Here stands a man. A quiet man. A hard working man. A Belgian man. A man from a life of grit, cold, and rain.
Here stands a man who has chosen a life of hard work and sacrifice; a hard life even within the context of Cycling. A man who spends long hours in the wind and in the rain, in the service of his team. A man who despite those long hours in the wind and in the rain, typically tastes victory only upon the tongue of others.
Here stands a man who even today, spent the day in the service of another. A man who’s loyalty lay elsewhere, for another man’s glory. But he is also a man who was given an opportunity. A man who more so than any other today, wanted that opportunity and grabbed hold with both hands, resolving only to let go if the very air within his lungs abandoned him.
Here stands a man who only required air in his lungs – not his tires – in order to reach the velodrome alone. A man who even as the air escaped his tire five kilometers from the finish refused to let up on the pedals.
Here stands a man who despite a half minute lead entering the final two kilometers had me biting my nails since the man chasing at 30 seconds happened to be the fastest man in the world, known for making the impossible possible. A man for whom my legs twitched in sympathy as he circled the velodrome and as I continued to wonder if a Swiss gentleman aboard a brommer wouldn’t appear out of nowhere to steal his glory.
Here stands a man who’s name is forever changed by the words, “Vainqueur de Paris-Roubaix.”
Here stands a man. A quiet man. A hard working man. A Belgian man. A man from a life of grit, cold, and rain. No other man stands today who better represents the wondrous power of this sport in general, and the magic of Paris-Roubaix in particular.
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Reviving an old thread to make an observation. I watched the '08 P-R and the '09 P-R DVD's over the past two days while on the trainer and in both of those races, JVS was AMAZING. The guy KILLED it in '08 for his teammate and then, in '09, did it again doing SOOOOO much work for Leife Hoste, not to mention the other 4 guys in the break (Tomeke, Thor, Flecha, Pozzato) that if he had been riding for himself, in either of those races, he very well could have won one of those years as well as this last year. Eighth in '08 and 5th in '09, with all of the work he did, I'm surprised he was not given the freedom to ride in '10 and '11 outright. Dude was NOT an underdog, but he was awesome!
Excellent points all, Buck. It'll be interesting to see what JV does next year for the Queen now that Thor is leaving for BMC. I'd love to see JVS have another go, if for no other reason than he sports Belgian Toothpaste like no other.
Dude did look fucked up at the end this year, eh?
Man, I hope that they give him free rein with some support. He's for real in my book.
I was at that PR and saw Vansummern head into the Velodrome! Wow one of our local Limburg boys did it! His GF/now wife was a champion swimmer at one point...
Lets hope the poor spectator he hit at RVV 2014 is ok... Crazy place to stand, crazy place to try and manoevure on the bike...
@VeloJello
I've watched the clip of the crash half a dozen times. For sure, not the best place to stand, but she was standing on the island when she got hit, suggesting that Vansummeren was riding into/onto the island. Was he unsighted because of traffic? I hope she's ok, because that was a hell of a hit and she went down like a tree.
@wiscot
Just read on cyclingnews that she is in critical condition in the ICU and they are reporting that she underwent brain surgery. But, who knows what actually happened. Not good anyway you look at it.
Unbelievably dumb place to stand, in my view, but surely there should have been a marshal or clearer marking or signposting of street furniture more visible to those at the back of a group of riders. Once riders started going both sides of the traffic island, I can imagine there would have been stuff all time to see it if behind a few other wheels.
@Buck Rogers
Not good at all. What's really sad is that this seems to have been a genuine accident. There's another clip I saw of the riders taking a sharp left-hand bend (Cofidis rider leading) and some twat jumps out into the road at the inside of the corner and jumps around. How no-one hit him, I'm not sure. That's what makes the Vansummeren case so sad - the woman was in a bad place, but on a traffic island. She wasn't in the road.
I've said it here before and I'll say it again, sooner or later a rider will be taken out by some cretin standing in the road/running across the road, and the outcome of a race will be severely impacted. As races such as PR, RVV etc get more popular, they attract more casual fans there for the "party atmosphere." They don't know or understand bike racing and completely fail (never having done it themselves) that these guys are riding at 30 mph. Fingers crossed that we have a"clean" PR on Sunday.
@Buck Rogers @andrew @Wiscot When you watch the video of the crash it's hard to see how he would of come out of it well even without the spectators there. From what I can see it looks like that pedastrian crossing point has a fenced off or hedgerow'd island behind it which he would have crashed into anyway. Thoughts go out to the family of the lady, she was hit very, very hard.