In 1993, before the UCI put a stranglehold on the means by which riders sought to go faster, innovation flowed through the peloton. Training methods evolved rapidly (apparently in tandem with the potency of the drugs available at the time) and bicycle design was in a period of exciting change spurred on by Greg LeMond’s win in the 1989 Tour de France after using aerobars to overturn a 50-second deficit on Laurent Fignon.
Paris-Roubaix, more than any other event on the calendar, would see some of the most dramatic experimentation, as riders lost themselves in their pursuit to smooth out the race’s brutal terrain. In a five year span, we went from LeMond fitting Rock Shox to his bike to Johan Museeuw showing up aboard a full-suspension Bianchi. The Rock Shox were at first met with raised eyebrows and thinly-veiled snickers until Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle used them to roll over the finish line as the victor at age 37 in 1992. Not surprisingly, 1993 saw many more machines sheepishly toeing the start line with products borrowed from Mountain Bikes, including the GB Team’s custom-built Bianchi’s decorated with Softride suspension stems.
Balance is a critical component in cycling. Balance between rider and machine, of course, but also between comfort and rigidity. As anyone who has ridden with font-suspension will tell you, what is good over the cobbles may not be as good in a closely-contested finish. Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, the defending champion, and Franco Ballerini, the upstart Italian, broke away together and, with their front-ends quivering like plates of over-cooked pasta, made their way to the velodrome.
The Italian’s confidence in his sprint was matched only by Duclos-Lassalle’s experience on the track. The two wobbled their way to the line, sprinting as hard as their soggy forks would allow and threw their bikes with a synchronization that would be the envy of any Olympic swim-dancing team.
Ballerini was certain he’d won. Duclos-Lassalle wasn’t so sure he’d lost. The referees went to the photo and served Franco a juicy slice of humble pie, in what was one of the closest finishes in Paris-Roubaix ever. Ballerini swore he’d never ride Roubaix again, but nevertheless won it in 1995 and 1998. Solo. On a bike without suspension.
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Every time you post something about cobbles, it's like punching me in the feelings...
Great write up, Frank. Thanks for the continuing history lessons!
You know, as brutal a race as P-R is, with its inbuilt potential for accidents and punctures, the fact that it occasionally comes down to a photo finish sprint is quite remarkable.
I've never seen that Softride suspension stem before. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything more annoying than having my handlebars be able to move independently of the bike frame.
I suffered badly that day...
Ahhhhhh! Love that Bianchi!
There's a 50+ yr old cycling vet in my neighborhood that does MTB rides on a 1980-something Fat Chance bike with a soft ride cro-moly stem. He fucking annihilates us on the singletrack, uphills, and most downhills. Makes us feel terrible about owning $1-3k bikes.
There's also lol pics somewhere on the internet of a full suspension ?Trek Fuel EX? with a cane creek suspension seat post, the softride stem... Complete overkill.
Pity the UCI didn't ban ALL LeMond's freak ideas back in the day
@Frank. Great article. I had one in the q about the '94 PR bikes. Yours is better (just barely!). Nice job and back to the electronic pen and paper for me..........
@mcsqueak, @WV Cycling
My mountainbike still has a softride and a sus seatpost. Actually works great. I always really preferred the softride stems over rockshocks because the handled about the same interms of either changing where your bars are vs. changing your effective head tube fork rake etc with a sus fork - it all sucked back then - and really liked that the softride could do a much better job of dampening and didn't suffer from sticktion, meaning it could absorb alot more of the little bumps rather than the rock shox, which really only helped with the stuff big enough to overcome that friction in the system.
Cool times. I may actually buy a 29er this year; possibly the Ritchey. The new MTBs do seem to work better than my beloved Zip.
@scaler911
Uh....I forgot about that, mate. (I've delegated all guest article management over to Gianni and had in the meantime forgotten you wrote it.) Ah well, the beauty about this is that its still another race, so no reason not to use it anyway!
I actually had another article I was working on for today, but then we got talking about the Bauer chopper bike and I got thinking about this race and it just plopped out in one chunk.
@Steampunk
Every time you whine about the, The Prophet makes a deduction from your V-Bank account.
@WV Cycling
(Oh, and welcome back - its been a while, I think. Possibly since the picture of the guy in the livestrong kit.)
@Pedale.Forchetta
I can only imagine. I thought both of them rode beautifully that day...I usually find I hate one rider and love the other, but that day I truly respected them both. I was glad, though, to see that he didn't stick to his promise to never to ride Roubaix again. In fact, he ended up with a bit of a love affair with it, as @scaler911's gravatar suggests.