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For anyone who has ever spent a Sunday afternoon in front of his television screen or, better still – in the case of a Northerner or a Belgian – paced up and down the Valenciennois, the Pévèle or the Mélantois areas in order to reach the cobblestone sections, there is no doubt about it: successive years confirm Paris-Roubaix as an extraordinary cycling competition, a genuine society event, a real life television drama.
An extraordinary competition? Most certainly, if we are familiar with or if we imagine the fifty kilometres or so of very rough cobblestones that mark out the second part of the route, cobblestones that break bodies, that wear down resistance and that make the risk of a fall at any time possible. Being very fit and on top form isn't enough for the potential winner. He needs to have courage, tenacity and, above all, the sort of affection for Paris-Roubaix that champions like Marc Madiot, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and Andrea Tafi speak so well of because they feel it in their hearts.
A society event? Already the day before the race and in the morning at the start in Compiègne, the excitement and the festive atmosphere are tangible. It is a day for gathering together, a day of civil communion around the rough values of cycling, in a region where all are familiar with the high stakes. They are there, the Northerners, on both sides of the infamous trenches, admiring, happy, hearty. At the carrefour de l'Arbre, the Flemish meeting point, beer flows like water and streamers flap in the wind. And in the Roubaix Velodrome, a magical enclosure, Daniel Mangeas rouses the enthusiasm in their hearts before the crowd turns its gaze from the big screen towards the concrete of the track where radiant winners or anonymous exhausted riders dot the arena, in flesh and mud.
A television drama? The (large) audience figures recorded during the four hour television broadcasting of the event indicate that this is so. In France, in Belgium, in Germany, but also in America and in Australia… A captivating show: close-ups, falls, faces frozen with suffering, suspense… it has everything. The talent of the cameramen and the commentators do the rest. The itinerary of the 2005 edition does not include the emblematic Arenberg Trench, from where as a rule, and with frenzy, the race is broadcast. Jean-François Pescheux, our cobblestone specialist, has sought out replacement stretches of road whilst vital renovation work is carried out: the “torturous” reputation of the cobblestones has its limits…
But the details are of little importance. The 10th of April next will be a Sunday when both a sport and a region can be similarly proud.
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Jean-Marie Leblanc |
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