"I’ve seen it happen 15 times in Roubaix and no one ever benefited from it" - Tom Boonen argues against habit Mathieu van der Poel has shown in the past

Paris-Roubaix is a race of two halves - one in which the roads are completely flat for two hours, and then between three or four hours in and inbetween the 30 cobbled sectors. For the cobblestones, riders often have bikes with specialized material to handle the cobbles, but this can cost a lot of speed over the two opening hours of the race. However, Tom Boonen believes this is part of the race.

“I’ve seen it happen 15 times in Roubaix and no one ever benefited from it. Riders who try that all think they’ll save energy in the first 100 kilometers by riding a faster-rolling bike," Boonen said in the Wielerclub Wattage.

He has seen Mathieu van der Poel do it, but the Belgian - a four-time winner of the Hell of the North - believes that doing so is not beneficial to the riders. Not because it doesn't bring benefit, but because Roubaix is often a roller-coaster and doing this can be a big risk in a race that is often non-stop from start to finish.

“You don’t want to switch bikes too early, because you want to benefit from that faster-rolling bike for as long as possible. But you also don’t want to switch too late, because then you’ll never make it back to the front in time for the first cobblestone section. So much stress just to save 15 watts," he points out.

In recent years specially, after Matthew Hayman's shocking 2016 victory, most teams in the peloton are ultra-focused in getting riders in the day's breakaway to have cards to play later on, avoid battles for positioning and they themselves can get the chance of fighting for a strong result at the finish. This means that in some years, the riders enter the cobblestones without having much of an easy ride beforehand.

And if someone adopts this strategy of switching bikes, they will be vulnerable to potential collective attacks. “The rivals will be watching when Van der Poel makes his bike switch. They’ll keep the race moving and make sure Van der Poel suffers to get back".