Paris Roubaix - 2013

Paris – Roubaix April 2013

A 3:30am alarm call is never pleasant but somehow the excitement of the queen of the classics is enough to get me out of bed on an otherwise freezing cold morning. 

My mountain biking buddy Phil was along for the ride and gave me a lift to Tom’s house, before we knew it the car was defrosted and we headed off on the first leg of our journey.  Tom did his best to kill every piece of wildlife between Seaford and Dover, I think the animals were trying to escape the cold and heavy overnight frost and after a few games of ‘odd one out’ with Nettie (Tom’s daughter and new Womble taking a break from swim training) we pulled in to Dover and boarded the ferry.

A super smooth crossing followed, we left the ferry, freshly decorated hot chocolate brown, for the drive to the first section of cobbles, one minor detour later and we made it on to the cobbles with plenty of time to spare. 

Our ‘neighbours’ for this section were a mother and daughter from New Zealand who took quite a shine to Nettie and they provided great company and sweets while we watched the constant stream of team cars pass by.  With conditions dry, no wind and temperatures almost warm the riders were ahead of schedule and they hit the cobbled section hard and fast.  The peloton was as one, except for an euskatel rider who flatly refused to ride any cobbled sections, and took an alternative road route to the first feed (and presumably abandonment).

The fast race pace would be problematic as the race basically heads North East and to see the race you need to be able to cross the race route and get far enough ahead of the peloton to stop and stake your claim for a good viewing point.  We opted to miss the first feed section and headed to a spot further up the course.  A fast rally stage through the lanes followed but a navigational error meant we happened upon the race earlier than expected, just as the lead cars were emerging from a side road.  Tom abandoned the car and we had just a couple of minutes to wait before we saw the first major break of the day with Tom helpfully pointing out Stuart O'Grady, Gert Steegmans, Matthew Hayman and someone else we didn’t recognise.

Reading the reports, there had been a pretty big crash on the second sector which explains why the team cars were trying so hard to re-establish their position in the race, service riders and assist getting riders back into the peloton.  It was a chaotic and exciting corner to be on, even for a non-cobbled section.

A quick recalculation and we made the decision to head to one of the traditionally decisive cobbled sections at Orchies , we felt we would be early enough to get to park close by and get a good spot on the cobbles.

We drove past the bottom of the Arenberg Forest and saw the route from the main road a couple more times, before finding the Gendamerie had closed all the roads leading to our intended viewing point.  Tom exchanged a few words with the Gendarme who explained there was a cobbled section 2km walk away, we quickly parked up, grabbed our snacks and started the walk.

This section turned out to be Section 14 and there was quite the party atmosphere, big tents with food, beer and a band.  We made our only investment in the French economy, 3 euro for 3 beers (very reasonable for a world class event) and waited for the riders to appear.

We chose a section of pave that we thought would cause problems for the riders, the section contained a big dip and a few misplaced cobbles, we hoped to see race affecting chaos – it didn’t, the riders hit the section as though it was smooth without any hindrance.  The lead riders were riding through in pairs, they were still ahead, but not by much.  I gave Stuart O’Grady a big shout (he is something of a hero of mine) and I swear he smiled at me (maybe it was just a grimace).

Other riders were trying to ride away from the front of the race before the remains of the peloton came through, the front riders skating down the crown of the road with many riders taking to the riskier but smoother roadside edge, we had to take a step back as the best riders in the world flew past just centimetres from our noses.  The pace had slowed just enough to pick out a few riders, Thor Hushovd was just losing contact with the group and it was really disappointing to see Geraint Thomas losing ground.

With plenty of time to get to Roubaix we hung around to see many of the groups behind.

As last year, poor road signage and failure by me to bring a suitable map meant that we couldn’t find the Roubaix Velodrome, as we drove through the Roubaix suburbs at less than 20 mph we could hear the commentary ticking down the last few sectors of pave and we knew the riders would be approaching at speed.  Eventually we found signs for the velodrome, which disappeared as soon as they appeared and made one last ditch attempt to find our way to see the finish, by complete fluke we parked in the same road as least year and set about walking the last few kilometres of the race.  We aimed to get to the velodrome to see the finish, but we didn’t quite make it, instead the lead riders swept past us just in time for us to see them enter the last kilometre and sweep onto the final cobbled section, in hindsight this was almost as exciting as being in the velodrome.

The remaining riders filtered past in ever increasing sized groups, by now we could make out most of the riders we knew as they past by.  Instead of heading straight to the velodrome we headed to the team buses and trucks to see the exhausted and dusty riders looking to step off their bikes and collapse in their buses.  It was an odd feeling knowing the race had ended less than 200 metres away from us, but we didn’t yet know the result, a few texts later informed us Fabian Cancellera took the win by a bike length.

Tom as usual was fantastic in pointing out the big names, including those just hanging about, Allan Peiper, Max Sciandri, Jim ‘Och’ Ochwitz to name just a few.

The area behind the velodrome was rammed with people, I suspect due to the great weather, this led to another chance encounter with Stuart O’Grady who wished me well (I think that was the Australian translation) as I stumbled to get out of his way on the crowded roads.

Team mechanics were washing down the bikes and riders were preparing for their onward journey.  It was interesting to see the BMC mechanics attend to Hushovd’s bike, the mechanical derailleur causing a slow change, with the mechanic dismissing the concern as being in Thor’s head.

As expected, there was a real buzz around the Radioshack bus with lots of back slapping and hand shaking between all team staff.

A final walk back through the velodrome, to see Fabian still conducting press interviews in the centre of the track, drew our Paris Roubaix experience to a close, as we headed back to the car and made our troublefree return journey home

Huge thanks to Tom for once again arranging a great day out and to Nettie for keeping me entertained.

Lets hope for rain next year??