Paris-Roubaix Espoirs
Dateline: 2-Jun-2008
Sixty riders completed the race with a group of 7 contesting the sprint at Roubaix. The winner was Holland’s Coen Vermeltfoort (Rabobank) from Italian Giorgio Brambilla and Switzerland’s Laurent Beuret. The remaining riders contesting the finale included Clinton Avery (NZ) and Daniel Summerhill of the US National Team. A second group just 14 seconds behind included a familiar Roubaix name - Baptiste Planckaert - but I don’t know if Baptiste has a family connection to the earlier generations of racing Planckaerts. [Also in the cycling archives the Brambilla name appears in the records as winner of the 1906 Tour of Lombardy (Giuseppe) and through Pierre - King of the Mountains in the 1947 Tour de France]
Next - a much bigger (but not quite so fast) field is expected for the cyclo-sportive this coming weekend.

2008 Results
Dateline 13-Apr-2008
On Friday the online betting services had put Tom Boonen as favourite ahead of Cancellara, Flecha, Hoste, Hincapie, Ballan, Pozzato, Devolder, O’Grady, Hushovd and Nuyens. And for once it turned out almost exactly as predicted. Boonen, Cancellara and Ballan contested the sprint over 3 minutes ahead of the unexpected Martyn Maaskant (Slipstream). O’Grady, Hoste and Devolder took 5th to 7th places.
And in the Junior edition there was a surprise result with a win by GB’s Andy Fenn ahead of Peter Sagan (SVK) and Etienne Fedrigo (FRA). Erick Rowsell and Toby Meadows were both in the top 15 and ensured that GB took the team honours.

Pro Elite Update
Dateline 7-Apr-2008
No start list as yet - but it should be confirmed after Gent Wevelgem on Wednesday. The 25 teams that have been accepted for Paris Roubaix, Flèche Wallonne and Liège Bastogne Liège are listed here ...
According to the TV listings Eurosport is only planning 60 mins of race coverage on Sunday - starting at 14:30 GMT (with a repeat on Monday) - as compared to 2 hours for Gent Wevelgem.

Espoirs Update
Dateline 7-Apr-2008
24 teams are scheduled to ride in the Espoirs on 1-June with 9 teams from France, 7 from Belgium and 2 from Holland. The remaining nations represented being - Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland - and New Zealand! So no team interest for Australia, GB, Ireland or the US. Perhaps there will be a few riders from these nations in the club teams?
You can see a “flash” slideshow of pictures from last year’s Espoirs race loaded by the organisers here ...

Junior Race Update 2
Dateline 7-Apr-2008
The start list is now available and the 7 rider GB team is shown as - Darren TUDOR, Andy FENN, Luke ROWE, Mark CHRISTIAN, Erick ROWSELL, Chris WHORRALL and Andrew WILLIAMS. However I thought Darren was the team coach rather than a rider! If so there must be one rider’s name missing.
It would be nice if all the GB rider lists for upcoming events were on the British Cycling web site but no luck in finding anything there so far - not even the GB teams race schedules. [And the Halfords - Bikehut GB team don’t seem to have a web site at all. Even a few web pages at the BC site would help].
You can see a slideshow of pictures from last year’s Junior race loaded by the organisers here ...

Junior Race Update
Dateline 25-Mar-2008
The race organisers have listed 15 teams for this year’s race - two French national teams plus one each from; Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Great Britain, Holland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine and Luxembourg.
Starting from Saint Amand les Eaux at 11:25 the races covers 122km and the last 16 pave zones of the pro race before finishing in the Roubaix Velodrome.

2008 Races
The Mens Elite race is scheduled for 13-April this year - and is well away from its traditional Easter date (Easter Sunday is 23-March in 2008). It will start as normal at Compiègne at 10:50 and is expected to hit the Arenberg at around 15:00. The arrival at Roubaix Velodrome can be expected anywhere between 17:00 and 18:00 according to the conditions. To see all the preparation at the start you need to get there for 9:00 and then hit the autoroute north as soon as the convoy has cleared.

Details of the Espoirs (1-June) and Juniors (13-April before the pros) races to follow

2008 Cyclo-Sportive
This year the rides are planned for 08-June with options to cover 120, 190 or the full 260 kms. Organised trip available details here ...

History of the Race
For a brief history see the Wikipedia entry... and for more detailed results see the Memoire du Cyclisme site

The route of the race has become of national importance and the cobbled section subject to preservation controls. Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix cover both the history of the race and all the supporting activities. They also have a web page devoted to the work of artist Christian Teel here..

Because of its long history (it started 1896) and drama there are plenty of books that are either partly or totally devoted to the race. The best, in my opinion, is the Pascal Sergent production for the centenary in 1996. The English version of which was published by Bromley Books (ISBN 0-9531729-0-2). But I have yet to read “A Journey Through Hell” [see right]

US success was nearest with the second place by George Hincapie in 2005 but otherwise nothing to show

British success at the pro-elite level has been limited to 2 x 3rd places (Barry Hoban in 1972 and Roger Hammond in 2004) but the win by Geraint Thomas ahead of Ian Stannard in the 2004 Junior version does give hope for the future. Paul Sherwin’s 3rd place back in 1977 was the only British podium place in the amateur / espoirs version. Of course the hero never on the podium was Tom Simpson. In 1960 his lone break was the highlight of the first televised edition of Paris-Roubaix. To be caught at Hem just a few kilometres from the finish was tragic; but a big boost to his career.

Ireland has the advantage of that master of hard riding, Sean Kelly, winning in 1984 and 1986 either side of third place in 1985.

Australian success has come just once - but that was a win and just last year! Stuart O’Grady gave a winning performance that truely gave credit to importance of the race; the “Queen of Classics”. See it on YouTube ..

Who will win in 2008? That will be hard to predict even after the field rolls out from Compiègne. But a Belgian is rarely off the podium [147 placings in 112 years] so that may be a help if you want to make a bet.

Certainly it will be the weather that plays an important role. The incredible speed of the 1964 race (45.1kph) was down to the tail wind. You only have to realise that Merckx’s win in 1968 took a full 1hr 17min longer to reach Roubaix.

The final stages of the modern course twists around the pave sections so that the effects of a strong tail wind are reduced but the winning time can still vary between 6 hours and 7 hours 30 mins. Watching the race in these final sectors can be a confusing affair. The crowds tend to ignore the tarmac sections and head for the cobbles. This means you can find yourself on a quiet tarmac road through a village that suddenly switches from deserted silence to briefly hosting a group of chasers with their noisy team cars just behind.

If you go with an organised tour then you will be able to see the race in several places along the route - plus get to the velodrome in time for the finish. If not then you have to take your chances along with the 1,000’s of others who regularly bend the driving rules to get ahead of the race! Official web site ...

Good Luck