Written by: Simon Zahner (Team BMC)

As everyone knows the weeks of the northern classics are full of races. there’s a lot of organization to do to move the riders and staff from race to race, keep all the cars working, swap riders between races (you can crash and get injured more easily on these roads, I found that out personally with my crash during the first stage at de Panne…) and so on and so on.

Additionally there’s the whole material factor, since these 6 weeks of races (Omloop Het Nieuwsblad-Paris Roubaix) are probably more material-abusing than the rest of the season altogether. So whenever there’s a chance to try something out between or even during races that could help us get through without material mishaps, we’re using it.

As soon as the bikes are clean, you can see the mechanics gluing some tubulars on wheels, wrapping a handlebar with a second bartape here (although george hincapie told me double bartape is for xxxxxxx (something like softies, but not compatible with non-adult readers…)), putting on a bigger inner chainring there. their work seems to be endless these days.

Although I’m not racing tomorrow, I have spent the last weeks finding out the setup that works best for me and i can share it anyway since it’s pretty much what the other guys will be using tomorrow.

I chose 44-52 chainrings and 11-25 cassette(with the 25 blocked to prevent the chain falling between spokes and cassette), double bartape and classic box section aluminum wheels with Conti 25 mm pro limited protection tubulars (I don’t think we had one flat tire with these during all the weeks of training and racing so far, we hope it stays like that tomorrow). I tried the Speedplay mud specific pedals but i felt like they had too much play for me. In dry conditions i would have taken the normal Speedplay pedals.

The most effective change for me was to tilt the handlebars up a bit, I felt like I can shift and brake much better when it’s rattling like crazy. There are a lot of 90 degree-corners on the cobble sections, so it’s not like you can just grab the bar and pedal along until you come back to the normal roads.

What’s probably more interesting is to look at the total amount of material the team uses for Paris Roubaix 2010.

I asked our mechanic Ian Sherburne today and here’s what he told me:

-8 bikes for the riders to start the race -1. team car with 8 personal spare bikes and 6 sets of spare wheels -2. team car with 2 spare bikes and 3 sets of wheels -there are 5 more cars following the race and going to different cobble sections(these are the guys you can see between the cheering fans holding wheels into the air) and the 2 feed zones. in each car there will be at least 2 people and 2 sets of wheels. the ones going to the really bad sections like arenberg will also have a spare bike.

that makes 20 bikes and more than 20 additional wheelsets…

Most of the staff members are in a meeting right now to plan who is going where, and after the race they will have some stories to tell, because their Paris-Roubaix will be as interesting as the rider’s.

Off course everyone is hoping that nothing else than the 8 start-bikes is going to be used. Not because everything has to be cleaned afterward though. In such a big race you have to try to cover every possible mishap with good organization.

I’d like to wish everyone an interesting race tomorrow, in front of the TV or at the course.
Keep your fingers crossed for whoever your favourite rider is, since some luck is needed here, too.

Bicycle.net newest blogger: Simon Zahner of Team BMC