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Paris Roubaix is sneaking in to the end of the calendar this weekend. It's been so long since the last Paris Roubaix that Alejandro Valverde was only 70 when it ran.
Even more exciting is that the first ever women's Paris Roubaix tomorrow. Here's a cool video about the run up. Called the run up.
The women’s race will be interesting - chief protagonists in the race often rely on an intimate knowledge of the parlours so a peloton relatively unfamiliar will create a more open race. That said, those from Flanders will know what’s coming…
Potentially first ‘wet’ men’s race since 2002 - media are focussing on the potential Wout vs Matthieu duel but how about Stybar as an outsider? He was up there at the finish last weekend and is on the ‘winningest’ P-Rx team.
Going to be a great weekend - hopefully no major injuries, given it might well be wet
Roadie/Crosser mixers are a bit thin on the ground in the women's race. I know cross season has started but surely, ...
I'd have bet on Lucinda Brand but she's not on the list
I feel like the womens race is like a world champs or olympic race but with trade teams. There isn't enough history to make any real form picks but you know it's going to be raced all out because it means so much.
media are focussing on the potential Wout vs Matthieu duel but how about Stybar as an outsider
WvA not talking up his own chances, doesn't sound like he's up for a muddy crash-fest! MvdP sounding more keen though. WvA's season on wind down whilst MvdP making up for lost time?
Really looking forward to this. That Run Up video - they're all super excited to be taking part for the first time, I wonder if at the end of a hard season there's as much enthusiasm in the men's peleton having endured it before and with the majority of them frankly having no chance against the specialists!
Forecast says wet and windy. On summer dusted cobbles. What could POSSIBLY go wrong!
wet wet wet in the ladies race 🙂
is there a live feed anywhere, GCN Eurosport on TV seems to have a connection issue
Eurosport can't seem to get any coverage or even updates- whats going on? Is it on anywhere else?
****ing eurosport. Coverage starts at 13:45. No it doesn't 3 people talking inanely in a studio starts at 13:45 and they'll chatter on for 35 minutes before going to the race at 55kms to go.
What a shambles.
drying up nicely, come on lizzy 🙂
What a shambles
Don't think that's Eurosport/GCN's fault, they apologised in advance during their preview show that the race wasn't being filmed/broadcast until the last 55km, they're just showing what is being made available to them.
carnage on Mons-en-Pevele!
the beauty of Paris Roubaix is it smashes teams like no other race.
are you allowed to say "shitting my pants ?" 🙂
my arse is knitting buttons watching Lizzie on the corners. It's tough on your own but in a group on these cobbles you could be hacked down by anyone else at any moment.
Lead's still increasing though, the MeP crashes removed a few of the stronger riders.
This is quite tense, I'm holding my breath on every cobbled turn!
So far so awesome!
The sight of those green cobbles is giving me horrible flashbacks. So slippery! I'm holding my breath for every corner too. I'm surprised that Lizzie's teammates aren't trying to get on the front before a sector and slow things up a bit - it's impossible to overtake on them.
The group going through this sector should be interesting...
There we go.
Ugh, hope I didn't jinx things!
Whoa! That's some skill from our lizzie to hold onto that!
The rest of them are like domino's 😬
That moto is way too close to Vos, whether in front or behind.
Hope Lizzie can hold on! It’s getting a bit tense!
Vos is making up time on the cobbles but the road sections are pretty similar. If the commentator could stop and think for a second, he could work out how this will pan out.
...and Joanna says exactly this!
This commentator is really annoying
"this is a straight fight between two riders"
thanks for that piece of insight, Mr Commentator
Surely can't be caught now!
Go on Girl !
Amazing stuff
Just seen the state of her hands and blisters that have gone through where she’s been holding the hoods
brilliant
Awesome.
Just...wow!
Awesome ride Lizzie!
Brilliant.
Hmmmm. Does my head in seeing a big pack of chasers refusing to work properly together on the tarmac sections thus throwing away any chance of winning.
Sadly found that rather dull which considering the parcours and weather was extremely disappointing.
Brilliant ride from Lizzie, once that camera bike stopped motor pacing Vos she held the gap.
Sadly found that rather dull which considering the parcours and weather was extremely disappointing.
Bloody hell are you dead inside?
Does my head in seeing a big pack of chasers refusing to work properly together on the tarmac sections thus throwing away any chance of winning.
Maybe they were a bit tired!
Can't wait for the men's race now
See lizzies hands? Covered in blood, blisters like murder. That's tough as nails.
Yes, those hands are going to smart a bit for a while. It was the finger joint pain that got me, lasted for weeks.
Impressive ride. Genuinely found it a bit hard to watch at times, the inevitability of so many crashes. And more heavy rain forecast before the men's race tomorrow...
I had the commentary on with no pictures and it was still exciting. Highlight was definitely Iris Slappendel marking the enormity of the occasion by telling everyone that she is shitting her pants on the motorbike 😀
When a bunch doesn't catch a lone rider it's because they don't want to rather than can't.
Appreciate it's a different sort of race to normal but you can see when riders are drilling it and when they aren't. The group of 10 chasers were going so slowly on the tarmac that it swelled again to around 20 at 20km out.
Nice to see lizzie win but I'd rather have seen some close racing.
When a bunch doesn’t catch a lone rider it’s because they don’t want to rather than can’t.
Appreciate it’s a different sort of race to normal but you can see when riders are drilling it and when they aren’t. The group of 10 chasers were going so slowly on the tarmac that it swelled again to around 20 at 20km out.
Which goes to prove its more complicated than that. She got a gap and decimated the peloton to leave only a small bunch. Everytime it hit pave it dropped to about five riders, the others were on the limit hanging on. Two of the riders were from Trek also for quite a while, had the others drilled it Vos or Borgini would have mugged them.
Yeah, good point. Oh well, I found it lacked excitement when it was obvious from about 40km out that no one was going to catch her. I prefer a good old ding dong right to the line.
when it was obvious from about 40km out that no one was going to catch her
Didn't seem obvious to me when Deignan started getting it sideways around corners and Vos took 40 seconds out her on one segment!
My HR was way up in Zone 5 towards the end. Lizzie gets a QoM.
Queen of Monuments.
See lizzies hands? Covered in blood, blisters like murder. That’s tough as nails.
Lizzie's handlebars
They'll be fine by Monday when she starts the ToB
Disappointed not to see the break made but was still a good watch. Have we heard about the fallers yet? - looked pretty hard
That big gain by Vos over a really short stretch was weird - was she really getting a draft from a moto ?
Edit: I think it was a timing error and was probably a far more gardual gain. As Vos was coming off the Carrefour it was dropping by 2 seconds every second. The catch can't have been that rapid and surely you don't even want a moto right in front of you on the cobbles; much better on the tarmac
Van Vleuten has a pubic bone fracture.
Van Vleuten has a pubic bone fracture.
ouch - poor lass
Great race by Lizzie, just a shame her winnings is only a fraction of the men for the effort she put in.
That big gain by Vos over a really short stretch was weird – was she really getting a draft from a moto ?
She was towed which enabled her to drop the rest of the group. She buried herself to make up the gap but couldn't maintain the effort.
The win is going to be celebrated for years, teams third rider sees a gap and decides to go. Racing brain with the legs and heart to back it up. Brilliant.
Apparently Trek-Segafredo are making up the difference in prize money between men and women's races.
Great performance by Lizzie today.
She wasn't team leader or protected rider - she was 3rd in the team hierarchy but saw her chance and went for it.
Just picking up up on Kuco's point ^^^ about disparity between men and women prize money - women's winner £1,300; mens £26,000; that's a 20 fold difference and it stinks.
Just picking up up on Kuco’s point ^^^ about disparity between men and women prize money – women’s winner £1,300; mens £26,000; that’s a 20 fold difference and it stinks
That really is disgraceful!
Ive just read about the difference in the prize money, and I’m raging. That is a HUGE gap.
In the sporting world £26K is awful for such a significant race, £1.3k is not even worth turning up from a money perspective.
Cycling really is not the sport to be the best at if money is the motivation is it...
Well done for the win!
I've never watched a cobbles race before. Nails.
I too think there needs to be parity on winning.
women’s winner £1,300; mens £26,000; that’s a 20 fold difference and it stinks.
Unfortunately though it’s a result of exposure though isn’t it. If the sponsors thought they were going to get the same viewings as the mens race then they would probably have put the same money in.
Have to say though I think prize money is a bit behind the curve of where viewings are at the minute, and also it’s subtle things like the commentary on Eurosport wasn’t the best, but I imagine for the mens race today it will have better commentators, why the discrepancy?
If Trek have made up the prize money good on them
Nice to see she actually made it on to BBC main news
the commentary on Eurosport wasn’t the best
You can say that again. Appalling. I wish I had a fiver for every time he said ‘err’!
That big gain by Vos over a really short stretch was weird – was she really getting a draft from a moto ?
Edit: I think it was a timing error and was probably a far more gardual gain. As Vos was coming off the Carrefour it was dropping by 2 seconds every second. The catch can’t have been that rapid and surely you don’t even want a moto right in front of you on the cobbles; much better on the tarmac
I read elsewhere there was a GPS or timing system error. For a moment I thought there would be a catch then a sprint in the velodrome. Great race and a great win.
In the sporting world £26K is awful for such a significant race, £1.3k is not even worth turning up from a money perspective.
It's similar in the GTs isn't it, that you earn more from contracts and paid appearances than the race prizes? Agree that it seems a very tough way to earn money as a pro athlete in general.
The gap between men's and women's pay is a poor show, they prob say it's about ad / sponsorship revenue but don't tell me that women's racing isn't every bit as good to watch as the men's. Average speed has zero to do with the race, it's all about the spirit and racing nous of the riders.
Do the women's races need to be shorter than the men's? In multi-day endurance racing the gap between men and women is smaller than it is over shorter distances. Having said av speed doesn't matter, for P-R there's the power level needed to get over the cobbles and maintaining that must be such a big test in this race, may be influential here compared to a mountains day race. You can make progress or race relative to others in the mountains at a lower speed but cobbles seem to get worse as your speed drops.
Love this race, there's just nothing like it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/32972107
The Breakaway by Nicole Cooke, Britains greatest road cyclist, is worth a read.
I’d like the mens and womens races run on the same course at the same time, 10 riders per team, max of one sex 6, same prize money and the podium done at the same time, third, third, second, second, winner, winner.
Force the sponsors and DSs to think about how they want to be on the podium.
PS - I accept there will be some issues with that format. Sort them, don’t junk the format.
And don’t get me started on the “mixed” TT at the worlds. A mixed team of 6 is mixed, two teams of three is a relay. Sort it out UCI.
PPS - “Working mum from Yorkshire wins bike race”
👍👍👍👍👍
The Breakaway by Nicole Cooke, Britains greatest road cyclist
[cough] Beryl [/cough]
they look like a bunch of drowned rats and they're still in the ride out.
... and awaaay !
oooofffff kicking off now.... crosswind fun
that's a big group to let go down the road!
It's going to be carnage when they hit the pave
Commentary needs a cavalry charge in the background
oof ! Wonder if Kung has bought a lottery ticket today 🙁
lol @ the 2 star section this is going to be brutal!!!
I love that Delko/La Vie Claire jersey.
can we have it in October every year please!
Can't decide if big Tim is scared or his gears are ****ed
Backstedt’s commentary is worth the subscription alone.
Sagan wrapped round a plant pot !