We got going very early to get a spot on the Paris-Roubaix route – it wasn’t that far and we found the route no problem and just followed the arrows. In 2019 we were on sector 12 of the cobbles but this time we ended up on sector 11 (they count down, not up). This sector is one of the three in the race that have a five-star black rating – the hardest of all.
It wasn’t easy to find a good place – there were already dozens of campervans in almost every available spot. We ended up backing up into a fairly lumpy place that was infested with what we believe to be Japanese knotweed – at least we were off the road and not on a farmer’s field.
During the day on Friday several of the main teams rode by perusing the course, then some official folks came around during the afternoon and roped us in by pounding metal spikes into the ground and threading a rope through a loop at the top of each.
On Saturday there was a huge fondo/sportive and thousands of amateurs came by over a period of eight or nine hours. Max watched it all from his position in the co-pilot’s chair.
By race-day Sunday there were hundreds of cars and campervans, and a constant stream of fans going up and down the cobbles in front of us.
The atmosphere was awesome!
…
Some folks even had a wood-fired hot tub – not kidding!
The junior men came by first, followed an hour or so later by the under-23 men. We retreated to the campervan for cheeseburgers and to watch on tv as the race progressed, then went out in plenty of time to stake our spots to photograph from.
As we’d known from the tv coverage the two leaders were Pogacar and van Aert and neither one looked like they were having fun. Mads Pederson was right behind them…
…and Van der Poel wasn’t too far behind him – he’d had a bike problem earlier so was not at the front with the other two where he might have expected to be.
After most of the racers had passed we went back inside the campervan to watch the end on tv. It was close enough but van Aert is a better sprinter than Pogacar so he was triumphant in the velodrome in Roubaix – I think he was crying as he crossed the line in first place. Cheers from the local crowd around us were almost deafening – we’re not far from the Belgian border and most of the fans along this stretch of the cobbles were Belgian.
I was impressed by how many folks stayed to watch the women come through – hardly anyone had left. After that I took Max for his evening walk, and we went and visited a group down the road. They were from Paris which is only a two hour drive away, and they were very nice – they especially liked Max.
They’d taken some of the rope down and we’re playing skip-rope in the middle of the cobbles – it went fairly well with one girl, then two skipping but when the guys jumped in it didn’t last too long. They fed Max a bit of sausage that I don’t think he liked too much, and I smelled something very fragrant being smoked, although I didn’t ask to partake.
It was a fairly early night, and for the second time in two days our electrics ran out. We have a good solar panel and battery but it hasn’t been very sunny and since we had the tv on all day and we’ve not driven for two or three days the system just shut itself down.
Sally McKenzie's European Adventures 