paris roubaix challenge 2018

lizzylad84

Anyone going? Planning to head over myself. Had fully booked for 2016 but due to illness had to pull out at last minute

dastardly00

lizzylad84 wrote: »

Anyone going? Planning to head over myself. Had fully booked for 2016 but due to illness had to pull out at last minute

I'm giving some serious thought about doing it.

Did you do it in either 2015 or 2017 (as part of my research about the sportive I noticed that you had set up threads about it for those years... I'm not stalking you or anything! :pac: )

lizzylad84

Haha. No unfortunately not. Developed a pretty serious chest infection the week before it in 2015 but had everything booked to go over before hand. Bought a house this yr so couldn't go. Definitely going next yr though. Looking into the logistics of doing a spin taking in part off the tour of flanders route in the same trip.

dastardly00

Fingers crossed you get to do it in 2018.

I'm looking at the options of either booking everything myself (challenge entry, flights, hotel etc.) or going with Sports Tours International, who seem to have a great setup for the PR Challenge and other Boardsies have gone with them previously.

CantGetNoSleep

What date is this on next year? It's 172km right?

lizzylad84

It's on the 7th of april. Three distances to choose from. 172 km 150 odd and 80 odd. 172km takes in all cobbles sectors from pro race. Other two are loop routes starting and finishing in roubaix.
My provisional plan is to fly to Brussels on either Thursday or Friday. stay in kortrijk in Belgium (30km from roubaix). Paris roubaix challenge on the Saturday. Wat h pro race on the Sunday and visit rvv museum in oudenaarde and do aprox last 80k of rvv on the Monday with Tuesday flight home.
Plenty if options for accommodation on air b and b

dastardly00

When does entry open? December? And does it normally sell out quickly?

lizzylad84

Normally December 1st or there abouts. If your aiming fir the full route (170k), you'll have to book a seat on the shuttle bus from roubaix to the start line. This normally sells out early. Shuttle bus is 20 or 30 euro, and will take you and your bike to start line.

Quigs Snr

I did it this year. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

lizzylad84

How soon before the event did you arrive in roubaix?

Quigs Snr

The morning before.. (I drove).

Got to the velodrome about 2pm... massive queues... took about 90 minutes to get registered.. then off in the van out to Carrefour dlarbre and did 4 or 5 sections of cobbles either side of it just to get a feel for them. It was quite a rush job in retrospect... then food, bed up at 4am and a 1 hour queue to load the bikes on the trailers and then another hour before the unheated bus left.

Got clothing all wrong.. dressed for summer but with a light gilet knee and arm warmers... 3 degrees at the start... 20+ at the end and every bit of exposed flesh sunburned !

lizzylad84

In relation to the finish, I understand that some people bring bags to be left at finish line?

Quigs Snr

Yeah, we didn't but you can do a bag drop at the start and collect at the finish.

Bike wise I was on an sworks roubaix sl4.. I was still pretty beaten up at the end.. but not the backside.. the arms and hands.... the canyon vcls 2 seat post (The one with the two pieces of carbon that acts as a spring also called the ergon cf3) tool care of the backside.. along with bontrager ultra wide rims and 28mm gp4000s).

But the shaking in the biceps was agony for the last 10 or 15 sections of pave.. I'd probably consider that ridiculous specialized roubaix with the handlebar suspension in the steerer.. if it even half worked I reckon it would make a huge difference.

lizzylad84

Thanks for advice re your set up. When I was due to go before I had a bianchi impulso with double wrapped bars and same tyres as you on campagnolo rims.

Been told that a looser grip than you'd expect is also advisable, but after 60 odd k of pave it's only natural you'd bd in bits.

Out of interest, how long afterwards did your arms abd hands feel 'normal'?

fat bloke

Great GCN vid where they do the carrefour de l'arbe (?) on a road bike a cross bike and a mountain bike to see which is quicker.

I won't spoil the result but it came as a shock to me.

https://youtu.be/QvO74sZxVs4

Quigs Snr

It took about 2 days for the hands to come back to normal. I had Specialized Phat Wrap with the gel inserts installed under the tape.. not enough in my case.

The best way really is to blast over the cobbles along the crown... I saw the GCN video comparing the different bike types.. but really its only applicable once you hit them at top speed... I blasted over the first few and the recon the night before (which included Carrefour forwards and backwards... considered the worst section by some) gave me a false sense of security. The reality is that the cobbles are horrible, but manageable.

Its the gradual wearing down that gets to you if you haven't done it before (I did the carrefour a lot slower on the day of the event after about 20 cobble sections than I did the night before after 5). Now I did it with a few handy riders, so we were at 40kph between secteurs especially early on. So that didn't help the fatique levels. But its true what they say, especially on the 5 star sections.... once you lose speed, its real hard to get it going again. The banging around in the Arenberg and a few hairy moments from riders in front of me slowed me down and then to try get it back over 15kph, never mind 30kph (or the 45 that the pros did) was like trying to do a standing start track sprint with a caravan attached to the back of the bike.

Its amazing how much the shaking of the arms fatiques you... I put my armwarmers back on even though it was very hot, just to double wrap them around my upper arms to stabilise the arms more. I might try a few bicep curls before I go back !

.... and don't necessarily bring your most padded gloves... I had specialized roubaix gloves in my size but on the recon they just were too hard on the joint of the thumb and the hand and gave me a blister in 10 minutes flat... so I had my club aero TT gloves.. real light and soft.. but no problems with them. The only part of my hands that hurt after were my middle knuckles on each finger.. its like they vibrated off each other.

It would be the bicep pain that I would be having nightmares about and trying to prepare for if I was going back.

fat bloke

I did Flanders and despised it. Personally if I'm taking my bike to Yoorp then I want the nicest smoothest baby soft blacktop that EU dollars can buy.

lizzylad84

Should be booking flights and accommodation this week

dancrowley

fat bloke wrote: »

I did Flanders and despised it. Personally if I'm taking my bike to Yoorp then I want the nicest smoothest baby soft blacktop that EU dollars can buy.

I loved every minute* of Flanders!


*except the minutes spent on some cobbled descents... they will haunt my dreams.

dastardly00

Entry to 172km event booked!
2 nights hotel in Roubaix booked!
Bus to the start line booked!

:):)

dastardly00

Did the 172 km today. Wrecked tired now, so prepare for some random thoughts...

I could never have imagined how tough the cobbles would be.... bloody hell! So so hard riding on them. I have so much respect for the pros. I found the best way was to go as hard and fast as possible on the crown. The faster, the better. And the bigger the gear the better too. It wasn't a case of just getting it over quicker... You seemed to glide over them more at a faster speed if that makes any sense.

The first sector was a massive shock to the system. After the first couple of hundred metres I was thinking there was no way I was able to keep going :eek:

I didn't notice much difference between the 2-star, 3-star and 4-star sectors to be honest. They were all really tough. The few 5-stars were noticably tougher though.

The conditions were perfect today... sunny, warm but not hot, and a tailwind for nearly all of the route!

I miraculously had no punctures or mechanicals. I was on 25 mm Continental GP 4000S II. The roadside was always littered with riders fixing punctures. And there must be hundreds of bottles left on the route!

Loads of people on MTBs. I'd say the split was 60:40 towards road bikes. I knew there would be some people on MTBs, but didn't think there would be that many. They cruised past me with ease when on cobbles.

Moving time was 6 hours and 30 minutes or so with an average speed of just under 27 km/h.... Very happy with that. I took about 30 minutes rest at each of the 3 food stops. I've had a lot of back trouble in the last year so glad I got through the day okay (so far so good anyway).

Finishing in the velodrome was seriously cool. Only negative from the sportive was that the food stops were crap, in terms of the food that was available. I would have loved a ham sandwich baguette

Would I recommend others to do it... Yes definitely. It's an amazing, unique experience

Would I do it again... hell no. As I said, the weather was perfect today. No way would the weather be as good again. All sectors were bone dry except for Arenberg. Slipping and sliding on that today scared the living daylights out of me so the thought of doing the sportive in the wet would put me off (I'm not that confident on the bike in the wet in general). Also, you are very exposed to the wind when on the pave due to lack of roadside ditches/hedges, so not having a tailwind for the majority of the time would be another reason to put me off

And finally, on two occasions I thought I had involuntary bowel movements due to all the vibrations :pac: but thankfully not!!

dastardly00

I forgot to add... Andy Schleck was riding the sportive today. I saw him at one of the food stops. His Di2 gearing had malfunctioned and he was stuck with only one gear :pac: :pac: :pac:

Cobbles on a fixie

ford2600

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Cobbles on a fixie

There was a load of lads riding it fixed, some in really old fixed bikes and kit.

Brilliant sportive, cobbles are savage.

What kind of gear would they be running fixed for it?

ford2600

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What kind of gear would they be running fixed for it?

There was a collection of riders on vintage fixed bikes, vintage clothing, helmets, tubes strapped across their backs.

Would definitely ride again. Brilliant event.

28mm gp4000 at 75/65psi on wide rims worked perfectly. Had intended to bring cx bike with 35mm tubeless Schwalbe but tyres weren't an issue

ford2600

Typical section

Mefistofelino

ford2600 wrote: »

Would definitely ride again. Brilliant event.

That's nice. Twenty four hours ago, you were texting profanities mid-event!

ford2600

Mefistofelino wrote: »

That's nice. Twenty four hours ago, you were texting profanities mid-event!

"**** yeah" is a positive profanity! It's all your fault anyway!

lizzylad84

Absolutely epic event. Didn't disappoint. I'd do it again in a heart beat. Only negative was the time waisted waiting on shuttle bus to leave and hanging round for bikes to be unloaded