DAY 3 – SUNDAY, 12TH APRIL 2021
Breakfast: From 7am-7.30am
Vehicles Depart: 7.30am
Dinner: 7pm
About our day: Paris Roubaix Race Day
The day we’ve all been waiting for, the 2020 Paris Roubaix race.
An exciting day of VIP Spectating with Phil Anderson as he guides us through the 2020 Paris Roubaix. We Depart our hotel early after breakfast to visit the Paris Roubaix start town.
Upon arrival we’ll have some time to discover the race start town, take some morning tea and watch the riders prepair for the big day ahead. At 11am we’ll be there to see the official race start, it’s an incredible experience to see the riders headout to do battle on the roads of the Hell of the North.
After the start we’ll head back quickly to our waiting vehicles to transfer ahead of the race. We’ll pick up the race mid-route and enjoy a gourmet roadside picnic lunch including Champagne, some nice Belgium beer and cool drinks of your choice.
Back on the road, we jump ahead of the race again to position ourselves at various points along the race route, then move quickly to see the exciting closing stages of the race from inside the Roubaix Velodrome.
The Paris Roubaix race and the finish into the Roubaix velodrome is a once in a life time experience, it’s a very unpredictable race and incredible to be a part of all the action. You’ll absolutely love it.
Non-cycling options:
Travel with the group to experience the Paris Roubaix, it’s an exciting day to be around one of the biggest cycling events in Europe.
Race: Paris Roubaix 257km
The Paris Roubaix is one of cycling’s oldest races, it was first run in 1896 and is one of the ‘Monuments’ or classics of the European calendar, and contributes points towards the UCI World Ranking.
The race has stopped only for the two world wars and was created by two Roubaix textile manufacturers, Théodore Vienne and Maurice Perez. Both men had been behind the building of the velodrome on 46,000 square metres at the corner of the rue Verte and the route d’Hempempont in Roubaix which opened on 9 June 1895
The course is maintained by Les Amis de Paris–Roubaix, a group of fans of the race formed in 1983. The forçats du pavé seek to keep the course safe for riders while maintaining its difficulty.
The race starts in Compeigne, France and covers 29 cobbled sectors over the 257km course til it reaches Roubaix. The race course route changes slightly over the years, 2019 Roubaix Winner was Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step).
Philippe Gilbert delivered a masterclass on the way to Roubaix to claim his fifth success in a Monument, after his victories in Lombardia (2009, 2010), Liège (2011) and Flanders (2017). The Belgian star is the first rider to dominate four different Monuments since Sean Kelly in the 1980s.
With the rise of young stars including Belgiums Wout van Aert and Dutch rider Mathieu van der poel, the 2020 edition of Paris Roubaix is going to be very exciting watching the establish riders do battle against the stars of the future.
History:
Seeking the challenge of racing on cobbles is relatively recent. It began at the same time in Paris–Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, when widespread improvements to roads after the second world war brought realisation that the character of both races were changing. Until then the race had been over cobbles not because they were bad but because that was how roads were made.
André Mahé, who won in 1949 said, After the war, of course, the roads were all bad. There were cobbles from the moment you left Paris, there’d be stretches of surfaced roads and often there’d be a cycle path or a pavement and sometimes a thin stretch of something smoother.
You never knew where was best place to ride and you were for ever switching about. You could jump your bike up on to a pavement but that got harder the more tired you got. Then you’d get your front wheel up but not your back wheel. That happened to me, then you’d go sprawling of course and you could bring other riders down. Or they’d fall off and bring you down with them.
The cycle paths were often just compressed cinders, which got soft in the rain and got churned up by so many riders using them and then you got stuck and you lost your balance. Come what may, you got covered in coal dust and other muck, it’s all changed and you can’t compare then and now.
Après Bike:
Suggested Post Ride rehydration:
Dinner: 7pm, Farewell Dinner and Drinks. meet Hotel lobby for a short walk to our restaurant.
Accommodation:
Lille Old Town Center Ville, elegant Beaux arts-style Four Star Hotel. 3 of 3 Nights
LOCATION
