http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/rue89-sp...ix-cest-lenfer-mais-ils-en-redemandent-230922
Why Is Paris-Roubaix the Hardest of All Cycle Races?
Nobody described Paris-Roubaix better than Dutchman Theo De Rooij during an interview for CBS in 1985. [...] After racing for long time in the lead, he’s interviewed on American TV and shows his knowledge of English slang:
“It’s a balls this race! You’re working like an animal, you don’t have time to pee, you wet your pants. You’re riding in mud like this, you’re slipping, it’s a piece of sh*t…”
The journalist replied:“Will you ever ride it again?”
“Sure, it’s the most beautiful race in the world!”
[...]
Paris-Roubaix is the hardest race of the year. Climbing a mountain pass, not talking about three passes in a row, might seem inhuman to you but most cyclists manage it, more or less fast.
By contrast, not all cyclists are able to cross 51.5 kilometres of cobblestones. A 60kg climber will never start the “Hell of the North”. Not mad! [...]
The morning of the Paris-Roubaix start is not like any other morning. Breton Guillaume Blot, [...] noticed it last year:
“On the other races, we are shaking hands, we go and have a coffee in other team buses, we are laughing… but the morning of Paris-Roubaix, you only know your own teammates, period. The faces are expressionless. We don’t talk to each other. It’s war.”
On a cycling race, you may always talk behind the peloton during the first k's and even at the end of the day if you have nothing left to win nor lose, but not on Paris-Roubaix.
Jacky Durand [...], easily explains it:
“Everybody knows that he’s going for a particular day. It’s another cycling. A lot of riders know they will get dropped while they are physically well.”
Paris-Roubaix is a nerve contest. A moment of slacking can make you lose the race, on the cobbles – a fatter cobble and zip, you crash -, during the crossing of villages with narrow turns or on these long wind-opened straight Picardian lines in the first 100km.
Allan Peiper, Garmin-Barracuda’s team director:
“If they are not afraid, that means they aren’t ready. They must be afraid, tensed. It’s true that tension tires out but nevertheless, you have to be on nerves in order to be conscious of what is happening and reactive. All senses must be awake. Not being frightened but careful from start to finish.”
The approach of a cobble section is a fight. The further the riders are in the peloton, the bigger is the risk of a crash or to find oneself in a second group if the peloton is scattered in several groups. And the cobble sections are so narrow that it’s very hard to pass. Hence they are fighting like dressers on those country roads. The fight might start 5, 10 or 15km earlier. [...] Jacky Durand:
“On Paris-Roubaix, there are key sections and they are all like finishes. It’s a race in which you have 4 or 5 finishes in one day. You are entering the cobble with excessive speed compared to what we should. The Forest, you are entering it at 60kmh, [...]”
A Trauma for the Whole Body
Steve Chainel has just recognized the Arenberg Forest and is still tensed:
“Those who have never cycled can’t understand what it is. My hands are all warm, the feet, the a*se hurt. As we are knocking on each cobbles, you always need to put more pressure on the pedal in order to cross it. On the cobbles I’m in trance. The kidneys, the thighs, the fingers, the arms, the cervical vertebrae, everything takes it.”
Each Cobble is a Hammer Knock
The body endures a unique trauma. “The next day, many riders have sensation that they never have felt.”
The controversial doctor Michele Ferrari describes each cobble as a hammer knock. Even blood circulation experiences repeated vibrations, he explains.
[…]
Every Man for Himself
In order to master Paris-Roubaix, you need to race it, several times. Not twice, not three times, but rather 17 times, like Frederic Guesdon and George Hincapie next Sunday. Until then, Paris-Roubaix weighs on the riders, make them crack. Riding at 5kmh on the cobbles, then dismount, exhausted, with stinging eyes.
[...] Guillaume Blot will be one of them. He’ll live his cobble section this way:
“When you are entering a cobble section, you already have made an intense effort to keep position. You arrive there at a mad speed. It’s said you always have to keep the ‘haut du pavé’ (which means the middle of the path, e.d.) but after a moment, you feel you are no longer moving forward, you lose speed, you feel more and more that each cobble bruises you.
You see clusters of riders who are parting ways, descending to the left or the right of the cobble in order to look for a 5cm narrow ground path and you rush to it for better efficiency even though you know that the chance for a puncture is high.
It’s every man for himself. It strikes, strikes, strikes. The whole body vibrates and most of all you got to avoid jerking and to shake the bars too hard. To be at the same time, wrapped, straight body and supple and relaxed regarding the arms and the hands.”
Despite all the psychic and physical fatigue, and the three days of contracture that follows, they’ll come back next year, like Theo De Rooij. In order to prove that they are cycling riders and because the Hell of the North, is a heavenly race, says Guillaume Blot.
------
http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/rue89-sp...coureur-paris-roubaix-passe-lessiveuse-251297
Steve Chainel, Rider of the Paris-Roubaix: “We Are Getting in a Washing Machine”
Next Sunday, 30 year old Steve Chainel from the Vosges, will start the 2014 Paris-Roubaix. He will find back those paths and cobbles that he knows very well: “Even goats would twist their ankles.”
Next Sunday, Chainel will have the blues, he will have raced Paris-Roubaix, “the hardest race of the year” and its 51km of cobbles. All the rest will look fade to him.[…]
Let's take the Arenberg Forest as example. The first time I rode on it on recognition, I was wondering how you could make cyclists passed by. It’s a goat path and even they would twist their ankles.
It’s 5 to 7 Minutes of Drill. It’s shaking all over, muscles are tetanised and sore after two minutes. You’ve got to push the pedal as strong as possible. So the foot arch is burning because of the vibrations. You are entering a washing machine and what is incredible is that you are asking for more when you get out of it.
The pain comes back on each cobbled section, you are more and more fed up. So you tend to get to the “bas côtés” (the edges of the paths) but you got holes. You run the risk of punctures and hurting your wrists.
During Paris-Roubaix, the legs are not aching more than on any other races. The low part of the back is squeezing a little bit but the biceps are taking most of it. They are stirring a lot on the cobbles.
Many will tell you that their hands and wrists are hurting more. I’m lucky enough not to feel pain in my fingers.
[…]
On Roubaix, the mental strengths, enduring the pain is bigger than on another race. At half-race, everybody already feels pain in their arms. The one who can go the furthest in the pain will stay in front. It’s the only race in the year in which you feel pain everywhere, not just in the legs.
[...]
The biggest illness for cyclists is at the seat. You are constantly resting on your *** and every cyclist feels pain where it rubs. [...]
It’s worse after Roubaix. The day after you can feel pain when you are urinating because you’ve compressed all that, … without going into details! Not very pleasant. Once you are mounting your bike for “scrubbing”, you feel the stigmas of the day before. The biceps, the perineum, the fingers are swelling.
-------
A friend of mine who raced the U23 version told me:
What makes Paris-Roubaix the hardest race is the fact that there are no climbs and no descent!
"You are climbing a mountain pass, packed tempo, you can see the 5 or 6 best climbers telling the story of their lives among themselves, taking it easy, waiting for the last climb or almost. After this terrible effort, 20 to 30 minutes of recup in the descent, freewheeling…
Let’s take the Tour of Flanders. Small paths, often in Indian file, very hard climbs that you are sprinting up but then thankfully there are some little descents enabling you to quickly recover and regroup…
Now Roubaix! You have a 2 to 3km section that you are sprinting on. And then? You start again on the asphalt in order to make echelons, keep position, close the gaps, etc for 2 or 3km and there comes the next section, …
After all that you are laying on your couch for three days, aching everywhere.
Take the Walloon Arrow. Imagine that between the climbs, you have no descent. You always reach a higher “plateau”. That would be very hard indeed. That is Paris-Roubaix."
-----
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeC-cKp7Hgg (1.39)
Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle:
The cobbles of Paris-Roubaix are not necessarily different from those of the Ronde, because cobble sections, apart from more or less upright, are the same. The main difference is that on the Ronde, you have cobbled climbs. When you are climbing a climb, you can get in the “red zone” because afterwards you automatically have a small descent or a descending false flat, enabling you to recup. While in Paris-Roubaix, it’s almost always flat and you can’t get in the “red zone” because if you do, you pay the price for it in the finale.
---
"Paris-Roubaix is the biggest cycling race in the world, bigger than the Tour de France, bigger than any other bike race" (Sir Bradley Wiggins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4HC9u5rg48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QSpuhIQg1A
Why Is Paris-Roubaix the Hardest of All Cycle Races?
Nobody described Paris-Roubaix better than Dutchman Theo De Rooij during an interview for CBS in 1985. [...] After racing for long time in the lead, he’s interviewed on American TV and shows his knowledge of English slang:
“It’s a balls this race! You’re working like an animal, you don’t have time to pee, you wet your pants. You’re riding in mud like this, you’re slipping, it’s a piece of sh*t…”
The journalist replied:“Will you ever ride it again?”
“Sure, it’s the most beautiful race in the world!”
[...]
Paris-Roubaix is the hardest race of the year. Climbing a mountain pass, not talking about three passes in a row, might seem inhuman to you but most cyclists manage it, more or less fast.
By contrast, not all cyclists are able to cross 51.5 kilometres of cobblestones. A 60kg climber will never start the “Hell of the North”. Not mad! [...]
The morning of the Paris-Roubaix start is not like any other morning. Breton Guillaume Blot, [...] noticed it last year:
“On the other races, we are shaking hands, we go and have a coffee in other team buses, we are laughing… but the morning of Paris-Roubaix, you only know your own teammates, period. The faces are expressionless. We don’t talk to each other. It’s war.”
On a cycling race, you may always talk behind the peloton during the first k's and even at the end of the day if you have nothing left to win nor lose, but not on Paris-Roubaix.
Jacky Durand [...], easily explains it:
“Everybody knows that he’s going for a particular day. It’s another cycling. A lot of riders know they will get dropped while they are physically well.”
Paris-Roubaix is a nerve contest. A moment of slacking can make you lose the race, on the cobbles – a fatter cobble and zip, you crash -, during the crossing of villages with narrow turns or on these long wind-opened straight Picardian lines in the first 100km.
Allan Peiper, Garmin-Barracuda’s team director:
“If they are not afraid, that means they aren’t ready. They must be afraid, tensed. It’s true that tension tires out but nevertheless, you have to be on nerves in order to be conscious of what is happening and reactive. All senses must be awake. Not being frightened but careful from start to finish.”
The approach of a cobble section is a fight. The further the riders are in the peloton, the bigger is the risk of a crash or to find oneself in a second group if the peloton is scattered in several groups. And the cobble sections are so narrow that it’s very hard to pass. Hence they are fighting like dressers on those country roads. The fight might start 5, 10 or 15km earlier. [...] Jacky Durand:
“On Paris-Roubaix, there are key sections and they are all like finishes. It’s a race in which you have 4 or 5 finishes in one day. You are entering the cobble with excessive speed compared to what we should. The Forest, you are entering it at 60kmh, [...]”
A Trauma for the Whole Body
Steve Chainel has just recognized the Arenberg Forest and is still tensed:
“Those who have never cycled can’t understand what it is. My hands are all warm, the feet, the a*se hurt. As we are knocking on each cobbles, you always need to put more pressure on the pedal in order to cross it. On the cobbles I’m in trance. The kidneys, the thighs, the fingers, the arms, the cervical vertebrae, everything takes it.”
Each Cobble is a Hammer Knock
The body endures a unique trauma. “The next day, many riders have sensation that they never have felt.”
The controversial doctor Michele Ferrari describes each cobble as a hammer knock. Even blood circulation experiences repeated vibrations, he explains.
[…]
Every Man for Himself
In order to master Paris-Roubaix, you need to race it, several times. Not twice, not three times, but rather 17 times, like Frederic Guesdon and George Hincapie next Sunday. Until then, Paris-Roubaix weighs on the riders, make them crack. Riding at 5kmh on the cobbles, then dismount, exhausted, with stinging eyes.
[...] Guillaume Blot will be one of them. He’ll live his cobble section this way:
“When you are entering a cobble section, you already have made an intense effort to keep position. You arrive there at a mad speed. It’s said you always have to keep the ‘haut du pavé’ (which means the middle of the path, e.d.) but after a moment, you feel you are no longer moving forward, you lose speed, you feel more and more that each cobble bruises you.
You see clusters of riders who are parting ways, descending to the left or the right of the cobble in order to look for a 5cm narrow ground path and you rush to it for better efficiency even though you know that the chance for a puncture is high.
It’s every man for himself. It strikes, strikes, strikes. The whole body vibrates and most of all you got to avoid jerking and to shake the bars too hard. To be at the same time, wrapped, straight body and supple and relaxed regarding the arms and the hands.”
Despite all the psychic and physical fatigue, and the three days of contracture that follows, they’ll come back next year, like Theo De Rooij. In order to prove that they are cycling riders and because the Hell of the North, is a heavenly race, says Guillaume Blot.
------
http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/rue89-sp...coureur-paris-roubaix-passe-lessiveuse-251297
Steve Chainel, Rider of the Paris-Roubaix: “We Are Getting in a Washing Machine”
Next Sunday, 30 year old Steve Chainel from the Vosges, will start the 2014 Paris-Roubaix. He will find back those paths and cobbles that he knows very well: “Even goats would twist their ankles.”
Next Sunday, Chainel will have the blues, he will have raced Paris-Roubaix, “the hardest race of the year” and its 51km of cobbles. All the rest will look fade to him.[…]
Let's take the Arenberg Forest as example. The first time I rode on it on recognition, I was wondering how you could make cyclists passed by. It’s a goat path and even they would twist their ankles.
It’s 5 to 7 Minutes of Drill. It’s shaking all over, muscles are tetanised and sore after two minutes. You’ve got to push the pedal as strong as possible. So the foot arch is burning because of the vibrations. You are entering a washing machine and what is incredible is that you are asking for more when you get out of it.
The pain comes back on each cobbled section, you are more and more fed up. So you tend to get to the “bas côtés” (the edges of the paths) but you got holes. You run the risk of punctures and hurting your wrists.
During Paris-Roubaix, the legs are not aching more than on any other races. The low part of the back is squeezing a little bit but the biceps are taking most of it. They are stirring a lot on the cobbles.
Many will tell you that their hands and wrists are hurting more. I’m lucky enough not to feel pain in my fingers.
[…]
On Roubaix, the mental strengths, enduring the pain is bigger than on another race. At half-race, everybody already feels pain in their arms. The one who can go the furthest in the pain will stay in front. It’s the only race in the year in which you feel pain everywhere, not just in the legs.
[...]
The biggest illness for cyclists is at the seat. You are constantly resting on your *** and every cyclist feels pain where it rubs. [...]
It’s worse after Roubaix. The day after you can feel pain when you are urinating because you’ve compressed all that, … without going into details! Not very pleasant. Once you are mounting your bike for “scrubbing”, you feel the stigmas of the day before. The biceps, the perineum, the fingers are swelling.
-------
A friend of mine who raced the U23 version told me:
What makes Paris-Roubaix the hardest race is the fact that there are no climbs and no descent!
"You are climbing a mountain pass, packed tempo, you can see the 5 or 6 best climbers telling the story of their lives among themselves, taking it easy, waiting for the last climb or almost. After this terrible effort, 20 to 30 minutes of recup in the descent, freewheeling…
Let’s take the Tour of Flanders. Small paths, often in Indian file, very hard climbs that you are sprinting up but then thankfully there are some little descents enabling you to quickly recover and regroup…
Now Roubaix! You have a 2 to 3km section that you are sprinting on. And then? You start again on the asphalt in order to make echelons, keep position, close the gaps, etc for 2 or 3km and there comes the next section, …
After all that you are laying on your couch for three days, aching everywhere.
Take the Walloon Arrow. Imagine that between the climbs, you have no descent. You always reach a higher “plateau”. That would be very hard indeed. That is Paris-Roubaix."
-----
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeC-cKp7Hgg (1.39)
Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle:
The cobbles of Paris-Roubaix are not necessarily different from those of the Ronde, because cobble sections, apart from more or less upright, are the same. The main difference is that on the Ronde, you have cobbled climbs. When you are climbing a climb, you can get in the “red zone” because afterwards you automatically have a small descent or a descending false flat, enabling you to recup. While in Paris-Roubaix, it’s almost always flat and you can’t get in the “red zone” because if you do, you pay the price for it in the finale.
---
"Paris-Roubaix is the biggest cycling race in the world, bigger than the Tour de France, bigger than any other bike race" (Sir Bradley Wiggins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4HC9u5rg48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QSpuhIQg1A
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