What would happen if you rode Paris-Roubaix on truly wide and supple tires? We now know, because Olly Townsend from the popular Gravel Union website has done that: He rode this year’s Paris-Roubaix Challenge on Rene Herse 700×48 Hatcher Pass tires.
Paris-Roubaix is a unique race: It is fascinating because it takes us back to the days when races were tough and unpredictable, and when racers resembled the heroes of Greek dramas. Having the most watts has never guaranteed victory in the ‘Hell of the North,’ and the race has seen plenty of dashed hopes. Keeping it that way is a conscious decision by the race organizers. Cobblestones once were a common fixture of bike racing in France. Today the famous cobbles are preserved as monuments. Most races used to finish in velodromes (so organizers could charge spectators entry fees). Today Paris-Roubaix is the only one. In fact, the velodrome finish was abandoned in the 1980s in favor of a ‘normal’ finish on a city street. After three years, the organizers realized their mistake and reversed course. Paris-Roubaix without the velodrome finish just wouldn’t be the same.
All this creates a special aura around Paris-Roubaix, making it the most famous one-day bicycle race in the world, arguably equal in importance with the Tour de France. And then you have the technical aspects of racing over such rough cobblestones. Every year, we all wonder: How wide will the tires be this year? What tire pressures are the favorites running? Will suspension make a comeback? (RockShox forks were popular in the 1990s.)
Long-time readers may remember my dream of getting a pro team to race Paris-Roubaix on truly wide tires—something like 48 mm or even wider. With the wide tires’ extra speed on the cobblestones, the entire team could attack and ride away from the peloton. Then they might be able to time-trial to the finish and win the race. In fact, that idea was behind one of our most popular posts ever, about a fictitious UCI rule limiting the tire width of road bikes (published on April 1 last year). Because we all know that if tires become a deciding factor in the race, the UCI will make a rule to preserve the status quo of what road bikes look like.
Like any good April Fools’ joke, it’s (almost) plausible: Tire sizes in Paris-Roubaix have increased over the years, from 25 mm in the 1990s to 35 mm this year. Will this trend continue? Wouldn’t 48 mm tires provide an even bigger advantage on the famous cobblestones of the ‘Hell of the North’?
Enter Olly Townsend, who rode this year’s Paris-Roubaix Challenge on 48 mm tires. Held the day before the pro race, the Challenge allows amateurs to ride across the most interesting parts of the course and even finish in the famous velodrome. (I wonder whether they get to take showers in the iconic ancient shower stalls, too.) Olly rode the longest of three available distances, and he reported about it on the Gravel Union website, where he writes about all things gravel (and cobbles).
The first thing he did—in addition to training—was to think about his bike setup. Usually, you wouldn’t change much on your bike for one event, but Paris-Roubaix is different. If you’re going to ride 50 km (32 miles) on cobblestones, out of a total of 170 km (106 miles), it’s worth thinking about making your bike more comfortable without losing speed. The goal is to take as much of the ‘hell’ out of the ‘Hell of the North’ as possible. It’ll be hard enough as it is!
Olly reports: “My first decision was about what tyres to go for. The pros are generally limited to a maximum tyre size of 34-36 mm (as they are usually riding on their ‘standard’ sponsor-provided road bikes). Seeing as I’m not an elite-level sponsored rider, I could ride whatever frame I wanted, which meant I could also run much bigger volume tyres.”
Olly describes the challenges of finding tires for Paris-Roubaix: “Riding cobbles at speed subjects tyres to unbelievable amounts of stress (you only have to witness the puncture carnage in both the men’s and women’s editions of this year’s pro race to realise what a hard time the tyres have), so I needed tyres which were supple, tough and fast rolling. Not an easy combination to find, but one brand stood out – René Herse.”
Olly looked at the clearances of his bike and chose 48 mm-wide Hatcher Pass tires. He noted: “As well as their well-regarded ride characteristics, the Hatcher Pass tyres are phenomenally light – less than 500g in the 700x48mm size. Fitting them to my gravel bike knocked off an impressive 500g from the overall weight!”
Come the day of the big ride, all this preparation paid off. Olly rode with a group of friends and had a great day. He reports that, on the cobbles, “the pounding was still pretty brutal, but pushing a big gear, floating very slightly above your saddle, reducing your grip on the bars as much as you dared and trying to maintain a decent speed all helped to minimise the impact.” The hardest part was passing slower riders (many of whom presumably were on narrower tires) without losing speed and momentum.
After the ride, when Olly and his friends compared their power data, they were surprised to find that Olly had averaged 30% less power than a friend who is “super strong, but relatively new to away-from-the-road group riding”—even though they had ridden together and finished side-by-side. Olly put most of that down to his “greater experience and knowledge of which wheels to follow in a bunch,” but the more efficient tires must have helped.
More importantly, Olly reports that riding in the ‘Hell of the North’ was actually fun, even though he and his friends were not holding back with their effort: “I absolutely hammered some of the cobbled sections, including the fearsome 5* rated Trouée d’Arenberg section (which I managed to ride at an average speed of 26 kph and generate a pretty consistent 300 watts of power), so I expected to be lying down in a sweaty mess at the finish line! What was amazing (and really quite unexpected) at the end of the event was that I felt perfectly ok! Riding the Hell of the North was significantly more pleasure than pain.”
About the Hatcher Pass, Olly concluded: “The tyres were AMAZING.” (His caps.) And before you wonder, Olly isn’t paid to ride our tires. We sent him a set for testing, but with no expectation that he’d ride them for his biggest event of the year.
Does this mean we’ll see the pros on 48 mm tires in future Paris-Roubaix? It’s hard to know. This year, they already rode on tires that are illegal for cyclocross—and set a new course record in the process. Ten years ago, who would have predicted that?
In the meantime, all of us here at Rene Herse Cycles now dream of heading over to France and riding the Paris-Roubaix Challenge. It sounds like just the right mix of fun and challenge to create great memories!
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Photo credits: Gravel Union (all except Photo 2); Jered Gruber (Photo 2)