The brutal stones of Paris-Roubaix
Every time I’ve ridden the Roubaix pavé, I’ve peed the next few days like I got VD from some dirty cobble. That might not really sell the non-believer on the pleasure of riding the sacred stones, but there truly is nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Here in Seattle, we have cobbled climbs and they are by all rights legitimately rough. But they pale in comparison to the brutality of the Flemish kasseien, and the Flemish kasseien pale in comparison to the French pavé.
When riding the cobbles, I sometimes find myself almost having an out of body experience, amazed at the fact that bicycle and rider are carrying on in a generally forward progression. On one occasion, I even found myself staring at a bidon that had ejected from my Arundel Mandible bidon cage, which itself says something about how rough the ride was. The bottle seemed to hang in the air for a moment as time slowed and I wondered firstly how the bidon had found its way past my top tube, and secondly whether I should fight the strangely strong urge to try and catch it.
Several of our V-Community brethren are over in Lille as we speak, riding the cobbles with our friends William and Alex from Pavé Cycling Classics and swilling Malteni like fools. They are over there because the thrilling sensation of savage shaking when you hit a secteur at speed from the smooth tarmac followed by the sense of overwhelming relief when the shaking stops as you return once again to the smooth pavement is an itch you have to keep scratching.
Sunday is Paris-Roubaix, the Queen of the Classics. And this time, it really does look like it’s going to be muddy and raining. Thank Merckx. Recall that Tom Boonen is the only favorite in the Peloton who has raced Paris-Roubaix in the wet, in 2002. Fourteen years since a muddy edition. Fourteen.
Will Boonen make it an unprecedented V wins? Or will Faboo come good and tie the record to join Boonen and de Vlaeminck? Or will Pinchy do the double and take his second monument? My money is on rain and an upset winner.
Don’t forget that the VSP Series winner takes home a custom Don Walker and that the runner-up gets a set of handbuilt Café Roubaix CR Wheelworks Arenberg wheels. Third place get a V-Kit. So start your prognostications on the start list, pray to whatever deity that melts your butter, and get your picks in by the time the timer goes to zero.
[vsp_results id=”41032″/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@piwakawaka
Yeah, Boonen put in such a huge effort to get back to Hayman, I think that cooked him for good. I think we'll see him on the start line next year. Of course, if he wins (or gets beaten) he'll show DeVlaeminck what good sportsmanship looks like.
@ChrisO
Yup, time for me to "Pull A Hayman" and hit the rollers at lunch here.
I am currently riding, on average, five days a week and 3 or 4 of those rides are rollers each week. With my schedule I can carve out an hour to an hour-twenty during lunch most days for a roller ride and escape outside on Sat and, if lucky, Sunday as well but the lion's share of my training is on rollers. Yes, it sucks compared to outside and I would ride outside every day of the week if I could but with my job, I have to be available during lunch for emergency walk in patients and I am not willing to take time from the family after work to ride (although I do commute most days--only 6 k's but every little bit helps).
No doubt it builds fitness like crazy. I started back on the bike "In Earnest" on DEC 18, 2015 and I have been averaging 4 rides a week and I have taken off 11 full kilograms in that time since DEC. Now I have also been watching how much, and what, I have been eating and drinking but there is no doubt that for my lifestyle, rollers are paying off in spades.
Now if I could just find a 2016 P-R youtube video at least 1 hour long (my minimal roller ride time)!!!
@wiscot
"Threw away" is a better description. :-)
"Gutted" is when Steve Bauer loses Paris-Roubaix to Eddy Planckert by mm's in 1990.
Wait, not 11 kilos lost! 5.5 full kilos lost! (My Yank is showing--converting from just over 11 pounds lost to kilos!)
Shite!!! I wish 11 kilos!!!
@chuckp
Yup, I still wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over that one.
@Buck Rogers
Interestingly I was reading some other interviews he's done and specifically about the indoor training.
He was saying he was very much an outdoor cyclist only and hated being on the trainer but he'd found Zwift much better than watching movies or TV series while on the turbo. He felt that because it was cycling, albeit of a virtual kind, he was able to concentrate on the training better.
I'd totally agree with that. I was saying to the guys on the Cogal last week that all my training is indoors now. Outside is fun and social, or racing, but training is much more precise and focused inside.
@Mikael Liddy
This was brilliant, just brilliant. I watched it on the rollers and I must be getting old and sentimental but it truly brought tears to me eyes, esp at the 12:00 min mark when he is saying that "this just does not happen" and he keeps repeating it. So so so great.
@Buck Rogers yeah, what's telling is seeing the reactions of the guys like Durbridge & Bewley, they're all so stoked for the guy, kinda gives you an idea of his standing within the team.
@sthilzy
How good is Keenan bouncing up & down while still managing a "reasonably" calm description of what's going on?
@Mikael Liddy
That's because Matt Keenan is one of the best going round, and Robbie gave an excellent insiders view.
Love to have been on that team bus afterwards cracking a few frothies.
Gold I tell ya, Gold