Well, do I have a race report for you all today! The race I have had my sights on since I pulled out of the tour of Flanders. Excuse the fact I have no photos to show you I am just waiting for some to come up on the internet.
Anyway U23 Paris - Roubaix is 180.6km and kinda gives a new meaning to the word hell! For those that dont have much to do with cycling, Paris Roubaix gets its fame from the rediculous amount of cobbles. And they arent cobbles like us kiwis know them…. they are stones that stick out of the ground a good 5cm with a nice 5cm gap between each one. Just to make it worse too the roads are over 100 years old with no work done to them so you can imagine the state the road is in. 23 sections ranging from 800m to 3.5km long. The majority being about 1.5km to 2km long. If you ask me the is alot of of cobbles.
From the beginning…… I woke up in the morning and looked out my window and it was raining. If you think riding on ice would be slippery try riding on wet, muddy cobbles. I was thinking about then, today is going to be a race of survival!
Anyway the race started at 12.30pm but fortunatley the rain stopped about 9am, so it was still going to be wet and muddy but we werent going to get soaked while we were at it. Every year for the last 4 years there has been a break away of 15-20 riders go in the first 30km. Once that had gone the race for everyone else was over. Well I think every knew thats what happens so everone wanted to be part of it, in which case nothing got away.
The first cobbles were at the 50km mark and leading up to there I was feeling not bad but not good either, I was thinking this day is going to be hard. 2 km before the first cobbles it turned into a real fight to stay at the front, and when we hit the cobble I found myself about 40 riders back which was not where I wanted to be. It was too far back for what damage the cobbles do to the peloton. Halfway along that first section the race came to a holt which was good for me cause I was stuggling to close gaps the were forming in the pelaton. The reason being, there were 2 support motos lying in the middle of the road (see what I mean about slippery) as not all of the riders could get around the motos they had to neutralise the race until the matter was resolved. They stopped the race a few more km up the road because riders wouldnt co-operate with the commassires.
After 5 or so minutes the race was on again with the whole peloton back together again, therefore meaning another mass fight to stay at the front for the next section. This time I was feeling good so I got pushy, I was staying at the front. We got on to the cobbles and I was about 10 riders back, a good place to be. Well it wasnt long until 6 of the 10 infront of me were all lying on the road. Mountainbike time, as I took to the grass and made it around the crash to join the 4 infront. Others behind me werent so fortunate as more hit the deck trying to avoid the crash.
After that though a small group came back together but they wanted to be dicks and not race so the whole peloton came back together. Just up the road I puntured but today they have mavic as neutral support so it was a quick wheel change and I was back in the peloton. There was one thing with the wheel change… the wheel they gave me everytime I stopped pedaling the free hub would lock up. I wasnt going to ride another 110km like that so I stopped for another wheel change. Only this time when I reach the back of the peloton again we got onto another section of cobbles. So I was as far back in the peloton I could have been. I was thinking about then, today is not my day! But with alot of yelling and screaming “get out of my way”, and alot more speed than alot of other riders, I got off the cobbles with the front group. But again it all come back together again as they didnt want to ride hard after the cobbles. What I mean by all coming back together is it became a big group again but not every got back on.
We started with 150 riders by now there were 60 or so left. Im just going to fast foward a bit cause nothing much happened, we road cobbles and slowly the peloton got smaller but it was still a peloton.
At about 115km the favorite from the race decided to lay down the smack down on a sectoin of cobbles…. it was hard but it wasnt suffering hard. At the end of that we were down to maybe 40 riders. The next cobbles team rabobank layed it down. now that was hard! after that there were 20 of us left and 60km to go. I thought I was my turn to lay down the smack down so the next cobbles I wound the speed up so we hit the cobbles at about 55 kmh and just drove it.
At the end of that there were 10 of us left and that was the group the went to the finish. Well when we got to the velodrome there were 8 left, the 2 that dropped couldnt handle all the attacking in the last 30km I think.
Anyway we came into the veledrome and I was last wheel. I was thinking, last year I had no sprint left, today I have a little but do I take the chance in hoping these guys dont have much of a sprint, or do I take my chances and attack with 200 to go?
I thought if a can catch them off guard it could work so I took the attacking option. When you get into the velodrome you have 1 and a half laps to the finish. You enter on the back straight, you go around to the finish then its the bell for last lap. Well we got the bell and I was still on the back I rode up to the top of the banking and slowly started winding on the gas. using the banking for extra speed I hit it.
Caught all of them totally off guard. I got down the back straight fine, got on to the corner and I could feel my legs fading….. I was saying to my self “come on, you have got this”. Onto the home staight and I still had about 10 meters but then it was like someone flicked a switch. BOOM! All of a sudden I had nothing left… NOTHING WHAT SO EVER! the reason my legs were still going around was because my pedals were still going around. 20m to go and I was nearly screaming with the pian. Just as I looked down I saw wheels coming over top of me. 5m to go 4 guys got over the top so I finished 5th. I was happy with my effort, I was in agony from my effort but I was disappointed.. if only the race was 10m shorter!
But no I am very happy with the ride. The first 3 are all professionals and the 4th might as well be professional.
anyway thats all from me hope you enjoyed the read
Clinton
P.s will put pictures up when i get them
