Belgium - part 3

The race on Sunday was the main reason we went to Belgium.  Paris-Roubaix, the classic 1-day ride from Paris to Roubaix which is just at the France/Belgium border.  Total km 267km (166 miles) and 28 cobble sectors and these are not nice flat, perfectly placed cobbles, these are old, uneven, dirty pavés. The race didn’t start until 11:30 so earlier in the morning Bruce and I drove over to the Arenberg Forest  (sector 17) where we decided to see the race (this strech of cobbles is only open to vehicles 1 day of the year, today.  This is the most famous spot (other than the finish at the Velodrome in Roubaix).  It’s 2km of the worst cobbles of the race and they say it can make the race.  There have been people camping here for a week to get their spot and see the race, it’s crazy!  It was only 10 minutes from our hotel (we are now in France) and the race was estimated to come through about 3pm, so we decided to get there at noon.

We got a great parking space and headed over to the entertainment/food/beer tents.  We got some lunch (brat and fries), some beer and watched the marching band perform (yes you read that right, the marching band).  Then the majorettes got on stage and performed to Britney Spears, girls from age 5-17 (classic!), then we decided to walk down the cobble sector and secure our spot.  Only 3 hours to wait!  At almost exactly 3pm the helicopters showed up, the race official cars went through, the motocycles went through and we knew the riders were close.  The TV helicopter is so low it’s easy to know when they are arriving.  It was so exciting, there were thousands of people lined on each side of the cobbles and when the riders came through it was nuts.  They were going so fast and they were all dirty and jockeying for position and then after the 3 groups (1 lead group and 2 packs following) passed us (only seconds apart) the team cars, which follow the riders came to a halt.  There was a big crash about ¼ mile past us, we couldn’t see it but the backup of cars was amazing.  So, that was it.  We didn’t want to just go back to the hotel or to a pub to watch the rest of the race, so we decided to bust it up to Roubaix to the velodrome to see the finish, we had about 2 hours to make it, so off we went.  On the way to the car a  guy told us that at sector 13 you can see the riders right off the freeway, so we figured we’d try that.  It was so cool.  We pulled over, the cobble sector was right next to the freeway, we jumped over the guard rail and onto the cobbles.  20 minutes later the riders went by.  

crazy fans!

The marching band

Here they come through the Arenberg Forest!

Flying...through the forest

The Arenberg forest

crash up ahead all the cars stopped

sector 13 - nobody was there

sector 13

Sector 13

Back in the car and up to Roubaix for the finish at the Velodrome.  It was hard to find parking, we actually ended up parking about 4km away but it wasn’t too bad of a walk.  The velodrome has a huge screen where they are showing the race, we walked right up and saw that they were 15km away.  Tom Boonen, Belgian and favorite was in the lead.  When he turned into the velodrome the crowd went crazy.  Super exciting.  We saw 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place come in and then we walked over to where all the team buses are (the guys wanted to see the mechanics washing the bikes, seriously).  Then we went into the velodrome pub and who comes in but Tom Boonen.  Bruce got to pat him on the back!  Great race, great day.  We saw 3 sectors which is pretty much unheard of, it was amazing.  

heading through Roubaix to the Velodrome

the Velodrome, was packed...thank goodness for the big screen

the boys loved to watch the mechanics wash the dirty bikes

long hard day at the office

one of the team buses

we were in the right place...here's Tom Boonen the winner

he walked right past us.

This will be my last bike race post (until the Giro d'italia, which is in Italy).  Sorry for boring most of you with this but it's our passion.  Appreciate you sticking with me during the last 3 posts.  Back to regular scheduled programming.