“Expectations are excessive, and we wish to win each editions, women and men,” is the brief, intent-filled reply that Lidl-Trek Technical Supervisor, Glen Leven, provides when requested in regards to the staff’s objectives for Paris-Roubaix this 12 months. The staff has loved a robust Classics marketing campaign to date, and the assured, attacking using by leaders Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven has drawn reward and resulted in a win at Gent-Wevelgem, even when woman luck did not smile on them fairly as a lot at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
As Technical Supervisor, Leven is accountable for overseeing the Lidl-Trek staff of mechanics, all the staff’s tools, and any prototype elements and testing. He additionally has over a decade of expertise as a mechanic on the prime stage beneath his belt.
A number of days out from Paris-Roubaix, Leven calmly says, “Now we’re set.” Plans have been made, the preparation has been performed, and it feels just like the calm earlier than the storm forward of the ladies’s and males’s races on the weekend. In an unique interview with Cyclingnews, he mentioned staff logistics, mechanics, and tools decisions at what is usually touted because the hardest race of the season for each rider and bike.
Paris-Roubaix requires much more planning and additional logistics, in no small half as a result of slim, small roads and varied difficult pavé sectors.
“Something can occur till you’re on the velodrome,” Leven explains. The staff calls in favours and makes use of further volunteers who’re normally mates of – or near – the staff to cowl as many factors on the route as attainable to offer rider help.
“You want extra employees to cowl all of the sectors with wheels and bottles, which is far more than a traditional race.”
Leven explains the staff then has to organise further autos to ferry the added helpers to numerous factors on the course. The automobiles themselves obtain the Roubaix remedy, and the staff use BMW X1 fashions – as an alternative of their standard 3-Sequence – as they sit greater from the bottom. Additionally they exchange the under-body plastic tray with a steel one to guard it from scraping and bottom-outs on the cobbles.
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Helpers sadly cannot benefit from the Lidl connection for a free lunch, although, as Leven concedes the staff nonetheless pays for all of its groceries.
Bikes and tech
Leven accepts the concept the days of the specialist Roubaix bike are just about over, saying, “90% that is the fact, it is a regular race bike,” earlier than including that the Lidl-Trek males’s staff use the Trek Madone aero bike solely, whereas the ladies’s staff use a mixture of the Madone and the extra endurance-focussed Domane.
It feels like at Lidl-Trek, no less than, the Roubaix strikes of previous aren’t of concern anymore. There’s not a lot discuss of double bar tape or particular methods, simply factory-spec tools that has been examined completely and may deal with the abuse that the callous cobbles will throw at it.
Leven says the staff use Loctite on bolts, change bottle cages to sturdier ones, and makes use of a gravel spec inventory Bontrager wheelset, however says the usage of grip tape on parts is “complete old style”. The staff’s chains may also all be waxed by the Belgian firm Cyclowax.
Gear testing particular to the Queen of the Classics has been taking place since January with the staff chief Mads Pedersen. “We did testing with Mads on the finish of January and determined the tyre measurement for the staff.” It appears Pedersen’s technical opinion issues.
The 2019 World Champion Pedersen, Stuyven and Jonathan Milan are all energy and goal on the bike, as demonstrated by the 56 1X SRAM chainring they’ll use on Sunday. It is not onerous to see that their tools should be capable to stand as much as the abuse. “We examined till the restrict and even over the restrict,” Leven says.
No quantity of planning can mitigate the chance of punctures, although, Leven admits. “The cobbles are actually tough and typically if you happen to hit them not good, they reduce the sidewall. It is affect or a sidewall reduce.
“We examine every part after the race, and also you see some impacts on the edges.”
The staff use Bontrager wheels, a subsidiary model of their bike provider Trek, and are selecting a gravel wheelset possibility for Roubaix, although the mechanics do not tune the wheel’s spoke rigidity. They’re presently paired with prototype Pirelli tubeless tyres and tyre liners to mitigate towards these impacts for the race.
“We work with Pirelli to determine the perfect tyre strain in line with the rider’s weight, [which is] 3 to 4.6 bar, someplace in between these figures.” Leven says the brand new tyre is a brand new mannequin that’s “even sooner than the present P Zero”.
With regards to wheels, Leven explains Lidl-Trek are the one staff to at all times use a thru-axle with a lever on the request of the staff’s riders. This implies they’ll at all times change wheels themselves in a race or no less than take away one prepared for the arrival of a help automobile, avoiding ready for a mechanic to reach with an allen key or drill.
This is not one thing that each wheel model can supply, and given the ferocity of the terrain at Paris-Roubaix and the following probability of punctures, it isn’t unusual to see bikes with allen keys taped to the seatpost on the beginning line.
Mechanics should really feel the strain at Paris-Roubaix, and the temptation to spend hours checking riders’ bikes have to be felt at occasions. Expertise and confidence should play an element right here, and Leven’s personal expertise seems to face him in good stead.
“If you see mechanics checking a screw 10,000 occasions, they’re simply not assured in themselves,” he says. “Possibly at Roubaix, you verify it as soon as extra, however as soon as every part is checked, it is checked.”
The staff persist with torque specs on every part. “The beneficial torque is the torque we’re utilizing, doing over-torque to be secure can create a difficulty,” Leven says, clearly the itch to overtighten a bolt within the title of additional insurance coverage should stay unscratched.
For a lot of riders, even making it to the end line at Roubaix is the aim. The identical could be mentioned of the mechanic’s prices. With out excellent bikes, riders will – and do – run into issue.
Leven sums up the dedication that’s certainly a prerequisite on the prime stage. “It is not sufficient to be a mechanic, you want additionally a ardour for biking. And to be a freak, to verify there is a love for element and to verify every part is true and makes it to the end line.”
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Spring Classics- together with reporting, breaking information and evaluation from the Paris-Roubaix, together with begin to end reside stories of each the lads’s and girls’s race. Discover out extra.
