Was Paris-Roubaix the best of the Spring Classics in 2013? Milan-Sanremo was amazingly photogenic, Ronde van Vlaanderen was inevitable but Roubaix was just about perfect. We all prefer the wet and gray “This weather is good for us” Roubaix yet this race’s drama transcended the fine spring day in the North of France. There is no better way to understand why they are pros and we are not as when one watches the leaders burn secteur after secteur in the 53 x 17. Humbling is not a strong enough word.
With fifty kilometers left to race it was obvious Cancellara was not in his usual soul crushing form. He was riding a few groups back and not even dominating his own little pack. It was not going to be the Double. He was just another mortal, with no teammates and a lot of young bucks looking to leave him in the dust…and yet.
After a massive match burning rage he was in the lead group of four along with Stybar, Vanmarke, Vandenbergh. Two of the four were Quick-Step teammates. They hammered away toward the end of the Carrefour secteur. Vanmarke and Vandenbergh both looked strong as hell. Had Fabian not bridged up with Stybar spinning for his life right behind, those two big lads were riding away.
When they exited Carrefour it was just Cancellara and Vanmarke.
The evil lady luck was there, not to be ignored. First tempting Vandenbergh to the right gutter, inches from the spectators. He wobbled and his front wheel clipped a civilian. He was on the stones. Zdenek Stybar, moments later spooked to the left gutter and spectators, maybe clipped out of his left pedal for a second. He stayed up but the elastic had snapped. Zednek needed a good draft to stay with those men and he had lost it.
I have many beautiful memories of this race. I know how to adapt to this race, and I like the challenges it poses from a technical point of view but you need the luck. Sometimes it’s like an individual time trial though and along with luck you need to be smart. -F. Cancellara
Evil lady luck was in the gutters on Sunday. Always ride the crown.
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@Ron
Horseshit. If the pros aren't riding them, all the more reason we should continue to carry the torch.
@Chris Of course we need to increase the dosage. How many times do we have to go over that?!
@Nate, @Ron Stuff the pros, I'll keep riding mine until the Merckx turns up in the Molteni Volvo to take them away.
@Ron Yep. That article made me decide conclusively that Caley Freitz is a fucking idiot. Sure, pros can smash wheels that cost more than two grand a pair over cobbles because they don't pay for the things. The equation most riders make in terms of what equipment to buy for what situation quite often isn't going to accommodate being such a fucking prat. If you read the article, the Nemesis wheels in the service course are seasons old. I wouldn't trade a jar of piss for a pair of carbon wheels that had been used by a pro for a season, but I'd happily buy a pair of nemeiss wheels that are a few seasons old.
Additionally, many of the riders would have been on endurance frames, with a considerable amount of comfort built in. So you can get a super smooth riding bike with a bucket of clearance for fat tyres, and put your hyper stiff aero carbon wheels on there and still get a reasonable ride. Fretz overestimated how much of the difference was caused by the wheels to make his point, whereas the wheels are still as unsuitable for the purpose as they ever were - unless you have a Roubaix, or Synapse, or whatever the fuck they were riding with custom geo and buckets of tire clearance. If you have a normal bike, that's not a super compliant wonderbike, the nemesis is still a great choice.
That and an entire continental team were on Nemesis rims, so he couldn't have been looking that hard.
@Chris
I've just read your profile and you can't possibly be me, you sound like a fucking hippy so best we lay off the drugs for a bit.
In the meantime, can you have a word with your parent about not checking whether your username was already in use and get them to chose another one for you.
WRT to shoe condoms, they look awful. I bet shoe sponsors hate them.
Totally off topic post - sorry.....but how the hell do I keep track of posts on the site? Can I search against quote #. Sorry guys, but struggling a bit and feeling like dullard.
Love the tone of this write up! Chapeau..great writing!
@Mike_P
I know what you mean and I have never found the answer....I have just kind of learned to live in the present in a never ending stream of short lived memories!
Having said that (and I am sure you alread know this, but just in case) on the right of the screen if you click the poster you will go his his or her avatar and can see/track what they have been posting. If you click the post name it will take you to the latest comment that person has made on that particular post and you can scroll back up...
(Granny/Eggs, forgive me)!
@Mike_P You can also click the @name in posts to jump to the post that is being replied to or quoted.
Other than that, I think the site is designed so that the best way to keep up to date is to spend all of your non riding, non race viewing time on the site.