Hayman fights back on the Carrefour. Photo: @harminator
Failure and success are destinations not often visible to the traveller. This is why it is nice to focus instead on the beauty of the journey and try not to be become overly fixated on any particular outcome. It is with some regret that I admit I didn’t invent this idea; there might be a few religions and philosophies out there that have stumbled upon this concept before me. The best you can do when you are born an idiot is read the works of those who weren’t idiots and then proclaim their ideas as your own.
One of the characteristics that separates successful people from the others is less their intelligence or an uncanny ability to get things right, but more their ability to keep fighting even when a situation is hopeless. I haven’t done any research on this, but I can recognize a fact by how it feels, so I’m pretty sure it’s right.
The final of Paris-Roubaix this year was the best edition of the race that I’ve seen during my lifetime and probably the best single bike race I’ve ever watched. It wasn’t so much for the result or the fact that Roubaix is my favorite race, but for the fight that every rider showed. No secteur of pavé is easy, but the Trouée Arenberg and the Carrefour stand out easily as being the hardest of them all. Most secteurs, however brutal they are, hide within them a secret to how to pass through fairly swiftly; they typically have a crown which stands above the rest of the stones and it provides something resembling safe passage. But these two sections are brutal things; the state of their cobbles is such that one imagines a bitter old French road worker dumping wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of stones along the road, taking a look back at his work and deciding that neatly laid cobblestones are a luxury not everyone is entitled to experience.
The Arenberg comes early in the race; a contributing factor but rarely decisive. The Carrefour, on the other hand, is late in the race and decides everything. The biggest problem is that the riders have close to 250km of racing in their legs, and bad pavé has a habit of stopping your bike in ways we don’t often encounter; blow after blow after blow from the stones in rapid-fire succession, soaking speed from the machine one dirty cobble at a time. Accelerating again once the speed is lost is almost impossible; and if you watch the overhead shot of Boonen diving into the last corner of the Carrefour and coming to a stop, you will see the way he fights with his bike to get it back up to speed. He is not of this world; for us mortals, the ask is too great.
I had given Matt Hayman for dropped at the Carrefour, only to watch him claw his way back. Sep Vanmarcke was off the front. Vanmarcke was brought back by a group that was working together perfectly, and Matt came back to the group shortly after, riding like he would rather his legs fell off or his heart stop beating than give up the race. Then came the attacks in the final; each one a do-or-die effort put on by riders who between the lot of them had nothing left to give. But not one of them ever quit; they would be dropped, but they fought back. Attack after attack, they kept the pressure on and not one of the riders was ever willing to give up.
And in the end, the rider dropped on the Carrefour, when quitting seemed the most sensible thing to do, beat the greatest cobbled classics racer of all time. This is the sort of lesson that Cycling teaches us; never give up, always fight through. I take inspiration from this and apply it not only to my own riding, but to my professional and personal life as well: You can’t, and you don’t, and you won’t stop.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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I now have Sure Shot in my head and the vision of those guys entering the velodrome;not a loser among them.
I love how blindingly fast Sep crushes that pavé. I believe the reporter on the motard said he was pedaling at 55+ kph. Taintdestroying fast.
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed".
Michael Jordan
Never give up.
@RobSandy
How did your crit go last night.
I did my first race of the season last night, a masters' crit at Hillingdon.
Did lots of work but all at the wrong time ! Then got blocked in the final run in. Still, all good training.
@ChrisO
I got the race more or less spot on mate, stayed close to the front but without doing too much time in the wind (apart from the odd 80% surge just to keep everyone on their toes). Then I managed to get a really good position for the last lap (thanks to a team mate burying himself and dragging me and a small selection with him), and sprinted past most of the group to the line - result unconfirmed but looks like I didn't quite get to the line first. But I'm happy with 2nd in my first 'proper' crit race.
Did you place/points in yours? An ex-member of our club races at Hillingdon pretty regularly - from his reports there are loads of crashes!
I still can't organize my thoughts about this day. It's one of those events that will leave a mark forever. I'm really glad the cycling world has embraced the result and recognized it for its quality. After the finish the mood amongst some spectators at the race was pretty dull. They wanted more for Tommeke.
Allow me a moment to publicly credit William and Alex at Pave Cycling Classics. If any of you get the chance to experience the beauty and the terror of the roads in this region look no further. Top blokes in the truest sense.
Some comments.
If Etixx don't give Panzerwagon a ride as their #1 next year they're nuts.
The way Sep laid it over going into those corners on Carrefour is other worldly. The surface is truly awful. Big holes and sharp undulations in addition to the worst cobbles. Don't diss Sep. If you're looking for a wheelsucker try Haussler.
There's about 200m of Tarmac between Carrefour and Gruson where Hayman got back on the wheel. I didn't see him make ground on Carrefour. It may have even helped to be able to pick his line and effort. He must have sprinted on the road.
On the Backstage Pass: 8:10
"He's doing his best 10 seconds"
"Fresh"
In the commentary box Robbie's face at 3.26 is a tangled mess of emotion that sums up the day. Agony & ecstasy for the perfect result for a guy who has given so much to others.
I got some other pics but we only watched from Carrefour so there's not much change in composition.
Had to watch the last 25 km again after reading this. Still exciting.
@RobSandy
No, well out of the points. I might have done OK - there was a break ahead but I think they were mostly a different category so I was preparing to try for the sprint and had a reasonable position. But a guy came off the front and virtually slammed on his brakes so I got checked and it was too late to get back.
Yeah I'm not so keen on Hillingdon. It's too easy, in the sense that if you sit in the bunch you can go the whole race without burning any matches, so big fields tend to stay together. But no crashes. Masters riders are a bit less crazy.
The Cyclopark at Gravesend is better as there are some sections where it strings out and while it may not be enough to make a break it does take a toll on weaker riders so the field thins out gradually.
@ChrisO @RobSandy Looking at both of your races last night, it's amusing to see that you both forgot to turn your Garmins on at the start.
@chris
It's some comfort that I'm not the only one. I might leave it off for the next race, I didn't look at it apart from to notice it wasn't going!