Did a piece of £15 plastic cost Mathieu van der Poel his chance of victory at Paris-Roubaix?

Paris-Roubaix could have been Mathieu van der Poel's race once again this year. The Dutchman looked to be flying and was riding comfortably at the front of the race over the early sectors of cobbles. Then disaster struck as he flatted towards the beginning of the Trouée d’Arenberg, one of the roughest and most infamous cobbled sectors of the race.

With no team car behind and the peloton spread out down the sector the three-time winner was stranded at the side of the road. Then Jasper Philipsen pulled over and handed his bike to Van der Poel. The Dutchman jumped on and tried to pedal. Clearly in too big a gear, he struggled to get going over the rough surface with too much pressure on the chain to change gear.

But his troubles continued as it became clear he couldn't clip his shoes into the pedals. On a flat section of road a rider could push on the pedals without too much force even if they're not clipped in (as long as they didn't get out of the saddle), but bouncing about on the cobbles Van der Poel's feet were slipping off the pedal surface.

Alpecin-Premier Tech is a Shimano sponsored team, meaning all their riders will be riding Shimano Dura Ace pedals, one of the best road bike pedals on the market. So why couldn't Van der Poel - an eight time cyclo-cross world champion used to jumping on and off bikes - clip in?

It turns out Philipsen was using a new set of prototype Dura-Ace pedals, which also use slightly different cleats. As soon as Van der Poel realised this he climbed off, walked back to Philipsen and gave his bike back so the sprinter could continue. Van der Poel then calmly waked back to where he'd left his Canyon bike as the race went up the road.

When he got back to his bike, another teammate, Tibor del Grosso, was swapping his front wheel out so Van der Poel could continue. He did, but then incredibly punctured again just before the end of the Arenberg sector. By the time he got a new bike from his team car he was almost two minutes down and it looked like his race was over.

"I knew [about the pedals]. It was never the plan that I take Jasper's bike of course," Van der Poel said post-race. "But I think he didn't feel good himself so he gave me the bike. I tried to just get out of the Arenberg, and it was impossible. I took my own bike back because Tibor gave me a wheel. But then I flatted again, and I knew my race was over."

In hindsight it seemed like an odd decision for a rider like Philipsen to test protoypte equipment in one of the biggest races of the year, and the one that is the biggest test on equipment. It turns out two other riders on the team were also using the prototype pedal.

A team mechanic told Cyclingnews.com that they had been using the pedals for a while, and had riders swap bikes in other races with no issues. "But Arenberg is not the same as Kuurne." The mechanic said.

Team boss Christophe Roodhoft later said. "They fit, but it's not the same as normal. But it's done now. I can't undo it. I should have thought of it, but I never imagined it would all come together in such a crucial way.

"Right now, I think it was very stupid of me. That sounds harsh. But I don't understand how I didn't think of it. It's more unlikely than winning the lottery, all of it falling together like that."

Whether or not the decision cost the team and van der Poel their fourth consecutive victory in Roubaix will never be known. The Dutchman got back to within 20 seconds of the lead at one point, but couldn't close that final gap. He eventually sprinted to fourth place.

Shimano's SPD-SL pedals are common throughout the peloton and have gone largely unchanged for the last 20 years, but in 2025 the Japanese company released an updated set of it's popular off-road SPD pedals - also with updated cleats - to give better clearance. While the new road pedals will have to be listed with the UCI as Non-Commercial Equipment while they are being tested, no details have been released as yet.