The Medway Velo’s Paris Roubaix 2008
This weekend was the one we have all been waiting for with baited breath, the monster of all rides, the brutal, Paris to Roubaix, 160 miles of suffering over the French cobbles!
We had loaded the bikes ready for transportation to France on the Friday night courtesy of Dave and John, John was to be looking after us as we went around, and a great job he made of it taking all the worries of breaking down and getting home away from us so a big thank you there John,
And we found ourselves on Sat’ morning at 6am waiting at Victory Cycles (where else) for our coach to pick us up, and what a coach it was, this years model! So again big thanks for Rob hare for finding it and to Rob Kennison for arranging it all.
Once loaded we headed off to pick Graham up from Ashford and then to meet our rail crossing to France, Steve our driver for the weekend turned out to be a decent chap and looked after us really well even to the point of watching us come in!
Our first stop was at a service station to get some breakfast and then on to our Hotels at  Compiègne 80km north of Paris, a really lovely town this and not far from the start of the ride, loads of cyclists around this town with most of the hotels full, we quickly got settled in and met for a wander round the town and a coffee, we had a couple of hours to kill before registration at 5/6 pm, we found a nice cafe and settled down to listen to Ivan’s funny comments, which are always amusing ,usually at the expense of Gavin.
Once refreshed we headed back to our rooms to get changed for the ride to the start and registration area about 10km away, this turned out to be a bit of an adventure in itself! We arrive a little early so headed back to have a look at a bike shop along the way and while there Ivan elected to have his bike serviced with a new bottom bracket and new gear cables which took a little longer than anyone would have thought reasonable, but Ivan’s bike was A1 again so all good, by this time the registration was open and we received our numbers and other bits and bobs, and we headed back to the Hotel but not before Pete decided to go up a curb and fall of his bike! Giving him a nasty road rash!
We got ready for a meal and went out, the first restaurant was a little too posh for us so we or Andy elected to go to the local pizza place, which turned out to be perfect. We all had two meals and then made our way to bed at 10am little later than I would have liked but not to worry, and then we were up at three!!!
In the morning at 3am I awoke!!! Stuffed a couple of croissants in my mouth, and got ready to move out. And we were all ready at 3.30am to roll to the start in the pitch black. Just time for a quick poo and we were off.
Really quite exciting you felt you were a part of something quite big, it didn’t hurt that we were such a big group, which made a large statement “the Velo’s were in town” going through the town we picked up the pace we could see groups of cyclist going past to the start with their lights twinkling like fire fly’s we set a good pace for the first 60 mile with no one passing us, mind you quite a few hangers on at the start but after a while not able to keep the pace, Geoff at this point doing more than his fair share of pulling us along, we were heading out at a good 20/22 mph changing front marker regularly, to ease the pain, very slowly the twilight came, and turned into a mucky dull day, but to brighten up later into full sunshine.
We arrived at the first feeding station all together except for Mick as he elected to do his own thing today, but he wasn’t far away about 7 min’ behind us at this point, another poo! And something to eat, (hmmm strange combination) and was settled.
And now the ride starts! I would guess that the first cobbles arrive 10 km from here, and this was were the fun started, the first cobbles are slightly downhill and at the bottom of the dip, an evil covering of wet clay, which soon turned into carnage! I lasted about 30seconds before the rider in front of me lost it, I braked lost my front wheel and went straight off into a verge, all Ok though and once off this section it did get a little better but you had to be careful all day with the bike going sideways at the slightest reason.
My plan for today was to hit the cobbles as hard and fast as I could and this turned out to be my saviour, not so much bouncing around and also gets you off them quick, the feed stations came more regularly from now on, giving much needed assistance with water and feed.
We, by this time had sorted our selves into small groups which could be fine tuned as we felt better or worse, that’s the beauty of a large band of mates around you, always support and a helping hand, at this point I was traveling with Harve, Andy, Paul, Peter and Rob hare, And Harve was always in the lead across the cobbles but was amazed at Andy going through the mud with no effort at all, and it has to be said only Andy and Paul actually rode the whole of the cobbles in the Arenberg forest, Andy punctured first and we stopped to fix it, then carried on to next feed station where we were down to three, myself Peter and Harve, while the three of us were climbing a small cobbled hill a man at the top was waving us down to slow up, as he had a man on the floor which looked like a heart attack with someone else banging his chest! This has to be the worst thing I have ever seen in my life, and I got really emotional at this point only to be sorted out by Harve! Cheers mate!
After a while I found myself on my own at the end of a large section of cobbles, where at the next feed station I found myself joining the front group! Blimey I thought, going quite well today, I spent the next 30 miles really just hanging on to the back of them until the last feed station were it was ever man to themselves, Ivan was out of the equation he was miles off the front getting in about an hour before any one else, but on the last major cobbles Rob put his foot down with Rob Hare, and went of into the sunset together I tried to stay with Karl and Dave as Jayson’s arms had gone and Simon was going through a bad patch, but got dropped  and Jayson and Simon caught me and we then finished together with Jayson and Simon helping me, they were both very strong still on the flat, we arrived in the stadium about 7 min, after Rob+Rob and only a couple of min’ after Karl and  Dave in around 10hours 10min’so all that was left was a turn round the Velodrome and into the Stone showers all amazing stuff and steeped in history. Ironic really not a scratch on me from the ride but in the shower in the next cubical a man pushed a bottle of shower gel off the rim straight onto my toe,turning it blue,nearly broke it! We didn’t shower straight away as we were waiting for others to come in, Graham turned up looking like a coal man, filthy dirty! He had fallen hard and cut himself but you couldn’t see the wound as he was covered in mud and in they came two’s and threes at a time all to be greeted as hero’s which we all were.
We won the prize for the biggest club there, which was a very large cobble, all impressive stuff! When we had all showered all we had to do was wait for Mick to come in, and he obligingly sent a text message saying he was just coming down the last straight, so we all lined up at the finish waiting for him, and there he was a great cheer went up, and he was flying round the track overtaking all and sundry, to be greeted by much handshaking and hugs, all home safe now we could relax.
Turns out Ivan did the ride in an amazing 9ish hours, working with a French and Belgium couple. Must say I think the newcomers to this ride were taken aback a bit by the ferocity of the cobbles, Gavin looked decidedly a little green when I saw him at the second feed station also Joe, but Joe given his age (16) did an amazing ride to finish with Graham, Paul had a good ride and was strong through out his good nature letting him down (???) looking after people and slowing him down, obviously not a true Velo yet needs to harden up a little, :-) , Mark one of the strongest riders of the day was going like a train on the flats, unfortunately as he said himself didn’t quite know what came over him on the cobbles, especially when in a high gear, and in threat of falling over only “woke” up when someone was shouting to him “change down” which caused him to jerk himself awake and on with the battle!
The first time we saw our team mates Rob and Andrew Holyoake was at the finish were they came in looking very pleased to be in this event.
So to sum up, an amazing day, with a different tale to be told by everyone, we were all winners, and the Medway Velo’s proved with the giant Pave that we really are the ‘ardest club in Britain.
Phil