You still need the legs to win, but tech is never a footnote at Paris-Roubaix. The famous cobbled sectors place enormous strain on equipment, and the wrong setup can end a race before it ever truly begins. Nowhere is more attention paid than to tyres. An ill-timed puncture could end a hopefuls race, but with only 54.8km of pav in the 258km men's race, an excessively robust setup will needlessly waste precious watts elsewhere. After decades of relative stability, tyre tech at Roubaix has shifted dramatically in recent years, with tubeless systems, inserts and above all ever-wider tyres the key talking points. Were on the ground at the start of this years race, casting a hawkish eye over team setups here are the key tyre tech trends to follow before the big day tomorrow. Read more: How to watch Paris-Roubaix 2026 | Global options for live TV and streaming 1. Pogaar and Movistar go massive 38mm that's a confirmed whopper. Ash Quinlan / Our Media Read more: Pogaar will race Paris-Roubaix on enormous 38mm-wide tyres and a 1x drivetrain but no tubeless inserts To the best of our knowledge, Tadej Pogaar and Movistar Team are running the widest setup of Paris-Roubaix, with both using 35mm-wide Continental GP 5000 S TR tyres. In Pogis case at least, this measures a whopping 38mm wide once mounted to his ENVE SES 6.7 front wheel.He's stuck to a more 'normal' 32mm tyre for his rear SES 4.5 wheel. Meanwhile, Movistar's Ivan Romeo is running 35mm tyres front and rear. These are progressive choices, even by modern Paris-Roubaix standards, where tyre widths have been creeping upwards year-on-year. It's also likely right on the limit of the UCI's rules, which limits any wheel + tyre combo to a maximum diameter of 700mm. A 40mm-wide tyre typically balloons up beyond this when mounted, so don't expect to see anyone go wider than this. 2. Nobody is on anything smaller than 32mm We're yet to see a tyre narrower than 32mm at Roubaix. Ash Quinlan / Our Media While those two are outliers, so far, we havent seen anyone riding tyres smaller than 32mm wide and we dont expect we will. Thats a far cry from even a few short years ago, where spotting 28- or 30mm wide tyres at Roubaix was notable exciting, even. Even though the cobbled sectors only make up a relatively small proportion of the race, better testing, improved tyre tech and a more open-minded peloton means theres now little reason not to ride wider tyres at Roubaix. The question is whether riders will follow the lead of the likes of Pogaar, and go further still, en masse. 3. Not everybody is convinced by inserts Uptake of tubeless inserts appears to be mixed. Simon von Bromley / Our Media Read more: These foam rings might save your life so why does nobody care about them? Wide tyres might be in vogue, but tubeless tyre inserts remain a divisive topic in the peloton. Teams using them are nigh-on evangelical about their benefits, while others present a more cautious stance either unwilling to compromise on perceived, or real, performance losses, or simply unconvinced by their efficacy. The pro-inserts camp includes both the mens and womens Visma-Lease a Bike squads, as is Team Picnic PostNL. On the other hand, Pogaars wheel supplier, ENVE, has said it doesnt endorse the use of tubeless inserts in its wheels, while an Alpecin-Premier Tech spokesperson told us the team didnt want to take on the performance penalty. As they're hidden inside tyres, a comprehensive survey of every teams approach is near-impossible, but even from what we can see, there isnt a clear-cut case for inserts in the eyes of the pros just yet. 4. Gravaa is out, but theres still weird stuff out there Visma-Lease a Bike is still glueing tyres to rims. Ash Quinlan / Our Media The shock news that the UCI had banned the Gravaa pressure-adjust system just weeks before Roubaix due to uncertainty around its commercial availability removed one of the more entertaining tech highlights from recent editions of the race. The system enabled riders to adjust tyre pressure on the fly, and was ridden to victory by Pauline Ferrand-Prvot in 2025. Even with that out of the picture, there are still some weird and wonderful tyre tech highlights to be found. Sticking with VismaLease a Bike, some of the womens team are riding the same glued-on tubeless tyres as last year in a bid to help tyres seal if a tyre burps on the cobbles. The split valve inflates the insert and tyre respectively. Ash Quinlan / Our Media Elsewhere, as first reported by Cyclingnews, LidlTrek is set to use Odysseys Optis inflatable tyre liner at Paris-Roubaix. Read more: This inflatable insert promises easier fitting, lower weight and better protection than foam inserts (and no, it's not an inner tube) Unlike foam inserts, the liner is pressurised, allowing the tyre to be run at lower pressures while adding impact protection for the rim, and helping riders keep going after a puncture.