Specialized has confirmed that it expects “the majority” of its sponsored riders to shun the Roubaix bike at the race it was originally designed for, instead using the all-rounder Tarmac SL8 at this weekend's Paris-Roubaix.
Speaking to a select group of media, the Specialized product team explained that despite the Roubaix being ‘born’ on the cobbles of northern France, and of course sharing its name with the famous one-day classic, its sponsored teams instead are expected to opt for the lighter and more aero Tarmac SL8, in line with our Paris Roubaix tech preview predictions.
While the expected dry weather is part of the reason, Specialized says that riders were thinking more about the fight for position leading into the cobbles than the cobbled sectors themselves.
“Riders are looking at other riders like Mathieu van der Poel on a full aero bike and aero cockpit, that they’re willing to take the risk of getting the most aero bike because they’re fighting for position before they get to the cobbles,” explained John Cordoba, Product Manager at Specialized.
“The race isn’t really won on the cobbles. It can be lost on the cobbles, but they’re really fighting for the position before getting into them.”
This is a sentiment that bears additional weight this year with the men’s race taking in a now-infamous chicane on the entry to the Arenberg Forest.
Global marketing manager, Ben Edwards, added that the riders had told Specialized they “are willing to take a little bit of a downgrade [in bump-smoothing tech],” adding that “they’ll deal with that on the cobbles, but they need to be in those first 10 riders.”
With the Tarmac, riders will be able to fit 32c tyres — expected to be the Specialized Mondo model, set up tubeless with Vittoria tyre inserts — but they will lose out on the comfort-enhancing FutureShock suspension system that sits between the head tube and the stem on the Roubaix.
Despite our own presumptions here at Cyclingnews, sponsored riders have never been under any contractual obligation to use the Roubaix at its namesake race. With the bump-smoothing tech it offers and the wider tyre clearance it allows, the Roubaix bike has simply been deemed the faster choice for the race, given it traverses over 55km of cobbled terrain in the 250-plus kilometre race.
“We don’t force them to ride anything,” confirmed Edwards. “We give them the data, and we test with them to make sure they’re not just choosing the right bike, but tyres, wheels and everything.”
Specialized accepts that it is slower than the Tarmac on smooth surfaces, but taking into account the whole course and the riders' strategies, the Roubaix has typically been the preferred choice for Soudal QuickStep, Bora Hansgrohe and Total Energies in recent years. That is except for a handful of Bora-Hansgrohe riders in 2023, who chose the Tarmac SL7 because they were planning to get in the day’s early breakaway.
“They’re making the product decision based on the strategy for the day.”
Similarly, SD-Worx opted to use the Tarmac SL7 during last year’s women’s race. They decided it was the faster option given the women’s race tackles fewer total kilometres of cobbled terrain.
Interestingly, when Specialized was designing the latest Roubaix SL8, it asked teams what they would like from the new bike, who in turn asked the engineers to make it significantly more aerodynamic. The latest Roubaix is technically slightly more aero than the last, the brand claims, but it eventually rejected the teams’ requests due to the belief that it would ruin the comfort-first ride quality that the typical Roubaix customer is looking for.
It also helped that the engineers knew what direction the Tarmac SL8 was headed before it launched last year as a more compliant and lighter-weight iteration of the brand’s all-round racer.
With all this said, the expected dry weather is also playing a part in the team’s bike choice. They have both bikes available, but “unless they get torrential rain, they will be on Tarmac SL8.”
