Cycling is becoming too fast: Winning time of 2019 Paris-Roubaix would be OTL in 2025
CyclingSaturday, 19 April 2025 at 19:05
Just like most of nowadays races, also Paris-Roubaix is becoming faster and faster thanks to many new innovations. This year's edition was in fact so fast that the winner from just six years ago wouldn't even make the time limit cut today.
This is once again evident from the findings of so-called cyclingspy on Instagram. The time limit for Paris-Roubaix is set at eight percent of the winning time. Mathieu van der Poel won this year after a race of 5:31:27, which brought the time limit to 5:57:58. On his road to victory in 2019, Philippe Gilbert took longer than that to reach the finish line. His winning time was 5:58:02. Outside the time limit.
Due to the many factors that determine the end time, it is difficult to compare the times with each other. Not only has the nutrition and equipment walked a long way since Gilbert's victory, the wind. and in general weather conditions, also play a huge part. However, it is a trend that it is going faster and faster in professional cycling. We also see this in the speed records that are being broken more and more often.
This year's Paris-Roubaix is not the fastest ever. Van der Poel reached the finish with an average speed of 46.921 kilometers per hour. Last year, the Dutchman, in the rainbow jersey, was even a bit faster. Then, he covered the distance in 5:25:58, which made his ride an extra kilometer per hour faster.
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- He didn't have the legs to stay with the top guys in case you hadn't read that !frieders305-05-2025
- Of course the dimensions have to be checked as long as pro cycling continues to be defined by a traditional bicycle definition, otherwise you open the door to all sorts of weird vehicles, like recumbants to keep the technical side easy. Obviously there can ve a completely different procedure for the check than how it was carried out here. If all went according to how reported, the team/rider should sue the official/UCI for result manipulation, this incident shows among other things, how the door is (left) wide open to corrupting officials to disadvantage people. Would be so easy to do those checks well without stressing riders. Maybe the triathlon system would be a solution ?Mistermaumau04-05-2025
- Agreed! I had forgotten about that moment, a rare misfire by UAE.RidesHills04-05-2025
- The UCI thinks that all of these formalities make it look like they're in control of things, but incidents like this one actually make them look like bumbling, incompetent fools.
santiagobenites04-05-2025 - He's one of the nicest and most humble guys at the top of the sport. Perhaps should have won another stage race already this year but for questionable UAE tactics when Buitrago got away and stole GC.Renz04-05-2025
- Completely Stupid decision yesterday of trying to help his teammateabstractengineer04-05-2025
- What a solid season he has had so far. I wasn’t really noticing bust just checked his stats. He has done only GC races, and placed 2-2-6-1-1 in them. Every single one in the top 10, and only one off the podium? That is solid work. Would have been nice to win yesterday, of course, (a solid climbing stage) but it set him up for today’s GC win. Congrats.RidesHills04-05-2025
- When are the UCI going to get rid of these ridiculous bike checks? I can understand that they would want to check for motors, but surely it makes no sense to have a rider sit on a bike that complies to a set dimension rather than have the bike set up to suit each the riders unique biomechanical needs. What is the purpose of such a dumb process? Is it just something for the guys in blazers to do?Cyclingsbestfan04-05-2025
- Speaking of “Holland” or Denmark flat, isn’t it interesting that they can produce good climbers?Mistermaumau04-05-2025
- I believe I have a pretty good idea what they’re experimenting with. It’s something that won’t work with everyone but can work REALLY well with the right personality.Mistermaumau04-05-2025
If you pick the right years
1948 43,5km/h
1964 45,1km/h
If you look at every year you see the progression used to be in steps and became more rare and gradual, there still seem to be steps sometimes but pretty small. The two biggest influences are 1. how the race evolves on the day and 2. wind direction. It seems high speed is now more consistent, probably because the way of racing has focused towards that, gone are the days of the leisurely 30km/h outing in preparation for a few hundred meters of sprinting towards the end.