Paris-Roubaix is a race like no other, from a parcours perspective but also the way it captures the public imagination. Outside of the Tour de France, no other race cuts through quite like it, and while to ‘proper’ cycling fans the Tour of Flanders may be a bigger race, Roubaix is often the gateway drug that gets people into one-day race viewership.
Because of the unique, and horrible, course, Paris-Roubaix has become the epicentre of springtime tech nerdery. It sits in the centre of a Venn diagram at the intersection of tyre chat, aero considerations, event-specific bikes, and miscellaneous ‘hacks’.
