Active Expert: Bruce Hildenbrand : Tags : de_ronde

If you are a rabid pro bike racing fan there is only one time of the year other than July when your mouth starts salivating, your hands start shaking and you can't sit still for more than about 2 seconds. OK. If you are Belgian, the maybe it is three times a year (De Ronde!), but for those of us who don't eat our frites with mayonnaise it is the Tour and Roubaix. Paris-Roubaix to be exact. The H3ll of the North. The Cobbled Classic. The hardest one-day race on a bike on the planet. Pick a moniker and as long as it describes a total melee on the most difficult surface to race a road bike thrown in with potentially bad weather and the odds on chance that you might get run over by a support vehicle and you have the Queen of the Classics.

If you happen to have the right combination of skill, strength, and luck, and somehow emerge from the fields of northern France in one piece and are first across the line in the velodrome in Roubaix, you get a huge cobblestone as a trophy of your win. The thing weighs a ton and probably still has a bit of cow poo on it, but there isn't a single rider in the pro peloton who wouldn't trade their left nut for that stone.

And if owning a piece of French real estate wasn't enough, they even name a shower stall in the Roubaix Velodrome after you. Of course, the race organizers fail to mention that you need a Class 7 biohazard suit to venture into the shower room at Roubaix, however, take my word for it, you get a stall with your name on it.

What makes Paris-Roubaix such a prestigious and tough race is those darn cobbles. As with the stones in De Ronde, these babies were laid down back in the late 1800's and early 1900's and while I am sure they looked flat over 100 years ago, that's definitely not the case now. There are twenty six cobbled sections along the 160-mile route ranging in length from 400 yards to several miles and you would swear that just when your strength is ebbing that those darn stones come alive, raise their little heads and send you and your bike flying sideways just for grins.

Yes, it takes a bit of luck to win Paris-Roubaix, but the cobbles always seem to produce a worthy victor, a rider who will, from that day on, be known as a hardman of the road a title that is well deserved. Who will be the next inductee into the hardman hall of fame come this Sunday. My mouth is watering, my hands are shaking and I can't sit still for more than 2 seconds. Bring it on!

Bruce

0 Comments Permalink Tags: bruce_hildenbrand, paris_roubaix, de_ronde, tour_de_france

If your only memories of Belgium are fries with mayonnaise and high alcohol content beer then you are definitely missing something. Yesterday was the Ronde van Vlaanderen or Tour of Flanders to us English-speaking types. It is more than a 165-mile bike race full of steep cobbled climbs. It is the premier sporting even in all of Belgium. Forget soccer(futbol to you non-English speaking types), Formula 1 at Spa-Francorchamps or a tennis match between Kim Clijsters and Justin Henin, De Ronde is it. Not only are the crowds huge, but they exude passion, way more passion than the Black Hole in the Oakland Raiders' stadium.

Yeah, it's a bike race, but it is also a desert topping, floor wax and much, much more. Yes, it is one of cycling's one-day 'classics', but when the weather turns to ugly like it did yesterday, it becomes legendary. If your only exposure to bike racing is standing around in an industrial park watching your significant other go round and round for an hour or so, it is hard to describe how popular this event is with your average Belgian. They are probably still partying in Ninove, to be sure a Belgian won, however, it wouldn't matter if an alien from team Roswell had been first across the line.

You see, it is all about having a great race. Given how much a win in this event means to a pro rider's career and the difficulty of the parcours (that's 'race course' for you English-speaking types) it is almost impossible not to have a great race. If you are not a 'hardman of the road' your chances of winning De Ronde hover somewhere between slim and none. The climbs, though short, are extremely steep and most are cobbled. And if you think the craftsmen on "This Old House" laid the stones with their laser levels you would be sorely mistaken. In most cases you are convinced that nobody laid the stones. There must have been a truck bed spill which nobody bothered to clean up.

Dr. Phil types love to say 'its the journey, not the destination.. After 165-miles of incessant winds, rain and hail and all the cobbles, the riders in De Ronde would probably have a few choice words for Oprah's folksy friend. But, the pros will come back to Flanders next year and the year after that and the year after that. After all, it's De Ronde.

Bruce

ps- if you can't be in Belgium, you should be watching all this on Versus!