Paris-Roubaix 2018: equipment in focus

Road racing is always a sport of man and machine but rarely does the equipment fall into focus quite as sharply as it does at Paris-Roubaix. 

At no other event on the World Tour calendar, do riders deviate so far from the standard (road and time trial) set-ups they are issued with at the start of the season.

Sure, the climbers get their special lightweight wheels out in the mountains, a time trial specialist might pull out an extra big chainring for the worlds, but everywhere you turn at Roubaix there are special accommodations made to the 55 km of ragged, dirty, rutted pavé that defines this race.

Read: Muddy Hell – the last wet Paris-Roubaix

It was to these preparations -and consequences despite them- that photographer Chirs Auld turned his camera in the 2018 edition of the race. 

Won by World Champion Peter Sagan, it was an event marred by the death of 23 year old Belgian rider Michael Goolaerts following a cardiac arrest.    

Read: Steve Bauer, the man who lost Paris-Roubaix by millimetres

   

Gallery: Drillium and sawn-off bars at the national hill-climb

 

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