The annual Paris – Roubaix Challenge took place on 12th April in Northern France, giving amateur cyclists the chance to ride the classic cobbled sections the professionals race the following day. This year three St Ives riders, Andy Wylde, John Batchelor and Ken Rolland took part. Andy sums up his experience and explains why he wants to go back!
The weekend was excellent all round. We caught a morning train through the tunnel on the Friday and headed straight for the velodrome to register for the ride. Everything that we’d heard about Roubaix being industrial and not particularly welcoming seemed to be true and, travelling with our families, we were glad to have booked a hotel in the centre of Lille. However, the velodrome itself was full of history. We turned down the opportunity to buy a cobble stone mounted on a wooden plinth for 20 Euros but did spend some time looking at the pictures on the wall in the club house bar, walking the track and taking photos of ourselves on the winner’s podium. After registering for the ride, we headed for Lille and dinner before an early night in readiness for the cobbles.
Not having done the event before, John and I chose the middle distance 140km route which started and ended at the velodrome. This makes the logistics easy but misses some of the early cobbled stages. It takes a route due south on quiet roads then turns north back to Roubaix over the cobbled sections. We rode to and from the start which was about 16km each way from our hotels and we therefore clocked over 100 miles on the day.
The first section on our route was the Arenberg Forest which was a baptism of fire to say the least. The Roubaix cobbles are not like those of Flanders that I’ve ridden a few times before. They are big and rough and relentless but, once I got used to having my teeth shaken out of my head while turning the biggest gear that I could manage, they became an almost enjoyable experience that was like no other that I’ve had on a bike and definitely one that I want to repeat. I think it helped that there were fewer riders than at Flanders. There were always other riders around on the ride but also plenty of room to pick your own line on the cobbles and it was never necessary to put a foot down because of rider congestion.
After about five hours of riding we entered the velodrome to cross the famous finish line where the pros would follow the next day. There can be no other Sportive that can boast such an emotional finish as this one. Not even the Richardson’s Rumble. Before heading back to Lille we tucked into a burger and chips and a well earned Leffe on the grass in the centre of the track in the sun. A perfect way to end a perfect ride.
(Speaking to other British riders at the finish, next time I will definitely enter the long ride. Buses that also transport your bike can be pre-booked from the velodrome to the start of the ride and at 170km it included all 28 cobbled sections of the pro race.)
On Sunday we headed for the Arenberg forest, parking at the north end and then walking the entire length of the section to take in some of the atmosphere of the Belgians getting into the party spirit ready to welcome Boonen and company. Seeing how the pros rode the section made me realise how pedestrian we’d been the day before, although some of them seemed to be suffering just as much as we had. We then jumped into the car and headed for the Carrefour de l’Arbre in the hope of seeing the race for a second time. This being our first time at the race, we wanted to hit the two main sections but weren’t sure that we’d make it ahead of the pros. However, with a bit of looping back on ourselves to avoid closed roads and the busy motorway, we made it to the start of the section with about 15 minutes to spare. Just enough time to walk about a third of the way in, to a point where we could see the riders approaching from a little way off and see them disappearing into the distance. This turned out to be an even better place to watch than the Arenberg. Sagan had attacked off the front of the race but was being caught. Wiggins was nearly pushed off right in front of us but recovered and it took the best part of 15 minutes for all of the riders to pass by. We were then able to watch the finish of the race on a TV in someone’s front yard. Almost perfect! Next time I would head to the far end of the Carrefour de l’Arbre section where I later saw that there was a big screen to watch the finish.
Back to the tunnel straight after the race, we were home by about 9:30pm on Sunday evening. Lille is great for a city break with the family, riding the cobbles was an unforgettable experience that I want to repeat and getting as close as we did to the pro race on the Sunday (twice) was just brilliant. I would thoroughly recommend it!
