The race was beamed in live from France and I must say coverage of European professional cycling has improved markedly since I was a boy. I can remember being a young up and coming cyclist, scouring the depths of the local newspapers, digging deep into the miniature sized font in the “results” section, looking for the latest placings from the Continental classics as they were printed three days after the event, hoping fervently that our local hope Phil Anderson might have secured a big win.
Then there was the agonizing three month delay in getting cycling magazines from Europe when finally I could put faces to names, pictures to descriptions and the images of the mud spattered giants of the road were conveyed in all their glory in the glossy pages of “Winning” and “CycleSport”.
Now of course coverage is at hand from the second the action occurs and lying in my bed at midnight in Australia I could relax and watch Fabian Cancellara take a third victory in “The Hell of the North”. Live streaming from the Internet and up-to-date, real time blogs which follow the action blow by blow are readily available and cycling fans have never had it so good.
Some things never change though. The cobbles are just as hard, the fans just as crazy and spirited and the riders just as daring and willing as they were in those hazy days of yore when a young boy gazed into the pages of long awaited cycling magazines and dreamed of the day when he too may make his mark on the cobbled farm roads of northern France and, mud-spattered and physically demolished, ride into Roubaix velodrome to take the laurels and cement his name in cycling history. Alas, for me it was not to be and while I was a little bit complacent in thought when it came to watching the race this year, the action on the road soon livened up my spirits. It was the best race I have seen in some time.
I took a slight snooze from the 90km to mark until the 60km mark but the action was in full swing as I aroused from slumber and the incessant attacks across the roads from hell and the willingness of the protagonists to take the worst of the conditions in their stride made it an exciting race from which I could not avert my eyes.
Fabian Cancellara was the favourite again and it appears the opposing teams were determined to isolate him and work him over so the pace was on from well out and really never let up for the final two and a half hours of the race making it a desolate ride for all concerned.
Cancellara, digging deeper than he ever has before and gaining a little luck which has deserted him the last couple of years came onto the velodrome with a young Belgian after 250km of racing. The Belgian was favoured to win the sprint by the commentators but had obviously spent his biscuits out on the cobbles and was unable to see off Cancellara’s last desperate surge to victory after which he collapsed and had to be assisted by his handlers. That’s the way cycling ought to be.
I am not a great fan of Fabian Cancellara, the regular absence of the bigger names of the peloton in the northern European classics perhaps inflating his reputation in these races to unwarranted proportions but he can only beat those present and his name will be rightly remembered as one of the legends of Paris to Roubaix.
As I flicked the television off I noted that it was 12.15am and the race had finished a little earlier than I thought it may have. Off course I hadn’t factored in our retreat from daylight savings time and it wasn’t so early after all. That being said, they covered the course in five hours and forty five minutes;good going for such a long race.
And now I am feeling the effects of my long day’s journey into night. Tired, a slight headache, no doubt to be compounded by the eight hours of misery I will soon have to commence. I think I would rather ride from Paris to Roubaix on a tricycle than spend more time at work!
So I will struggle on and do my best on this lovely autumn day in Canberra. Don’t forget to vote in the poll in the top right hand corner of my blog. I’ve been told interaction with readers is must on a blog!
To all of you, wherever you are, take care and have a great day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 