Stage 5: Lille to Arenberg (cobbles!)

A cobbled road from the Paris-Roubais race — Credit: bram_souffreau – Flickr: Paris – Roubaix Trouée d’Arenberg; wikimedia)

“It’s super-nice to hit the cobbles again”
Wout van Aert (interviewed before stage 5)

Stage 5 was dubbed the “Paris-Roubaix” stage with numerous sections of bone-shaking cobbles, although some have not been used in the Classic race. The best advice for anyone racing on these crazy roads is just “be lucky!” It is another great test for the riders on the cobbled sections, but it does feel a bit like the organisers chuck in a game of chance to stir things up: snakes and ladders, perhaps (but without the ladders).

Amongst those who were unlucky were Roglic, Vingegaard, O’Connor, Sagan, Froome and Van der Poel, several of whom really did NOT want to “hit the cobbles”. It looked at several moments that the race might be over for a lot of contenders, with Jumbo-Visma and others in several kinds of panic at once.

Worse still, this mad stage caused the first DNFs of the race, both amongst our team selections Michael Gogl (for Autres Autruches Autrichiennes) and Jack Haig (the Bahrain-Victorious team leader who appeared in Bad Knees, Lanterne Rouge and Don’t Lube your gears with porridge). So for Paul, James, Linda and Dale that 1 down and 8 remaining.

Team of the Day

Top team on the chaotic Stage 5 was Stephen’s Ciclominaccia featuring Cort the who owns the breakaway (4th day in a row!); Pogacar who, evidently without a team, was the one to profit from other favourites’ misfortune; and the magnificent Van Aert who, as the yellow jersey, was in trouble himself early on then went back to drag one of his team leaders back into contention, and still had the energy to drive on and retain his race lead.

This strong performance moves Team Ciclominaccia to within 20 points of the lead in the mini-league.

Stat du Jour

Postcard from Département Nord

Postage stamp from France picturing cyclists riding over a cobbled road on the Paris-Roubais race

mercredi 6 juillet 2022 Arenberg

Good grief – these roads are bumpier than the Isle of Wight!

D’Stroosse si ganz knaschteg

… is today’s useful phrase to drop into conversation. Around Arenberg many people speak a dialect of the Moselle Franconian language, which includes Luxembourghish. Yes that IS what it’s called.

I was surprised to learn that of the 113 editions of the Paris-Roubaix since 1896, Belgian riders have won more than half (57) of them. But today’s stage was a memorable win for the brilliant Simon Clarke who celebrates his 36th birthday next week.