Lynne Kiesling
Ooooooh! If only I were better organized. I am going to visit dear friends in Hamburg this weekend, but if I had paid a lick of attention I would have chosen to be in Paris on Sunday for the kickoff of the 103rd Paris-Roubaix, one of the classic bicycle races in all the world, Paris-Roubaix is famous for the spine-tingling and kidney-jangling variety of terrain, including a famous amount of cobblestones.
In bad condition for the past few years, the Wallers-Arenberg forest stretch cannot be taken this year. Therefore the itinerary will be directed towards the South of Valenciennes, where the riders will discover a brand new cobblestone section, in Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes, with an uphill climb of 1600 m. The total length of the cobbled sections this year is 54,7 km (51,1 km in 2004).
That’s 54.7 km out of a total race length of 259 km; i.e., over 20% of the race will be this nasty stretch of cobblestones.
Now, as someone who until recently was riding a 19-year-old triathlon bike (with first generation index shifting), and has bought an aluminum frame bike, the thought of cobblestones continues to make my sitz bones hurt at the thought. But what fun to watch these great cyclists navigate such difficult terrrain! Dork that I am, I have followed the Paris-Roubaix since I started riding seriously in college, but in with all of the other excitements of this trip it completely escaped my notice.
UPDATE: The American George Hincapie comes in 2nd! A very good showing. I’m off to look for highlights on the sports channels …
Eurosport will broadcast live from the race, probably some german TV station as well. But maybe your friends isn’t very interested in cycling. cyclingnews.com is a great place for news and results, and you might want to visit this tdfblog.com.
Well, he’s from Indiana University, so he can’t complain *too* much about cycling! Plus we were most closely acquainted when I was most serious about my cycling … so thanks for the tips, which I will see if I can use on Sunday.
Are there any breaks in the Paris Roubaix race? How do the riders go from covered n mud to clean at the velodrome? Are they hosed down?
REally curious/
Jonathan
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Your blog is very interesting…thanks for writing on this topic. I learned a little something today.