Posted on 04/06/2018 9:56:30 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
I’m going to guess you’re not a Paris-Roubaix lunatic—but I’m going to make you one. It’s simply the biggest, baddest, hardest, cruelest cycling race of them all. Stretching for 260 kilometers—that’s 161 miles, I googled it all by myself—from that dusty backwater, Paris, to a velodrome in northern France, finishing the race takes a little less than 6 hours.
Six hours! You can fly from Miami to Los Angeles in 6 hours. You can drive from Milwaukee to Louisville. You can watch almost four innings of a baseball game... It isn’t easy to make cyclists capable of winning sacrifice themselves to ride in support of a teammate. It’s comparable to a basketball star adjusting to taking fewer shots on a team with other stars. It doesn’t always work....
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
You know what you win when you win Paris-Roubaix? A freakin’ rock. I’m not kidding.
Peter Sagan! Or perhaps a fresh new young Eddy Merckx...
I saw this race once awhile ago. I thought racing over cobblestones was crazy.
Yes, a paywall at WSJ.
The weather forecast may be for sunny and dry weather at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, but that is unlikely to sort out the wet and muddy state that some of the cobblestone sectors are already in....
riding the streets in old town Prague is similar.
did that back in ‘89..
Cobblestones, mud, a stretched out discordant peleton.....
That is one tough race.
KYPD
Or the last two minutes of a basketball game.
” I thought racing over cobblestones was crazy.”
Totally crazy.
I would love to see the race or maybe ride some real cobbles.
Has there ever been a female rider in Paris-Roubaix?
We made him a special Rockshox suspension fork for the race. He won and the next year, nearly everyone in the race had to have one.
Duclos-Lassalle was one tough SOB and the oldest racer to ever win Paris-Roubaix.
There’s rugged competition like defending Paris-Roubaix champ Greg Van Avermaet, and his fellow Belgian, Sep Vanmarcke. These are not the tiny water bugs who float up Alpine climbs in July. These are thick-legged bulldogs who can tow a Citroën for 50 miles.
The American television channel CBS covered Paris–Roubaix in the 1980s. Theo de Rooij, a Dutchman, had been in a promising position to win the 1985 race but had then crashed, losing his chance of winning. Covered in mud, he offered his thoughts on the race to CBS' John Tesh after the race:
“It's a bollocks, this race!” said de Rooij. “You're working like an animal, you don't have time to piss, you wet your pants. You're riding in mud like this, you're slipping ... it’s a pile of shit.”
When then asked if he would start the race again, de Rooij replied:
“Sure, it's the most beautiful race in the world!”
Thanks for posting, Dumbgrunt. Didn’t read more than the headline to totally agree. My friends were talking golf this morning - but, I was thinking that it was only two days until Paris-Roubaix. This should be a great race again. The glamour missing because of the absence of Boonen and Cancellara is being restored by the great group of current riders. Sagan is so fun to watch and easy to root for, but the veterans in this race are also classy in their own right.
By the end of the race I always end up thinking the winner, no matter who it is, is deserving. This year will probably be the same, even if he is wearing Quick-Step Blue.
I always laugh at the award for the winner.
You’ve beaten yourself up over 6 hours of cobbles and are physically a wreck.
Then they hand you a 30 pound cobble as an award and expect you to lift the thing over your head in celebration for the photogs.
For non-cyclists, the race referred to here is sometimes known as The Hell of the North.” It’s ridden partially on narrow, twisty backroads, many of them paved with bricks instead of asphalt. Miles of teeth-jarring, butt-crushing miles. There are longer races — Milan-San Remo, for instance, and there are tougher climbs (Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux), but Paris-Roubaix stands as one of cycling’s most hemorrhoid-inducing slogs.
My hubby, an avid cyclist from Luxembourg, says there has never been a female rider in Paris-Roubaix....maybe one day.
Luxembourg!
Like Belgium, this is something they know very well.
Thank you.
Seems like race will be shown on NBC Sports on Monday. NBC Gold on IPhone will show race, live, Sunday at 4:45 AM !
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