With their medieval cobbles the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the most extreme races on the calendar. Yet they’re the shop window for bikes destined to be used on the calmest of Sunday mornings.
The cycle trade has its annual trade shows around September with Eurobike and Interbike but as The Velocast argued recently April is another industry event with a sharp focus on bike technology. If Paris-Roubaix didn’t exist, the industry would have to invent it.
Psychogeography is a concept designed to let people explore places and view the land and environment differently. There are books on the subject but there no rules, it is up to you to link landscapes to what’s on your mind. For example view London via the famous “Tube” map of its metro system and the British capital becomes a collection of lines and stops rather than streets and buildings.
Cycling does the same to parts of Europe. Belgium has crosswinds, as if no matter the wind is always perpendicular. Can you name a famous col in the Spanish Pyrenees? Probably not because for cyclists the Pyrenees are French despite the mountain range being shared by both countries.
Paris-Roubaix is one of the best examples of a race whose myth redefines the landscape, imposes artificial names on places and even manages to turn a crumbling shower block into an sporting Elysium reserved for an elite.
This post isn’t so much about cycling but the wider area around this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix race. As you’ll see below, the race’s “Hell of the North” title doesn’t come from cobbles but the state of the region.
Apologies if I upset the locals but Roubaix and the surrounding places are grim. Tourist rarely visit and the French share negative myths about the area. Today the region thrives as transport hub but it is rarely a final destination.
What’s so bad? The effects of wars past are still visible, from cratered landscapes to fields of white crosses marking mass graveyards. More recently the whole region has struggled with vanishing jobs and entrenched social problems. It’s a tough place with the toughest race.
Notice anything fat in photo above? It’s can’t be the riders … nor the spectators. Instead look at the front wheel where Matthew Goss is running a 25mm wide tyre.
One trend in bike technology for 2013 is the advent of wider rims and tyres and, accompanying this, the progress of clincher tyres. It’s common to see 25mm width tyres on team bikes today, something that was unthinkable a few years ago.
Notice anything fat in photo above? It’s can’t be the riders … nor the spectators. Instead look at the front wheel where Matthew Goss is running a 25mm wide tyre. One trend in bike technology for 2013 is the advent of wider rims and tyres and, accompanying this, the progress of clincher tyres. It’s common … Read more
In my column in Issue 2 of 2r Magazine I looked at the options available for team licences with a view to bringing some more stability to the system. Whilst we can explore franchises and more, one of the cheapest and quickest solutions is to publish the UCI’s criteria for scoring riders and teams.
For years teams had been ranked on a secret system that few understood leading to a lot of head-scratching and confusion. Only last Thursday the UCI quietly published Annexe-2014/UCI/A-10… better known as the Sporting Value criteria.
Whilst many look the classics, one of the joys of pro cycling is its variety with different riders tackling different races. Today sees the start of the Tour of the Basque Country, another spring ritual that takes place in front of giant roadside crowds that rival the Flemish for support, enthusiasm and knowledge of the sport.
It’s a great race with a series of hilly stages and also a fine test of form ahead of the Ardennes classics.
Fabian Cancellara accelerates on the Paterberg and Peter Sagan tries to match him. But the Slovak’s exposed to the stiff breeze and struggling to follow. A gap opens up between the two riders. One metre, two metres and by the time they reach the top the Swiss rider has distanced his arch-rival by a few seconds. This was the moment the race was won.
Easter Sunday is coming and whilst it’s church and chocolate for many in Europe, half of Belgium is preparing for the annual ritual of De Ronde.
The Tour of Flanders is one of the highlights of the cycling calendar, a manic race across seemingly ordinary countryside but where numerous cobbled sections and short wall-like climbs make for one of the hardest races of the year. Appropriately the race will have five hours of TV coverage, an endurance event even for those on a sofa. Full details below.
Can’t make it to the Ronde van Vlaanderen this Sunday? Well let this superb video take you there.
It’s 15 minutes of filming on and around the Paterberg, one of the two crucial climbs on the race route, from last year’s race. It’s as good as being there, all that is missing is the smell of fried food and the peaceful squelch of Flanders fields under your feet. You can find some beer for yourself.