While the bikes of Paris-Roubaix have certainly become less specialised in the past decade, with most riders opting to simply use their standard aero bike with minor modifications like wider tyres and double-wrapped bar tape, save for Israel-Premier Tech, who opted to race aboard gravel bikes in 2024, causing quite a stir.
That being said, we have seen some interesting cobble-oriented hacks in the past few seasons. Last year was notable for Lidl-Trek modifying their SRAM Red XPLR rear derailleurs with an additional limiter screw to force them to behave as 12sp rather than 13sp, allowing the riders to use the closer-spaced gearing of the 12sp SRAM Red road cassette.
