Life Members chung Posted April 14, 2015 Life Members Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Hi All, Some of you might know that I had planned on doing the Paris-Roubaix Challenge again this year, since I "enjoyed" it so much last year & thought I must go back to put myself through this again. So, I thought I would write a wee report on my trip with my friend Stevie from the Velo. The travelling schedule was bikes on cars with everyone travelling to Hull on Thursday for a over night ferry crossing arriving Friday morning in Zeebrugga. This time, without the police chasing us, we had time to spare before our journey to Lille, a short drive to Oudenaarde to visit the "Flanders Museum" & have lunch/beer under the gaze of Merckx & Martens etc. We even manage to get the bikes out & cycled 3 of the iconic climbs of the Tour of Flanders - Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg & the Koppenberg. It was a fantastic wee detour! Driving through even a small part of Belgium, I could not help but enjoy/admire this beautiful country. All the houses seems to be well designed & looked after, the roads are clean & the people are so relaxed & friendly. It'll be a place that I would love to go back to with my family for sure! Now, its a well known fact that movie sequels are always s**ter than the original one. Well, in my Paris Roubaix Part 2, it was definitely the case in terms of the weather The extremely early coach trip to the start village of Busigny was never very pleasant, but to be met by weather of rain & strong wind just about made me want to jump back onto the coach again (especially as I decided NOT to pack a rain jacket, I comforted myself by seeing a LOT of riders making the same mistake) We arrived fairly early which meant it was very busy, so we held back a bit before starting so that the roads won't be busy especially going into the Pave sectour, it's bad enough when it was dry but the wet stones was going to be a different ball game altogether. Having ridden it last year, I kind of knew what was coming (the others had the previous day experience of the Flander climbs too) but on the wet .............. it'll be "tricky"! On the run in to the first Pave sectour, there was a lot of puncture compare to last years both on/off the road and this would be the trend through out the day. (I had a total blow out on my tubs too, but thankfully I got it fixed & resumed my ride) The wet Pave is like riding on "lumpy ice" (not that I've done it before), it's just a very, very un-pleasent & a SCARY experience for me, I was slipping & sliding every where, traction was poor - definitely a new one for me. It kind of brings back some of the awful feeling I had from last year. But I manage to stay calm/focus and just took things as it comes & stay positive. There was quite a few folks crashing onto the verge of the sectors & face planting the fields & ditches, bloody awful! This was a long ride, and no doubt you'll go through mixed emotions & you have good/bad times. For me, I just had to stay positive & get on with it. But those thousands of horrible stones will do it's very best to smash your wheels/bike & your body/sanity. All around me, I saw cyclist loosing the plot as emotionally/physically, they were pushed/forced over the edge. Some were standing on the side looking lost & destroyed, but at the same time you have normal residents going about their business - it was a very surreal image indeed! I saw on one section of the Pave - a cyclist in front of me crashed into the verge & got up, picked up his bike & flung it onto the field with disgust before kicking this fallen bottles like he was dribbling a football - bizarre (luckily I saw the same cyclist at the finish looking a lot "normal") It certainly drives people insane! Luckily as the route went on, the weather got a bit better & dryer which mean some of the Pave sectors were dry at least but the Arenberg was a totally nightmare, it was wet & it was very very greasy, not to mention the famous huge stones & bigger gaps which makes it legendary. 100m in and an ambulance crew was tending to a guy that had fallen and broken his leg. Then a pile up just behind me with a Velo also going down, which meant we had to stop to check (which was very tricky indeed) to see if he was ok, luckily he was but getting going again was almost impossible. Seeing how this stretch really was un-ridable, cyclist started to mount the pavement on the right hand side, a few followed & got through but the event stewarts saw this & immediately pulled the ropes back up to prevent more folks from doing that (they were only doing their job I suppose :-)) bloody murderers! I have no idea how I manage to stay rubber side down, but thankfully I did & manage to finished the Arenberg unscathed! After that, It all kind of gotten into a routine for me - road, eat, drink, Pave, road, eat, drink, Pave ......... so on..... and before I know it, we were almost into Roubaix, and by now it was sunny :-) Just the easy ride through the suburb traffic & into the Velodrome fro the final finish. This year, for me it was less emotional but still just as enjoyable even though the weather was not favourable at all - what with the rain & strong head/cross wind, it certainly made the pave sections a lot harder & more demanding to ride on for sure! Anyway, job done & collected my medal, but still a 15km ride back to Lille as we had to cycle into Roubaix on the morning. So, this is my sequel ..................... one faces a dilemma .......... should I make another one - part 3 ............. :-) anyone for next year then? Thanks for reading Cheers Chung PaulL, KennyS, gregbalden and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions ginty001 Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Excellent read Chung, but you're not exactly selling it very well chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richie Cross Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Great write up Still doesn't appeal to me. At all. chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions thejanullrichdietplan Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 chapeau! chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al yuille Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Nice one Chung. Can't believe you did that after seeing the shell shock last year. It's Milan next year remember ! chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Life Members chung Posted April 14, 2015 Author Life Members Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Excellent read Chung, but you're not exactly selling it very well Iain, I thought I WAS! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions PaulL Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Chapeau! Chung, I am amazed you went back... 3 in a row? hardcore chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Michael Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Great adventure Chung, though hope our time in Belgium isn't as traumatic as this 😉 chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexb Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Great report Chung. If you ever buy a cottage for rent, make sure you have someone check your review before publishing! Second and third paragraphs were sounding encouraging, but all downhill from there. PR the sequel sounds absolute hell! Glad you made it round (and in one piece). Well done! KennyS and chung 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Porteous Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Well done Chung! I'm sold! chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions George Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Good story Chung. Erm, no ta. chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions P McDonald Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Very well done Chung, sounds epic chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul C Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 well done! Great report. You managed to miss the bollards! chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions charlie p Posted April 14, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Well done Chung. After your experience last year amazed u did this again. Reckon u need a wee bit of therapy. I will have a word with Andy Gumley. Al Yuille is right Milan next for sun peroni and all things Italian chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions Gummers Posted April 15, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 Chung Lots of good therapies for PTSD especially some good evidence for writing about experiences. Reading your great report above makes an entertaining but cautionary tale! Hope you're enjoying being back with friends and family! there's some Paisley Velo photos on Facebook with you making a guest appearance. Well done! Andy chung 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul C Posted April 15, 2015 Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 I have 40 mile round trip to/from ferry so will do route two. Are we getting 09:30 ferry? Having four routes I think numbers will spread thinly over them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2023 Subscriptions George Posted April 15, 2015 2023 Subscriptions Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 I have 40 mile round trip to/from ferry so will do route two. Are we getting 09:30 ferry? Having four routes I think numbers will spread thinly over them. Other thread^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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