Awesome race , what a spectacle !!

Amazing race.

I had VanMarcke down FTW, such a shame he didn’t do it.

But I think Boonan rode a cracker…

Oh I did enjoy that last hour – Stannard just kept coming back for more! Chapeau on his 3rd place..

Great race !
surprisingly crashy, even in the smaller groups – shame more of them hadn’t been mountain bikers before turning to the road 😀

oh, and for utterly bonkers risk-taking on the cobbles, I wanted SVM to win

Definitely, don’t know how he stayed on when he cut that potholed corner

Pleased I decided to stay in to watch, even if did give away a nice day out.

I think what I like about P-R is that there are no hills to shake things up. It’s just last (hardest) man standing at the end. We did it last year but signed up for L-B-L this year. Really want to go back next year now.

it’s a funny ol’ road race for sure, teams seemed to be smashed/broken by the cobbles making it tough to bridge a gap of over 30 secs with pace being so high a real power riders race. It’s always funny when they ask for assistance in the chase when everyones at the limit trying to keep the on the next guys wheel. 🙂

Great race, somewhat worrying that another rider gets hit by a motorbike, could’ve been very nasty viviani getting smacked by bike

oooyah – very lucky there !

Damaged sternum apparently

more in depth

teams seemed to be smashed/broken by the cobbles

Indeed, see Team Sky. Who knows what would have happened if Stannard had had team members for longer.

ossum skillz from Sagan
(I didn’t spot who he jumped over at the time)

^ Anyone else would have just froze and accepted fate.

What does Vanmarke have to do?!?!

I’m not sure Van Marke will agree but I don’t think there were any losers today. Hard as nails, the lot of them.

Cancellara went down and Sagan was on his wheel and had nowhere to go – somehow managed to bunnyhop his rear wheel when everyone else crashed.

Riding the Sportif on an MTB? Consider point well and truly missed!

Yep 100%

Great race, the pavé is not to be taken lightly.

great race really enjoyed it. Two bits of news that I spotted on Twitter – one good one not so:

Sagan hurdles Spartacus video

another rider taken out by a motorbike video

Didn’t get to watch it live but caught up with the highlights on Eurosport. A bizarrely butchered edit that seemed to randomly skip important parts of the race then dump you back into the action with no explanation as to why the race was completely different to before the cut! Frustratingly odd. I’ll have to catch up properly when the live coverage goes on the player.

Anyway a cracking race. Hayman so canny in the last 20k in saving his legs (at least in the edit I saw!) the others just looked cooked.

That photo up there ^^ is amazing – you couldn’t see it from the video, but Sagan has done a one-footed bunnyhop (not a speedhop, but a proper bunnyhop) over Cancellara’s bouncing bike. That’s not normal.

Incredible finish, so exciting. Hayman boxed very very clever in the last few kms, classy racing.

He didn’t do any bunnyhop!
He rode over the bike and was lucky enough to land well and have the skills to stay upright.
Its happened to me a few times in races, once I actually ran over both the fallers fancy carbon wheels and stayed upright.

Great finish followed by a dash to the airport.

Sky almost shot themselves in the foot, but what a ride for luke Rowe. Crashed, chased back on, broke the lead group for Stannard and still had something to finish with Sagan.

That was the ride for me today. Of course I wanted Stannard to win, but what a race!

Sagan can manual an XC bike, with the saddle up. The man has skilzz.. 😎

Not the sign off Fabian was aiming for
ooops!

Incredible finish, so exciting. Hayman boxed very very clever in the last few kms, classy racing.

I was worried that when it got to about 10km to go that folks would start messing around not wanting to pull, and let the chase group get back. Instead they kicked lumps out of each other so in the end the guy who did least kicking was the only one with legs* at the end.

* it’s relative – 37 year old legs that had been in a breakaway all day and then shin kicked by some proper hard men doesn’t exactly count as legs in the true sense of the word.

When they finally started messing in the velodrome I thought Stannard might just fly past and nick it.

Best P-R ever?

Best P-R ever?

Was certainly a good one. It is a bit disappointing when major contenders get eliminated by crashes and mechanicals and not through hard racing, but then that always plays a big part in PR. Does take a tiny bit of shine away from the race IMO.

Good summary as usual over at inrng…

The Moment The Race Was Won: Paris-Roubaix

Was certainly a good one.

Yep was great

It is a bit disappointing when major contenders

Totally disagree, it’s part of the race and is essential to the story/shine.
I was disappointed for Boonen but happy for Haymen and shouting for Stannard through those last km’s, particularly when I thought he was cooked.

Totally disagree, it’s part of the race and is essential to the story/shine.

I don’t disagree, it’s certainly part of what makes P-R the spectacle it is. Probably why I prefer Flanders as a race though.

Theres some intresting analysis knocking around, notably that disc brakes didnt help anyone, the winner rode a Scott Foil Aero bike not a “special” cobbles bike and in this interview Hayman says how he’s spent the last few week on Zwift.

http://www.ridemedia.com.au/interviews/exclusive-mathew-hayman-interview-paris-roubaix-champion/

Hayman’s spent 18 years as a pro and finished Paris-Roubaix 15 times with two top-10 performances before this so for him to feature in the finale again is no sudden surprise.

I suspect this had more to do with it than a few weeks on Zwift 🙂

His words not mine.

“cough” and the fact that he drafted and wheel-sucked his way into Roubaix..
😆

Did well in the finish, but Boonan should have won that one..

Yep, Boonen made the race for me. He was chasing down at every opportunity

Yup, Boonen had the instincts of old but unfortunately not the legs.

should’ve been zwifting b4 😉

In case you haven’t seen it, this is a beautiful behind the scenes edit from the ORICA-GreenEDGE team. Emotion all over the place. The sections during the race itself are worth it by themselves

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zxnA4asj44[/video]

fruit

Was going to post that OGE vid. Got some serious dust in my eyes watching it!

He seems like a genuinely nice guy. Must be the most amazing feeling to win that after 15 years. Good vid.

We were over at Roubaix for the weekend and had a blast. Sportive on the Saturday was that mix of pain and pleasure that cycling seems to specialise in. The Arenberg has to be seen to be believed. TV comes nowhere close to showing how brutal that is. I had a lot of respect for pro riders beforehand, but after slipping and sliding slowly through Arenberg that respect jumped tenfold.

Being at the race was a great experience too. We watched near the start of Carrefour and the standout memory for me was seeing Sagan come hammering through at speed, a look of total determination on his face and hell bent on chasing the leaders.

Only downside of seeing it live was not being able to watch it unfold on the telly, but I ended up watching five hours of it when I got home. One of the best P-Rs ever? I’ve only been watching pro racing about ten or twelve years so not sure, but certainly one of the best I’ve seen.

Would have been great to see Stannard win, but equally Boonen, Vanmarke, Cancellara and a few others. However you can’t help but be totally delighted for Hayman. Seems a genuinely nice guy and the behind the scenes Orica footage mentioned above is well worth a watch.

One other thing I though was great was the reaction of Boonen afterwards and on the podium. He’d probably seen his last chance of getting that elusive fifth win vanish, yet he seemed totally relaxed and delighted Hayman had one; laughing and joking with him as they got their medals. And an emotional finish for Cancellara too. We managed to get to a nearby bar for the last bit of the race and Cancellara got a round of applause from the folk watching as he rode into the velodrome.

All in all an amazing weekend. Even if my body is still feeling battered.