I’m Canadian and doing the Flanders 230 with a bunch of my Flemish buddies. They all say to use my usual normal bike and put 28’s on, and that is exactly whatI will do. The pave is not nearly as brutal as Roubaix. I will be riding my 2018 SWorks Tarmac SL6 which has loads of tire clearance so the 28s can even balloon a bit.

One other recommendation is to use alloy bottle cages with some grip to keep the biddons from flying out.

Yes, Flanders is a whole different animal compared to Roubaix and some good 28's will be perfect. I'm currently in love with the Corsa Control 28 from Vittoria with SILCA Latex tubes. They measure 30.1mm on my 303's and will measure a bit wider even on something like an ENVE 4.5. They seem to strike the perfect balance between the a super supple casing and a really tough, yet durable and grippy tread. LOVE this setup and think it would be perfect for Flanders.

And of course, have to throw in a shameless plug for SILCA Ti bottle cages.. nothing holds as well, plus they're made from 'space metal and lasers' according to my favorite product review ever!

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x2 on the Corsa Control 28, I run them in tubular, they come in 30mm also. way better than the Vittoria Pave' of yesterday which were my foul weather/course tire

I did the full Flanders in 2006 or 7. The first 100 miles was nothing but a steady stream of belgian toothpaste in huge packs on flat roads in the rain. After that it was awesome, awesome, awesome. The cobbles are carnage. Busted handlebars, busted seatposts, busted wheels, busted people left and right. And way damn harder to ride than I expected. I know Roubaix is worse, but I have trouble imagining it.

I did Flanders for the first time this weekend and since I get alot of good advice here I wanted to drop a note on my experience and recommendations. I did the 174km on Saturday and the weather was great so my take aways might be different for a wet day but here goes:

-The cobbles are brutal and unlike anything I have ridden on before. I am not aware of any roads like this in the US and I think if someone invented this race in the US nobody would do it because nobody would think it would make sense to ride over this sort of terrain. That said, its a real challenge and alot of fun once you get used to it. You learn quick what works and what does not (keeping your grip loose is key). I found the downhills on the cobbles worse that the uphills - it felt like my body and bike would rip apart. And while alot of folks say the best way to ride over the cobbles is to ride them fast that is pretty hard to do on a 20% grade.

-I rode a Canyon Endurance with 165 52/36 cranks, an 11-30 rear cog and 28mm tires, all of which were good calls. I actually think it was the perfect bike for this ride. Having done the ride I now totally understand why you want the wide tires.

-Because there are rest stops available (well stocked with stroopwafels and belgian waffles) and about 16,000 riding the various distances there are a couple ways to do the ride: steady pace without stopping much or all out and then use the rest stops as breaks. I did the latter although my "all out" was not much by the middle of the ride. Doing this ride gives you such a perspective on how amazing the pros are. My goal was not to put a foot down on any of the climbs and these guys are racing up them which is just ridiculous once you see these things. To race this nonstop and have anything for the last 2 climbs is just unbelievable.

A bucket list event. I will be back again.

I thought I'd give an update on my setup following doing both Flanders and Roubaix. I used my Niner BSB RDO (got lots of comments on in it) with Schwalbe G-One Speed 30c tires set up as tubeless. I did have a few bike mechanicals along the way (not on the cobbles though). My front brake rotor got bent in transit, then my Di2 internal battery crapped out due to water damage during a rainy ride with Johan Museeuw. Thankfully, I was able to find a shop with a new one in stock.

For We Ride Flanders 174 km, I used 60 PSI front and 65 PSI rear. This was probably a little high, but OK for this course. The cobbles threw me at first and I started to get a little worried, when I heard the ones at Roubaix were much worse. We had a chance to recon several of the Roubaix sectors, including the Arenberg. I tried out 50 PSI front and 55 PSI rear. This worked perfectly. I actually found the Arenberg to not be as bad as I thought.

The start of the Paris-Roubaix Challenge kind of sucked, since it was 28 F. The only good thing was that the sun was out for most of the ride. I found that the more I rode the cobbles, the more they didn't seem as bad. Don't get me wrong, they were hard. However, I learned how to change lines, search out the smoother sections, etc. This event was not that hard fitness wise, but took the biggest toll on me physically (eg, I had partial feeling in my fingers for about 1-2 days after)

In conclusion, I highly recommend rolling tubeless or tubulars for Flanders and Roubaix. Running tubeless at Roubaix at around 50 PSI didn't really affect my speed. It seemed like the perfect balance. Both of these events were truly memoriable, and it's kind of cool that I got to ride all 29 sectors of pave at Roubaix like the pros do!

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Nice backdoor brag :-)

I was there this past weekend. I had brought my Ritchey Breakaway (Ti/carbon) road bike. I tried to get 28's to fit but they were too tall and rubbed. So I had to ride 25's. With too much pressure, really, to ride all the sectors. I went out Friday afternoon and rode the last 8 sectors plus a lap around the velodrome. 8 was enough on that setup.

Sunday I rode to the race and managed to see them on 3 sectors, riding hard from one to the other, including the last at Gruson/Carrefour de l'Arbre.

Monday went over to Ypres and rode some of Gent-Wevelgem including a trip up the Kemmelberg. Good weekend.