Weight Weenies

I'll be riding my first Tour of Flanders in April this year and looking for recommendation on tyres.
I appreciate that there have been other Tyre topics published on this forum, although some of those are a bit dated with the recent Tyre developments.

Requirements:
* Clincher only (not tubeless)
* Fast and grippy (especially in the wet, to be able to cater for changeable conditions)
* Minimum 28mm so I can run lower pressures

So far I've narrowed it down to the following:
1. Specialised Turbo Cotton 28mm (Hell of the North)
2. Conti 5000 28mm
3. Vittoria Corsa Control (new version just announced today, although no idea on availability yet) 28mm

Are there any other tyres that I should consider. What have other people ridden at this event?

You need tubulars, I guess.

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Conti 4/5000s will be fine. There's no need to run the pressure too low either, the cobbles aren't PR style...

How about the Panaracer Gravel Kings in 32 or Conti 5000 30s? The GKs are super grippy amd decently puncture resistant. I run them at 45-50 in front, 50-55 back. Pretty fast - maybe a hair slower than say the Compass Stampede Pass tires I have used (the fastest feeling I have tried). Got my first puncture on my Conti 4000s after about 10 rides this winter - and noticed a number of small punctures that didn't go all the way through. Not loving them on roads with potholes/sand/salt/crud.

I'm doing both Flanders and Roubaix on my CX bike. I'm running Schwalbe G-One Speeds (70x30) tubeless. If I were doing Flanders only, I'd probably ride my regular road bike on 4000s (25 or 28).

Done it twice with 25mm tyres, first Vittoria Open Pave then Continental GP Classic. In general you don't need super soft tyres, just run them a bit soft 6 bar or so. The key to riding the cobbles is to get comfortable and loose on the bike, and keep a decent speed.
Going there again this year and will likely ride the Open Paves again.

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Maybe something wide from Compas?

Out of those tires mentioned so far my experience in wet grip is the Michelin clearly leads the pack on a raceday tire on wet roads. The downside to this tire is it doesnt last as long as continental or feel as nice as vittoria. Id say Specialized would be the closest to it...
https://bike.michelin.com/en/products/m ... all-season

I live in Belgium. The cobbles are better than in pr. I run 25 vittoria corsa g 25 on 622-21 wheels on the summer bike and challenge strada pro 36 on the winter bike.
I would recommend vittoria corsa g 28 at lowish pressure.
60 psi on 28’s.
it’s not the cobbles but the bad roads in between (concrete, broken asphalt) that can wear you out on too hard tires. If in doubt err on the low side.
Enjoy flanders.

Kurets wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:28 pm

Done it twice with 25mm tyres, first Vittoria Open Pave then Continental GP Classic. In general you don't need super soft tyres, just run them a bit soft 6 bar or so. The key to riding the cobbles is to get comfortable and loose on the bike, and keep a decent speed.
Going there again this year and will likely ride the Open Paves again.

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This. Ridden Flanders a number of times with a wide variety of tyres. The Open Paves or the Turbo Cottons would be my choices.

mortirolo wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 2:49 pm

You need tubulars, I guess.

No you really don't.

Doing the same.

I’m going for the new Vittoria Corsa control in 28s on a hed Belgium plus rim

I tend to just stick to my regular Vittoria 25s to be honest, either Pavé or now Corsa G+ and haven’t had many issues - off to ‘touch wood’ quick so I don’t jinx it for this year’s trip!

When I rode Flanders I used GP4000S II 25mm, running them at 75 & 80 PSI (I am 80kgs). Good grip, np pinch flats and felt as fast as usual.

Being a 'local hero', you do not really need very special tyres for Flanders.
All 3 of them will do just fine, even in 25mm.
The GP5000 looks like the most allround choice and probably the pucture resistance on them is a bit higher then the other two.
7bar seems a nice benchmark unless you are very smaal or very big.
On the cobbles, let the bike do it's job and make him 'fly' over the cobble. Try to loosen your grip a bit on your handlebar and certaninly on flat cobble-sections (well are they ever flat...you'll find out) try to maintain your speed and try to ride with a smaller cadance.

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Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments. Some great feedback and insight from those of you that have ridden the event and live locally.

One of the options I hadn’t considered was just to use my current summer tires Michelin Power Competition 25mm.

We’re also going out a day early to get a feel for the cobbles, so I can tweak the tyre pressures then.