Paris-Roubaix is underway and I've been trawling the pits to find all the best tech and cobble modifications. Most teams do the set menu, with a starter of wider tyres, perhaps a main course of bar tape all the way to the stem, and if they're still hungry then there's always a dessert of a 1x drivetrain.
Lidl-Trek have decided to start the weekend with a special aperitif however, in the form of a modified drivetrain that mashes up the 1x13sp SRAM Red XPLR gravel group set with a 12sp SRAM Red road cassette - the aim being to give a tighter gear range for the very flat course.
In order to achieve this, SRAM has provided the team with modified Red XPLR derailleurs that have an extra hole drilled into the central parallelogram, into which a small grub screw has been added to act as an additional limit screw on the derailleurs motion. It appears that this is a SRAM-endorsed mod., at least for the professionals here at Paris-Roubaix, rather than something done by the team mechanics against the wishes of the sponsors.
Fortunately a SRAM representative was on hand, with an explanation:
"The SRAM RED XPLR AXS rear derailleur is purpose-built for gravel and rough road riding, and Lidl-Trek saw an opportunity to leverage its full-mount design and superior impact resistance for the unique demands of Paris-Roubaix.
The course is known for its brutal cobbles, along with dust, dirt, and potentially mud—conditions that mirror what XPLR was designed to handle. Because Paris-Roubaix is nearly flat, the team wanted to pair the XPLR derailleur’s performance benefits with a tighter-range 12-speed road cassette instead of the standard XPLR cassette. To support this setup, we made a minor change to a spare part of the derailleur.”
Given the roughness of the race and the prevalence of crashes, this does seem like a sensible, if rather drastic, modification to make. We've seen the team using the Red XPLR 1x13 gravel drivetrain at plenty of races this Classics season, but ultimately on a parcours like Paris-Roubaix the largest sprockets on the 13sp cassette would be totally wasted.
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