Wheels of Paris Roubaix

I was talking to my friend Rob about building up a new set of wheels. He's looking for something sturdy and well thought out. I recommended 28-32 White Industries laced up to Mavic Open-Pro's 3 cross with a radial non-drive rear wheel. I'm a big fan of hand built wheels. Running 36 hole Phil Wood hubs laced 3x to Open Pros on my Paramount and White Industries laced to Velocity Aeroheads on my Hot Tubes. The Hot Tubes are 20 hole radial on the front and 28 hole 3x drive & radial non-drive. The 20 hole was a bit of a mistake, I ment to order a 24 hole. I was a bit skeptical of running a 20 hole front, but it survived last year on the Cervelo and has migrated this year over to the Hot Tubes.

I googled some wheels from Paris Roubaix, thinking that the pro's might be running a similar wheel build. It looks like the are mostly running 32 3x front and rear. Not even running light weight hubs (DT*, White or Tune).

What does you all think about handbuilt wheels and spoke patterns?

Stuart O'Grady, 2007

Alessandro Ballan, 2008

Emilien Berges, 2008

*Ok I lied Emilien Berges is running a DT hub, and it's freaking tied and soldered!

Une Saison en Enfer

To many this sunday is Easter to me it's the Queen of the Classics, the Hell of the North, the most brutal of all pro races Paris-Roubaix . This is the race that the pro's love to hate*, and I just plain love.

The P.R. bike is a little different form the bikes used durring the rest of the road season: traditional hand built wheels, wider tyres and longer wheelbases are the norm. Some have tried cantis, cylocross style top leavers, higher handlebars or even placing elastomers in their frames. In the 90's Lemond tried out front suspension, and in 1994 Bianchi with John Museeuw even tried out a full suspension road bike (28 lbs!). The bike was a one off, and Museeuw ended up finnishing 14th due to a blown tyre. According to Robert MacNeil (http://www.campyman.com/) "The bike was only raced once because the bike cost way too much, if I remember it cost a tad over $ 20,000 to produce. Sadly, it was never raced again because GB MG disbanded and Bianchi was no longer sponsoring the team."

Anyone have any thoughts on what new features we might see this year?








*"Paris-Roubaix is bullshit" -Hinault