Velominati Super Prestige: Paris-Roubaix 2015

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• 1970

• @LeoTea

  @wiscot

  Re the train crossing. In this day of incredible communications technology, is it not possible to communicate with the damn train driver and get things sorted so we don’t have the level crossing farces happening every few years?

  According to inrng.com, they do try and tweak the start time of the race so that they don’t clash with the trains. But apparently the tailwind meant that they got to the crossing sooner than anticipated.

  And every single rider who had to dodge around the barriers should get turfed out. I had another look at the video today and it looks like there was about 10 seconds between the last cyclist across and the arrival of train. And then the riders start crossing again before the barriers start coming up. What if there was another train coming?

  Numpties, each and every one of them.

  yeah they were about 15 minutes ahead of even the fastest predicted time, which would explain why they got caught out by the train. Official word is that the UCI commisaires were too far back to pick the numbers of the riders that should be dq'd

• PR as seen by the Grubers...

  http://stories.strava.com/roubaix

• @Mikael Liddy

  PR as seen by the Grubers…

  http://stories.strava.com/roubaix

  Epic and awesome!

• @Mikael Liddy

  yeah they were about 15 minutes ahead of even the fastest predicted time, which would explain why they got caught out by the train. Official word is that the UCI commisaires were too far back to pick the numbers of the riders that should be dq’d

  How hard is it to prepare for it. Every couple of years the race gets stopped and there's a controversy about people ducking the barriers. Warn the riders, set up a camera, review footage if people jump the gate and DQ the riders involved. Otherwise one year all the headlines will be about a rider ducking the barrier and getting killed.

• I'm surprised to be hearing about the boom gate thing from people who aren't into cycling, but know I pay attention, so (incorrectly) presume I care about their incredulous judgement of the peloton. It must have got a bit of a run in the mainstream media.

  I always thought the rule was that you can't cross once the boom gate is down. You wouldn't want the riders to slam on the breaks and cause a pile up with riders spilling onto the tracks - I've never riden towards one of these crossing at speed so I can't say as to whether there's flashing lights providing sufficient warning before the boom gates start descending - but I think it's safe to say having riders try to stop too quickly would be worse than riders squeezing through safely as the gates descend, hence the current wording (which I think is supposed to be in the technical info riders are provided before each event rather than in some UCI rule - but I might be wrong about that). I haven't watched it back but from memory there was only one or two guys that went around once it was down, they should be easy to identify on review and should have been dq'd - the bulk went through as it was coming down and the way the rule is worded and to my mind, they should not be dq'd.

• @Roobar

  @Mikael Liddy

  yeah they were about 15 minutes ahead of even the fastest predicted time, which would explain why they got caught out by the train. Official word is that the UCI commisaires were too far back to pick the numbers of the riders that should be dq’d

  How hard is it to prepare for it. Every couple of years the race gets stopped and there’s a controversy about people ducking the barriers. Warn the riders, set up a camera, review footage if people jump the gate and DQ the riders involved. Otherwise one year all the headlines will be about a rider ducking the barrier and getting killed.

  Well the thing is, they had prepared for it, but the pace that race was run at is what caused the problem.

  Trains are a big worry for race director Gouvenou and his team at ASO. They spend hours poring over rail timetables especially as the race crosses the same railway line five times within a short space. The best plans can go wrong and the tailwind sped the race way ahead of schedule exposing it to the risk of a level crossing closure. Even a ten minute delay to the start to compensate for the tailwind wasn’t enough.

  Source: http://inrng.com/2015/04/the-moment-the-race-was-won-paris-roubaix-2015/

• @dyalander

  I always thought the rule was that you can’t cross once the boom gate is down. You wouldn’t want the riders to slam on the breaks and cause a pile up with riders spilling onto the tracks – I’ve never riden towards one of these crossing at speed so I can’t say as to whether there’s flashing lights providing sufficient warning before the boom gates start descending – but I think it’s safe to say having riders try to stop too quickly would be worse than riders squeezing through safely as the gates descend, hence the current wording (which I think is supposed to be in the technical info riders are provided before each event rather than in some UCI rule – but I might be wrong about that). I haven’t watched it back but from memory there was only one or two guys that went around once it was down, they should be easy to identify on review and should have been dq’d – the bulk went through as it was coming down and the way the rule is worded and to my mind, they should not be dq’d.

  If the crossings are anything like the ones here in the UK then there is plenty of warning from flashing lights that the barriers are about to come down. After all, they are designed to deal with cars etc travelling significantly quicker than even a wind assisted peloton.

  Whilst the organisers can claim that they've done everything they can to avoid this, it would seem to me that there are a few things they could do. First up they could contribute towards upgrading the barriers so that they shut off both lanes on either side (the majority, if not all barriers in the UK have been upgraded because too many people were getting killed when they decided to drive around the barriers). Not only would that prevent riders crossing after the barriers came down but it would contribute to safety generally and be a big PR win. Failing that, a couple of policemen with a crowd barrier they could move into place as the barrier came down would have a similar but cheaper effect.

  I totally agree with everyone who has said that riders should be DQ'd if ID'd. Massively televised events like PR are last place we want to see cyclists disregarding the rules. It's bad enough that the general public perceive us to spend our time running red lights and hunting down pedestrians on pavements (sidewalks for the Americans).

• @Chris

  I don't think the comparative speed is the most significant factor - a peloton is far more difficult to stop than a car or a group of cars travelling in a line. Far more difficult. If the first rider hits the brakes when he sees the lights flashing there is a real chance that a pile up would ensue and riders would end up on the tracks in a far more dangerous predicament.

  The gates may be similar to those in the UK, but then, they may not be. I couldn't say. But I would expect that ,they are designed for general traffic not for a peloton in a race.

  As far as the effect of watching cyclist flout rules go - I'd accept that it'll confirm existing anti-cyclist sentiment but I don't think it'll create more such sentiment. I don't think it creates a significant issue for cycling advocates or advocate groups in their work.

  I don't consider cyclists in an organised race flouting speed limits while descending to be setting a bad example - the road rules don't apply to racing cyclists. I think this is comparable - they are choosing to flout a road rule (not a race rule - only those that crossed when the gate was down contravened the race rule and they should be dq'd) - they are putting themselves in danger in both instances. I'm fine with both on that respect. However, they are also risking others by crossing - this is something that needs to be considered and I can understand reservations on this basis - but I come back to my opinion that it's unreasonable to think a peloton can stop in the same distance as a car and that the rule as it stands - if enforced properly is sufficiently safe.

• @unversio

  @Mikael Liddy

  PR as seen by the Grubers…

  http://stories.strava.com/roubaix

  Epic and awesome!

  This one is my fave - http://stories.strava.com/roubaix#view:le99xlj5t2pm0a4ivmt5kfvkco8khuxr9lm8

  What a canvas for the human spirit!