Pro race bikes have changed a lot in just 10 editions of Paris-Roubaix, so we thought we’d compare John Degekolb’s 2015 rim brake Giant Defy Advanced SL to Mathieu van der Poel’s Canyon Aeroad CFR and Lotte Kopecky’s Specialized Tarmac SL8.

    Which bike would you ride- that rim brake Giant Defy from 2015, or the Canyon Aeroad from this year? Let us know in the comments!

    Credits
    Matt Grayson
    Bryn Lennon – Velo/Getty
    Ben Delaney / Immediate Media

    #Roubaix #MathieuVanDerPoel #ParisRoubax

    Chapters:
    00:00 Intro
    00:21 Speed
    02:18 Rim Brakes
    03:32 Wider Tyres
    05:54 Tubeless
    06:58 Changing Chainrings

    The Hottest 2024 Paris-Roubaix Tech Trends
    →https://youtu.be/7K0rca9bWlE

    2023 Tour de France Tech Trends | What Are Pros Riding?
    →https://youtu.be/JgqdFR97aMw

    4 Tour de France Bikes They DON’T Want You To See
    → https://youtu.be/uKyZq0zxj64

    NEW 2024 Giant Defy | What’s Changed? + First Ride Review
    →https://youtu.be/iuVRo-LiZVk

    2021 Canyon Aeroad CFR Review | Lighter, More Aero & Disc-Only Race Bike
    →https://youtu.be/nyNaI9XIciQ

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    20 Comments

    1. 2mph? What were the wind conditions? That's a small enough difference that anything could contribute to the variation in speed. I doubt the "paid advertisement" I mean bike, had anything to do with it.

    2. Servais Knaven's 2001 Focus Mares #2 bike – check your 15th April 2010 website article for details. Its the bike that got me onto 2 wheels.
      Maybe the day MVdP gets his puncture will be the day a normal human will win PR? Maybe even the "People's Champ" (WVA)?

    3. Something you forgot: MvdP started on 28mm tires. He switched to his bike with racing number amd 32mm tires after around 80-90K (could be less) when he took a pee break, and returned to the peloton with Pedersen.
      The one-by hype was strongly pushed by the fact there was a strong tailwind.

    4. Gotta admit, as nice as the rim brake bike looks, watching MvDP hit 60k and above on cobbles has now convinced me that the new age bikes are genuinely soooooo much better. Wow. That speed is insane for cobbles!! If I could pick one for myself, however, it would be the rim bike because I will have to live with the bike on a daily basis 😀

    5. The P-R tech isn't as interesting as it once was; full on aero bikes, with wider tyres……
      Aero bikes leave me disinterested; they're irrelevant for riders who ride in the real world, who have to stop every few minutes for junctions. Give me a light bike instead…..

    6. As a new road cyclist, I use the Silca tire pressure simulator. If we take the data of MVdP, on cobbles, the simulator give around 3.65 bars at the front and 3.55 bars at the back. It seems to be a pretty good tools if the Paris-Roubaix winner has same values…!

    7. The Michelin tubs are obviously superior, and I fully I expect we will see more CX size casings at Roubaix in the future, especially among the French teams who are more engineering oriented. Way more comfort owing to a full 360 degrees of casing, no pinch flats, much wider range of pressure, much lighter tires, much lighter wheels, no need for pool noodles that make getting a flat tire off the rim virtually impossible. If the speeds are rising into to the high 40s, why would any team choose to use a high stack gravel frame?

    8. the 5th fastest ever paris roubaix was the 1964 edition, only broken in 2017. bikes in the 60's were also fast it seems. I'd pick johns bike, just looks nicer to me.

    9. The modern bikes just don’t do it for me. They look like TT bikes with drop bars. The Giant bike here was still the kinda bike you could dream of getting as a kid. The modern aero bikes are hard to love.

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