Paris-Roubaix Sportive and Chiltern 100

This weekend I managed to complete ‘Roubaix’ with all it’s variable weather. It started with a head-wind, the first bits of pavé dry and dusty, then the skies truly opened up – thunder and lightening – the roads became rivers for a couple of hours. Me and the bike were black. Then the sun came out for the last hour and the wind swung round to the South for a cracking tailwind finish. I was doing 30-40kph for the last 20. I was budgeting on 11 -12 hours if it was a tailwind from start to finish. In diabolical conditions I managed to do 9h 41mins.

I can’t make up my mind if this or Ventoux were the best bike experiences of my life.

Well done, Tim. Stuart Birnie also finished and I’ve gleaned this from his FaceBook statuses…

4/6 – 07:53 – Leave for #Paris-Roubaix today.
4/6 – 12:32 – Bus is late. Balls.
4/6 – 15:44 – Dover. Late. 16.45 ferry now to wait for.
4/6 – 22:31 – Arrived. Dinner done. Beer fueling to commence. #Paris-roubaix
5/6 – 15:33 – Recce of the ride to the start done. Just another 20k on the 260k.
5/6 – 17:56 – Registered for #Paris-roubaix. Need to pack stuff onto bus now.
6/6 – 03:42 – 4.30am wake up for #paris-roubaix
6/6 – 08:08 – First checkpoint 82k. Average speed 32kph. #paris-roubaix
6/6 – 15:58 – Finished. Solo break ftw! #paris-roubaix
6/6 – 19:27 – Sitting down for dinner in Roubaix. 275k in around 12 hours with stops. Pave did less damage to me than Flanders. #paris-roubaix… I think it was just over 9hrs ride time. ~28kph for the 260k.
7/6 – 08:45 – On the way home from #paris-roubaix. Look tired, feel quite stiff and sore.

Cracking ride, Hippy.

Meanwhile Simon Wicks, Tom London, Rich “Mr 50” Cooper and John Williams were riding the Chiltern 100 Sportive which is largely a flat dual-carriageway course repeatedly climbs the Chiltern escarpment during its 107 miles. Simon reckons Whiteleaf Hill was the toughest amongst many tough climbs.

A pretty good weekend for WCC, all in all.