Paris-Roubaix is always the most interesting race of the year for tech choices, although in recent years it looked as if we’d reached a consensus and the innovations were slowing down. That was proven not to be the case though, with 2026 ripe for testing, even bigger tyres, and switching out sponsors’ parts for performance gains.

The general trends across the peloton appeared to be 32mm tyres and 1x drivetrains, with plenty of gravel bike components also on display.

Photographer Xavier Pereyron was in Roubaix to get a close look at all the weird and wonderful choices the teams made in 2026.

Xavier Pereyron

After finishing second on the V5Rs in 2025, Tadej Pogačar added a second place for the Y1Rs this time, with a special 1x setup and mismatched tyres with 35mm Continental GP5000s at the front and 32mm at the rear.

After losing Stefan Küng in the winter, we probably won’t see Groupama-FDJ United near the front of Paris-Roubaix for a while, and they didn’t put too much effort into any special bike changes either. But yes, I hear you, at least they’re flying the tan wall flag.

Whisper it, but EF’s best rider finished 28th, five spots lower than FDJ’s. At least they made the effort to equip Kasper Asgreen with an aero 1x crankset, SRAM’s Red XPLR AXS gravel rear derailleur and 32mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres.

Yes, fortune does often decide Paris-Roubaix, and the best rider on the day, Mathieu van der Poel, could only manage fourth after puncturing at the worst possible spot in the race. That’s why the Arenberg is so feared. Here he is post-race with dirty unreleased Shimano Dura-Ace C50 rims, 32mm Pirelli P Zero Race RS tyres and a standard 2x Shimano Dura-Ace groupset with a 55/40T crankset on his standard Canyon Aeroad.

That’s right no new Endurace for him, what was the whole point of that whole thing I hear you cry? Yeah, who knows. One of the most pivotal tech choices in the race was that his teammate Jasper Philipsen was using new prototype Shimano pedals and cleats, unlike Van der Poel, who was using the current Dura-Ace system, which meant when Philipsen tried to save the day post-puncture, his Dutch teammate couldn’t clip in. It was a nice idea.

But Van der Poel’s loss is Wout van Aert’s gain – as ever. Woutje’s Cervélo S5 wasn’t doing anything too crazy, he had a normal SRAM Red road groupset, with a 1x crankset – something Visma have been using in all kinds of races since they moved from Shimano a couple of seasons ago – with a 54T aero chainring. The only real difference to what he might use in normal road races is the 32mm tyres, and BikeRadar spotted that the team had glued their tyres too to prevent burping. Could that have been their secret to clean runs in both races?

Notably Visma-Lease a Bike were controversially stopped from running the Gravaa tyre pressure adjustment system that they’ve used at the last few Roubaixs (the company went bankrupt, the UCI said products need to be able to be bought by consumers within a certain timeframe of the race, the company says they’re still operational and can fulfil orders), but it turned out they didn’t need it. Maybe the real adjustable tyre pressure was the friends we made along the way.

XDS-Astana’s X-Lab aero bike was ridden to a tidy tenth place by Van Aert’s former teammate Mike Teunissen. This is his teammate Gleb Syritsa’s bike, and you can spot it looks like they opted for the steel-spoked Vision wheels, and you can see the team were using a custom 1x Shimano setup from the shiny backside of Gleb’s chainring as well as Aaron Gate’s chainring on the right.

Nee-nor, nee-nor. The fun police are here.

The UCI inspector gadgets were out in force at the start in Compiègne with their little iPads to scan for motors…

… and a new bit of plastic to make sure the diameter of the riders’ wheel-tyre setups were within the allowed measurement.

While most of the focus was on Eddy Merckx’s spiritual successor, Team Flanders-Baloise were on Eddy Merckx bikes (find out more about the company in our recent podcast interview with bike designer Pieter Potters), with the lesser spotted FFWD wheels, 32mm Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres and a 2x Shimano Dura-Ace groupset.

I think every time I see Jayco-AlUla’s setups it looks 10% nicer, although Dries De Bondt could do with longer leg warmers. But get the badge in and all that.

Jayco-AlUla were riding their Giant Propels with a custom chainring to make their Shimano drivetrain 1x, and most notably they switched out their usual Cadex tyres for wider Vittoria Corsa Pros and didn’t even bother to cover up the logo despite not being sponsored by Vittoria.

Patrick Lefevere would’ve never stood for 1x. As we’ve seen in the last few races, Soudal-QuickStep were using the new Cotton TLR 32mm tyres.

Pinarello-Q36.5 were on special edition Pinarello Dogma Fs for this race, with a nice matching colour scheme on their Zipp 303 wheels. They’re SRAM-sponsored so had no issues using an aero 1x crankset with a standard SRAM Red road setup. Those Zipp wheels with integrated tyre pressure sensors might come in handy for Roubaix, although if you puncture in this race you know about it very quickly. It was 32mm Vittoria Corsa Pro Control tyres for Aimé De Gendt and co.

Unlike Jayco-AlUla, Picnic-PostNL did cover up the brand logos on the Vittoria tyres they were using in place of the team’s usual Michelin options.

Lidl-Trek were SRAM’s gravel Red XPLR AXS rear derailleur, with the 1x crankset, 32mm Pirello P Zero Race RS tyres and normal road-going cassette.

Most interesting about their bikes was this little device though, the Odyssey Optis, which comprises an inflatable tubeless tyre insert that initially does sound awfully like an inner tube, but it creates two air volumes rather than the one when you’re running a standard tube setup to hug the rim, preventing burping, protecting the rim, adding longer run-flat capability and allowing for lower pressures to be run safely.

Uno-X Ridleys are absolute beefcakes. They went all-in on the gravel components, with the 1x aero chainring, SRAM Red XPLR AXS rear derailleur and cassette (though this wasn’t on all the team’s bikes) as well as DT Swiss’s GRC 1100 gravel rims.

Bahrain Victorious’s setup was pretty standard compared to others, with mostly their usual parts such as the Elilee cranks and carbon spoked Vision wheels.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are SRAM and Specialized sponsored, so there weren’t too many decisions to be had about their bikes. 32mm Specialized Cotton TLR tyres, SRAM Red AXS groupset with 1x crankset. Job done. Although Gianni Vermeersch may have hoped for better from his race finishing 12th, his teammate Mick van Dijke rode to a strong sixth.

Lotto-Intermarché didn’t have a great race, whether or not that has something to do with that incredibly tight tyre clearance with the 32mm Vittoria Corsa Pro Control tyres on the Orbea Orca Aero (which has an official clearance for tyres up to 30mm that might need updating for 2027).

Tudor were already sporting the gravel getup with DT Swiss GRC 1100 wheels, SRAM Red XPLR rear derailleurs and 1x chainrings as well as 32mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres, which there aren’t many of in the current peloton.

Local boys Decathlon-CMA CGM were another team to switch to SRAM recently, which meant getting the 1x drivetrain was very simple, however noticeably they’ve gone for a bigger 56T chainring and a cassette with mostly tiny sprockets. Their Swiss Side Hadron All-Road 450 wheels and big Continental GP5000 tres pushed the clearance of the Van Rysel RCR-F to its limit though.

Ineos went all-in in trying to perfect their Pinarello Dogma Fs for the race, with huge custom Digirit 1x chainrings and Shimano XTR mountain bike rear derailleurs. The eagled-eyed will notice their extra shifters on the drops.

There are 62 teeth on Josh Tarling’s chainring.

Cofidis were riding special edition Look 795 Blade RS bikes that celebrates Laurent Jalabert’s first Tour de France stage win in 1992 that began in Roubaix. I think it looks fantastic. It’s helped by the team’s Campagnolo groupset and wheels though.

And it’s topped off by this beautiful Silca 3D printed titanium derailleur hanger.

NSN Cycling are another SRAM sponsored team with a 1x SRAM Red road setup and a 56T chainring. Sadly Guillaume Boivin ended the day in the local hospital, but his teammate Lewis Askey finished an impressive 13th.

TotalEnergies had a good day with Tony Turgis ending the race in 14th. Alexys Brunel came in 133rd, but comfortably inside the time limit, on this Cube, which are new to the team this year. They fiddled with their setup adding a Carbon-Ti 1x chainring and a Shimano GRX gravel rear derailleur.

Unibet Rose Rockets’ Lukáš Kubiš didn’t have his best race of the year but his Rose was one of the nicest bikes at Paris-Roubaix. The team weere running Vittoria Corsa Pro Control 32mm tyres, a SRAM Red XPLR AXS rear derailleur and cassette, a 56T chainring and Vision wheels with steel spokes.

Modern Adventure celebrated their first Paris-Roubaix with these special bikes painted by Belgian artist Vexx. Interestingly they went with their ‘more accessible’ race bike, the Monza, rather than the One or the Ostro, and they were riding with SRAM’s second tier Force XPLR AXS groupset too.

Here’s their highest placed rider Ben Oliver’s dirty bike post-race.

Although the youngest rider in the race, Ezra Caudell’s ‘normal’ Ostro Vam did look to have had some use.