After my desperate and failed attempt to feel somewhat like a cycling hero yesterday, today was the day where the true cycling hero’s rode their bike. Today they rode their bike through “The Hell”. Today was Paris-Roubaix. 259km with 54,7 km of cobblestones. For you out there that wonder about what cobblestones are, they look like this:

Cobblestones

On the picture they might look quite nice, in real life you need to be a circus-acrobat to ride over them. Fascinating.
As I told Peter last week, Paris-Roubaix and the cobblestones take me back to one of my earliest cycling memories. We go back to 1983. Little Bert was just 6 years old and watching Paris-Roubaix on TV with his daddy. Dutch cyclist Hennie Kuiper had a great day and was riding solo to the finish line until, at one of the last cobblestone sections, he busted his rear wheel tire… Panic! He stood on the side of the road with his bike, waiting for a new wheel. It seemed to take forever. Seconds felt like minutes, and he was only leading by about 20 seconds or so. My dad and I were screaming in front of the TV! Truely great historic cycling moments… Finally he got the new wheel and won, giving a happy ending to a heroic story.

Hennie Kuiper	Panic!

Today the race showed yet again some amazing things. Countless crashes and flat tires. And finally the 5 strongest men up front. Flecha, Bäckstedt, Boonen, Hincapie and Michaelsen. Flecha powers over the cobblestones 17km before the finish line and first Michaelsen and later Bäckstedt can’t follow. Briljant stuff! There is just no place to hide! As soon as they have to let go they fall a minute or more behind. In no other race you would see something like that happen. In “The Hell” it does. Finally Boonen takes an easy victory and get’s rewarded with a cobblestone!
Some day I will have to go to “The Hell” myself, make a complete fool out of myself and go home with a cobblestone… Well, maybe I should say: “make a complete fool out of myself again“. My first application to the circus will be next Saturday! :-)

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 10th, 2005 at 21:40 and is filed under News & media, Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.