Let's start off with one of the main protagonists (as ever), Tadej Pogačar. Before the race we caught the team on recon. While he didn't use them in the race these appear to be a new pair of Scicon sunglasses.

Pogačar's carbon chainrings, from CarbonTi, had his own logo laser cut into them.

He 🍸used 32c Continental tyres for the big day, not leaving much room for the front derailleur, but more than soꦫme teams, as we will see later.

Juan ✅Sebastián Molano was running round handleba🧸rs, unlike the rest of the team.

Pogačar ran these squares of foam under his levers to stop them biting into his hands on the cobbles.

Ant🎀ónio Morgado's shif💖ter hoods look like they might be a little illegal to me. The hoods are very inwardly turned.

Tim Wellens had a♛ 3D p💧rinted computer mount to hold his Wahoo.

Pogačar had his trademark hulk sticker, plus tape all the way to the stem.

He also uses an aftermarket gold derailleur hanger from Framesa🍬ndgear.

Oddly, the team car turned up with th🧸e ꩵaero Y1Rs bike as a spare for a few riders. This one was for Mikkel Bjerg.

Red ꦉBull-Bora-Hansgrohe had red helmets for the race in support of the Wings For Life W๊orld Run.

The riders were also using a 32c wid🐷th version of the latest Specialized Mondo tyre.

Except Ryan Mullen, who was madly using 26c Specialized Turbo Cotton tyres,🌼 not even the Hell of the North variant! I suspect he got off before the cobbles b🅷egan.

Mullen 🎀had his shifter blips glued straight to his bars.

While it is a flat race and aero matters a lot, most teams ✃had some exceptions in their setups in the name of roadside mechanical assistance. Thru-axle keys were left in on a great many bi𝄹kes, including that of eventual winner, Mathieu van der Poel.

Like most bikes, Van der Poel's Di2 cable was secured to the der🉐ailleur ha🧸nger in some way.

I know it looks like his usual white Canyon Aeroad, but this is a different b𝕴ike. It's only mostly white. More on that later.

No lunatic front chainrin🎃g here, but a larger one than he'd run more gඣenerally I believe.

See🥂, I told you it was only MOSTLY white. It's a special 'Tensor꧅' edition paint scheme, with markings showing where the stresses happen on the frame over the cobbles.

32c Pirelli P-Z🥀ero Race TLR RS tyres for Van der Poel, which clearly worked for him on the slippy cobbles.

Here are some more of those tensꦑor lines on the seatstayಞs.

So🐓me♊one's hungry! Jack Rootkin-Gray had a tonne of carbs on board at the start.

The mechanic for EF gets the tyr🐼e pressure just so for the start.

The team bikes were pretty stock, save for some riders running t🍸ape all the way to the stem.

32c Vittoria Corsa Pro tyres with room to spare.

Aero Wahoo Spee♐dplay pedals. The dimpled surface faces downwards - I have more on that later.

OK, I've teased you enough - here's Josh Tarling's whopping 62 tooth chainri🍸ng, very much the biggest of the day.

His bik๊e was also running £1,000 (or about $1,300) Tactic hubs. Some bling to rattle over the cobbles, th꧂ough at the finish he was on a bike with White Industries hubs instead. Not too bad, but not quite as premium.

Tarling ha🌱d a few spare bikes, most of🍸 which had enormous carbon chainrings.

Here's another, though this one isඣ Digirit branded.

I initially thought this was some secret new fork and maybe even a secred new Roubaix bike. As it turns out it's jus🍸t last year's frameset. Not everything is a grand conspiracy, eh?

Riders having a tonne of spare bikes is pretty normal at Roubaix, but clearly Tarling doesn't have enough of th✤e current model to be safe as one of the leaders of the team.

This was definitely a Roubaix bike though,🎐 as it was also r🐠unning a massive Velobike stem and round bars.

These wheels aren’t stock either, they’re Princeton models rather than the usual Dura-Ace 🔜set the team uses.

Princeton Dual 5550 Evolution wheels to be precise, with a 24mm internal width and a price tag of $4,5🧔00. That'll be an expensive one to replace if it ever went wrong.

The wheels feature a slightly wavy 𝔉profile, and border on the all-road.

The Ineos♒ bikes had the neatest derailleur cables of any bikes this weekend.

While Tarling was using a whopping cha♈inring, Connor Swift was also using an aftermarket Drag2Zero aero chainring.

32c Continental tyres all round at the Ineos bus.

OK, remember those aero pedals🌄? Here's how they look under the shoe. I’ve been trying to get this sho🍌t for ages!

🐠While it didn’t secure them the win as it did in the women’s race, the team were all using the Gravaa tyre pressure adjustment system. I’ve had a ride on it on the Roubaix cobbles already, so have a read after to hear my initial impressions.

Van Aert had a dedicated data screen showing the pressure in each ty𝔉re.

Despite being seen in recon using the aero Cerv&e🌠acute;lo S5, Van Aert raced Roubaix on the Soloist, perhaps due to concerns about mud clearance following the rain overnight.

Here’s a close up of the Gravaa system’s vaꦺlve, wh🀅ich allows air both in and out on command.

Van Aert also ran a very ꦆslimline chain catcher. Instead of hugging it on either side it simply sits atop the cha🍌in, preventing it from hopping off (in an ideal world).

As ever at Roubaix we saw some riders having their tyres leave the rim. The Visma mechanics came up w🍎ith a novel, but old-school solution to this issue by simply gluing the tubeless tyres to the rim with tub glue. You can see some air bubbles trying their best to escape, frozen in time at the rim-tyre interface.

A standard road casseꦅtte atꦬ the rear end for Van Aert.

The Visma kit🎀 h💟as no sponsor logos, instead showing a ‘yellow b.’ team insignia, indicating that they may well be making their own kit nowadays.

Movistar took a series of increasingly drastic measures tജo keep their computers attached to the mounts. Black tape, covering half th🌜e screen, seems a bit much but I bet it worked.

At least the tape here is only cov🅘🌸ering the buttons!

And one rider simply placed his trust in t꧅he Garmin Lanyard. I h🍸ope it worked for him…

The relatively new squad Unibet Titema Rockets showed up on Sunday to their first-ever Monument. Their Cannondales are certainly a rival to those of EF for the jazziest of the bunch. This was the bike of Slovakian champion Lukaš Kubi&ܫscaron;, so it has a white paint scheme.

The rest of 🌃the team bikes are this brushed blue effect.

Incredibly, given all the ludicrous high tech on offer at the race, the Unibet team ✅secures their race numbers with (checks notes) an old fashioned wingnut. If it looks stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.

26.2psi would be a very low pressure (or VER𝐆Y high if it’s in bar), even in a 32c tyre, but I can’t think what else this would be.

Another instance of th꧒e derailleur getting perilously close to the rear tyre.

Swag or not? You can argue about this in the comments. They&rsquo♋;re a bit much for me but they cert🌱ainly garnered attention.

Garmin power pedals for all the Unibet riders.

The paint🌜 on all the team bikesღ had this faux-brushed/etched effect.

I’m genuinely undecided about whether I like it or 𒊎not. It’s brash, bold, and stands out, but I think I’m a bit of a traditionalist.

Fair play to Unlimited Colours thou༺gh, it was ex✅ecuted very well.

Agaဣinst the yellow team bus ꦫthe white really pops.

I’m not sure these aero socks are f🐷rom Van Rysel, and the shoes definitely aren't. I can’t remember which rider this was - I was too busy looking at his shoes - but on his right 🗹foot he’d sliced an X into the outers at the widest point of his foot as the shoes were clearly too narrow for him.

Just like the women's team, the men of Lidl-Trek wer🌱e running a modified SRAM drivetrain, f🐎orcing together a 13sp XPLR rear derailleur with a 12sp road cassette.

Hꦉere's the cassette - count th🦂e sprockets if you like.

Jonathan Milan's bike scored 🦹a perfect zero💜 for hidden motors.

Mads Pedersen 🐽had his aero bottles secured in the cages with stripsꦍ of butyl inner tube.

Here’s a closer 🍌look at the additional grub screw that’s been added to the XPLR derailleurs. It appears like a small groove has also been milled out of the inner face of the inner parallelogram arm too.

Here’s friend of every tech journo under the sun, Taco van der Hoorn's bike. I can’t think of anyoಌne running a more extreme position.

35c prototype Hutchinson tyres on Van der Hoorn’s bike, with (and this isn’t an exaggeration), just en🐷ough room to fit a cigarette paper between the frame, derailleur and the rear tyre.

There was a bit more room up front, but not much!

My wrists hurt just looking at this image.

Here are those prototype Hutchinson tyres. The team told me they were a larger version of the Bla༒ckbird, but the tread is different.

While I didn’t nail the f⛄ocus (you can’t win ‘em all). The derailleur cable is about 1mm from the tyre here.

In other exciting news, the whole team was using Shimano GRX rear derailleurs. The mechanics told me that, thanks to the stronger clutch, it stopped ‘ghost shifting’﷽ over the cobbles.

This Prologo bar tape was first seen ✨at Opening🍸 Weekend last year. It’s covered in rubber spines for better grip.

This is a new design though. I coඣuldn’t see any logos but I suspect it’s just a new design from Prologo.

The emergency all𝔉en ꦇkey next to an in-race GoPro. Heavily laden.

On Van der Hoorn’s spare bike he was running All Season versions of 🐠the Hutchinson Blackbird tyres. Also, che𓂃ck out the valveless tubeless setup; very aero.

Bigger chainrings tha♍n stock for Van der Hoorn too, though still in a 2x cܫonfiguration.

At Tudor, DT 🌜Swiss GRC 1100 gravel wheels were the order of the day, with a wider internal width to better support the wider tyres.

D🀅espite having such a wide set fork, the team&r🦂squo;s BMC Teammachine R bikes actually have relatively narrow tyre clearances.

While many teams covered their satellite shifters in tape, some j🎐ust glued them straight onto the bars.

Team branded seatpost height stickers are a cut above the usual paint pen💃.

Another large, 1x chainring. This time at the Jayco-AlUla team bus🀅.

Nothing really to see here other ๊than a pleasant colourscape. It’s my gallery, and I try to build it as I’d like to see it if I was a reader, so… Bon appétit I guess?

Not many riders use the larger Garmin 𝕴computers, but those that do get plenty of space for stats.

BOA-enhanced💝 Elite Struka bottle cages at the Arkea-B&B Hotels bus. It might make it harder to grab a quick drink, but it certainly helps stop them falling out.

Details matter at💖 the top of racing. Some teams use black butyl tubes to hold the race transponders, others pale red latex. The Arkea mechanics use a celeste colour latex tube, to match the Bianchi bikes. Top✃ notch stuff, that.

Yves Lampert was using a 3☂2c version of the new Specialized Mondo tyres.

They d🅺o g🦂o wider, but there ain't room in the frame.

An emergency lever for Lampert, secured with a velcro s🍌trap or two.

I bet Taco could squeeze a bit moreꦺ tyre in there, but it’d be very tight indeed.

The S⛦oudal team have custom ‘Wolfpack’ K-Edge aluminium computer moun𝓰ts.

More GRC gravel wheels, this time at the Un༺oꦍ-X Mobility team bus.

I have been told the team was only using separate bars and stems to dial their fit𝄹 in, but this 3D printe⭕d, Deda branded spacer is a new addition, suggesting that some riders are happy enough to continue using it indefinitely.

Gold paint pen in the gap at the stem c🥀lamp so the bar rotation is always exactly the same.

This is a big 𝔍stack of spacers to run under a stem with a carbon steerer tube, especially with such a long stem, and double especially over cobbles. I am told that Deda provided the team with an extended 70mm steerer tube bung to offer it additional support, but even so this gives me the wilꦗlies.

🍬While the Cofidis women used 34c tyres, the men were sticking to 32c all round.

Fred Wright is always good for 🏅a bike check. Round bars for the former British champ.

As per last year, Wright was overcooking the frame’s clearance by cramming in a set of 35c Continental GP5000AS TR tyres. It’s sketchy, but it’s faster ♏on the cobblꦜes.

It’s not quite so close as Van der Hoorn’s bike, but there&rs🦄quo;s not much in it between the tyre and the front derailleur.

Merci♍fully there’s a little ⛦breathing room around the fork crown.

Matteo Moschetti opted to use the fully rigid ⛦Synchros seatpost on his Q36.5 Scott🥃 Foil.

Jannik Steimle on🎀 the other hand (sensibly) opted for the verꦿsion with the compliance insert.

It’s old news now, but the team were using the new Zi༒pp wheels with integrated TyreWiz pressure sensors.

32c tyres all round for the squad, whichಞ on reflection was still by far the most common size across both men’s and women’s races.

A square of duct tape in this Israel-Premier Tec🤡h bike keeps the computer from rattling in the mount.

If you&♛rsquo;ve made it this far, and especially if you’ve made it through the mega women’s tech gallery too, this is my treat to you. Yes I did get ꦆto pet him. Yes he was as soft as he looked. Yes he was a very good boy.