnaissance, after which there were only a few marginal changes." Visma | Lease a Bike is also able to prepare the bikes so far in advance because the team does not start with its usual racing machine. If the professionals are equipped with the Aerorad Cervelo S5 respectively the R5 in the mountains, the Paris-Roubaix has been the most Soloist.
Only three to four bar and 32-millimetre tyres
Compared to the majority of the other races on the calendar, the team uses 32 millimetre wide tyres instead of the usual 28. van de Ven and his colleagues pump three to four bar into the tubular tyres - normally it is seven to eight bar. According to van de Ven, some even go a little lower. Even if it had been raining, it would have been a little less, but the 2024 event remains dry.
The 32 millimetres are the latest finding from the last two years of Paris-Roubaix. "First and foremost, we want to avoid mechanical failure," explains van de Ven, who brings the experience of around 160 days a year with the team in races or training camps. "In the race, it's not always possible to ride the racing line, so we have to try to get through the difficult sections without damage." The tyres are almost the only remaining technical weak point. "The tension on the chain, for example, has been well under control since we switched to SRAM and we no longer have any problems with it."
Visma | Lease a Bike has 22 bikes with it
The single chainring, which Visma | Lease a Bike has fitted to all the bikes of its professional riders competing in Paris-Roubaix, is no longer quite so rare. This variant is becoming increasingly common in the peloton, especially in time trials and races without significant metres of climbing.
For some riders, there is an additional layer of handlebar tape to dampen the vibrations a little more. But apart from that, the bikes of the individual riders don't differ too much, apart from the adjustments that have to be made based on body size. "The riders at the start today are generally not so sensitive to the material." One rider who otherwise feels every little deviation, but who has to miss Paris-Roubaix due to his crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, is Wout van Aert. "He is very precise," says van de Ven.
The team has 22 bikes with them. "We prepare three for each of the seven drivers, and we have an extra one for Christophe Laporte." It stands out on the roof of a team car, clearly different from the others in the special European Championship livery with lots of white and blue.
After the race is before the race
However, it is configured in the same way as all other bikes. "There is no difference between the machines that the drivers start with and those on the roof of the vehicles," says van de Ven. The main aim is to be able to act quickly in the event of a problem. This means that the team vehicles, which are in different positions in the field, can be equipped with one wheel for each driver.
The majority of the bikes are therefore normally not even used. However, they all have to be washed after a race like Paris-Roubaix, because if it's not the rain and mud that leave their mark on the spare bikes, it's the dust. Cleaning is therefore one of the most time-consuming tasks after the race. But another is much more important, says van de Ven: "After the race, we check all the material that was used. We check it and want to find the weak points, if there are any. This then serves as preparation for next year, so that everything is a little better then."
The fact that Visma | Lease a Bike didn't get a rider into the top 10 on Sunday was less down to the material or the preparation of the bikes by Dirk van de Ven. The personnel situation with the cancellations of van Aert and Matteo Jörgenson as well as Dylan van Baarle, who was registered but then stayed on the bus due to illness, had its influence. As did the demotion of Tim van Dijke, who actually finished eighth but was ultimately relegated to the back of his group in 16th place. The young Dutchman had crossed the Cote d'Azur, the blue marking on the inside of the track in the velodrome, which is not permitted under the rules of track cycling. Laporte managed to finish 25th after his early defect.
