As the dust settles on another memorable edition of road cyclings toughest single-day race, Mathieu van der Poel will undoubtedly be rueing his teams decision to run prototype pedals on Jasper Philipsens bike. Following a puncture in the infamous Arenberg trench, van der Poel looked to quickly rejoin the lead group by jumping on the bike of his key lieutenant, Philipsen, only to find himself unable to clip in to the bikes prototype Shimano road pedals. With the team car nowhere in sight, van der Poel despondently returned to his own bike which, in the meantime, had been fixed via a wheel swap from another teammate only to puncture again before the end of the segment and lose yet more time. Although the Dutchman was eventually able to get mechanical service from his team and rejoin the fray, the energy expended during the chase back on naturally cost him dearly in the finale. At face value, then, the pedal problem looked to have ended van der Poels chances of taking a fourth consecutive victory at Paris-Roubaix. According to his team, though, the truth is more complex. Read more Van der Poel's Arenberg disaster confirms Shimano's unreleased pedals use new cleats ParisRoubaix 2026 tech gallery: 1x drivetrains take over as teams move to MTB groupsets and 35mm tyres This is Wout van Aerts Paris-Roubaix winning bike and theres nothing special about it A very stupid decision Van der Poel's team manager understandably regrets the decision to use two pedal systems at Paris-Roubaix, but noted they'd been trialled in previous races without incident. Speaking to IDL Pro Cycling and Sporza in the aftermath of the race (which was won by Visma-Lease a Bikes Wout van Aert), Alpecin-Premier Techs team manager, Christoph Roodhooft, admitted the decision to use two pedal systems was very stupid. When questioned why the team had allowed the situation to occur in such an important race, Roodhooft admitted he simply didnt think about it in advance, because the team has been testing the pedals in and out of competition for a number of months already. You can say that in hindsight. Mathieu also rode with them [the new pedals] briefly at the start of the season. I had promised to use those pedals in competition as well," Roodhooft said. Of course, that all came together at an incredibly bad time. I never would have thought that. Now it comes down to the pedals, but there was a long build-up with other things. Roodhooft also noted that other Shimano-sponsored teams, such as Team PicnicPostNL, are testing the new pedals and every team that uses Shimano pedals will be on the new ones soon. He also hinted that, although the new pedals may be designed for updated SPD-SL cleats, they were also supposed to be backwards-compatible with existing ones, such as those van der Poel was using. We were stood still for over a minute The team car, with van der Poel's spare bike, got held up at the entrance to the Arenberg sector. Etienne Garnier - Pool/Getty Images Its fair to say that, while the pedal-compatibility issue clearly cost van der Poel precious time against his rivals, there were other factors that played a significant role in turning a simple puncture into something disastrous. For a start, Roodhooft noted that van der Poels team car had been held up at the entrance to the Arenberg sector by a crashed rider from another team and the race doctors car. We were stood still for over a minute. Behind us, the peloton came through and was able to pass. So the peloton was back between us and the lead group at that point." Given this, the team car couldnt reach van der Poel to offer him mechanical service as quickly as usual. In contrast, although van der Poels key rivals, Tadej Pogaar and Wout Van Aert, also suffered punctures throughout the race, both were able to receive service from team cars and rejoin the race more quickly. On top of this, Roodhooft said team staff had, for the first time in history, been banned by race organisers from standing with spare wheels by the side of the road in the Arenberg sector. That ban affected all teams, of course, but not everyone was unlucky enough to puncture at that crucial point of the race. What does Shimano have to say for itself? The race organisers banned team staff from standing in the Arenberg sector with spare wheels this year. Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images As Roodhooft rightly points out, Alpecin-Premier Tech is, as a Shimano-sponsored team, obliged to test prototype equipment in race situations. Given this, some blame may lie with the Japanese component brand if it had indicated to the team that the new pedals are backwards-compatible with existing cleats. But thats speculation at this point. Nevertheless, if the pedals are supposed to retain compatibility with existing cleats, Shimano clearly still has work to do before they are released publicly. Unsurprisingly, Shimano didnt reveal anything about the new pedal. Instead, it told us that it is continually developing new products and evaluates the performance of our products based on valuable rider feedback. We do not address rumors, speculation, or unverified information about our products however, regardless of whether they are currently in development or not," Shimano added. Clearly, such a high-profile incident wont be forgotten quickly by riders or fans, and when the new pedals eventually land, cleat compatibility will be the question on everyones mind.