What tires do the top pro ‘cross riders use, tubulars or tubeless?
The 4x national champion weighs in
Ever wonder what kind of rubber the pros use in Europe? Traditionally, the riders at the World Cups would always use tubulars, but with the trend toward tubeless, has that changed?
According to Michael van den Ham, plus ça change.
“It’s safe to say that most pros are still using tubulars,” van den Ham says. “There are a couple exceptions, for example the Swiss rider Loris Roullier is sponsored by Schwalbe and uses tubeless–but by and large everyone is on tubulars.” (Undoubtedly, there will be a Canadian Cycling Magazine reader commenting on some other outliers, but the majority, it seems, use tubulars.)
Tubular tires are there to stay in the pro ranks…probably, he adds.
“Even though I think you’ll continue to see fewer and fewer tubular tires in the amateur field, there may be a few reasons only I see for pros moving off of them,” the soon-to-be national CX lead says. Van den Ham is retiring after the national championships in November, but will stay in the sport, using his knowledge of the sport with the next generation of ‘cross riders.
“So the only reasons might be that tire sponsors that don’t make a tubular and won’t let them ride someone else’s or have the glue and maintain their tubulars themselves (as opposed to having a mechanic do it for you),” he says. “The gap has certainly narrowed between a good tubeless tire and a tubular, but for the highest level of the sport there is still a noticeable difference in the performance, ability to run low pressures, flat resistance, rim strength and, often, weight of a tubular setup.”
But at your local races and at the national level, you’ll definitely see lots of tubeless hoops. Mostly because tubs can be a pain in the tuchus. (Gluing tires is not the most fun either, if you’ve never done it. When I was a kid I would purposely do it in view of my father, and totally screw it up so he took over and get mad at me and say ‘Matthew, you’re doing it totally wrong!’)
“For the amateur, the hassle and cost of running six or more sets of tubulars probably outweighs these benefits, but I don’t think tubulars will be going anywhere for pros unless manufacturers necessitate it,” he concludes.
