The Chain Gang Cycle Tours

Tornado Tom Wins Paris - Roubaix

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Probably the biggest one-day race on the cycling calendar is the Paris-Roubaix. It’s a 260 Km (162 miles) race from, you guessed it, Paris, finishing in the velodrome in Roubaix in the North East of France

On April 14^th, it was the 106^th running of this classic race, and the distinguishing feature is the inclusion of many sections of traditional paved roads, or pave. These sections traditionally sort out the winners and losers. The riders all use special equipment for this race, which strangely enough usually means going low-tech. They trade in their super-light carbon frames for heavier versions, they double-tape their handlebars and use heavier wheels.

My ‘man of the moment’ Fabian Cancellara came 2^nd, which is quite a result, but he lost out to ‘Tornado’ Tom Boonen, a hero in Belgium, a previous winner, and also the winner of the first ever Tour de France stage that I watched in Angers.

But, my personal highlight from this year’s Paris-Roubaix was the appearance of my absolute favourite piece of bike equipment. The humble jubilee clip, or hose clamp, known in France as a ‘collier’, or collar.

An old boss of mine, when as a student I worked in a bulldozer repair yard, told me you need two tools. A torch (of the oxy-acetylene variety) and a sledge hammer. With a torch and a hammer, Albert Curwood reckoned you could fix anything. That might be true on a bulldozer, but for my own personal tool collection, you have to add a jubilee clip.

Years ago, in the early nineties, I set off to cycle around France one summer. I was planning to be away for about 3 months, but less than 25 miles after getting off the ferry in Roscoff, one side of my pannier rack broke. All I had to fix it with was string. At the 40 mile mark, the other side broke. This was a Blackburn rack, guaranteed for life, apparently! I made it to the house of a friend of mine, Ken Dalton, in Broons near Rennes (twinned with Exeter, so a decent enough place). He’s a wonderful car mechanic, and he prescribed a pair of jubilee clips.

The next day I wrapped a jubilee clip around the broken end of the back rack and the frame and just tightened it until nothing would move. I cycled across France and into germany, then south through Austria and Switzerland into Italy. I cycled back over the Alps into Switzerland and into France via Chamonix, and finally back to Exeter via the Roscoff-Brittany ferry. The following week I happened to be in the bike shop in Exeter from which I’d bought the rack. The owner saw my jubilee clips, and offered to give me a new rack as they were guaranteed. Brilliant. My jubilee clips had managed 4,000 miles, and he was offering me a brand-new rack with a proven life of just 40 miles. That was one of the easier decisions I’ve ever had to make. Many Chain Gang cyclists will have seen my little collection of jubilee clips, I wouldn’t want to set out on a tour without them.

Have a look at this photo and you’ll see the professionals agree with me:

Read a bit more about the wonderful race.

Race Season’s Here

Although most attention is given to the Tour de France, the bike racing season runs from February to October, and March / April can be especially exciting times.

This is the time of the great 1-day classics in Northern France and Belgium, as well as a slight nod to Italy and Holland. Races like Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Het Volk, Fleche-Wallone the Amstel Gold Race and the biggest one of them all, Paris-Roubaix.

Before Lance Armstrong started to concentrate on the Tour de France to the exclusion of all else, these 1-day ‘classics’ were a key part of the season, and for cycling fans these are important races.

One of the biggest of these races, one of the so-called ‘Monuments’, the Milan-San Remo, which took place three weeks ago. Traditionally this race was decided by the series of short, sharp hills near the finish, notably the Poggio.

In recent years sprinters have become so good that they’ve managed to stay on the pace over these hills and the finish of the Milan-San Remo has become the domain of the sprint specialists, with mass sprints contested by the likes of Stuart O’Grady, Alessandro Petacchi, Paolo Bettini, Tom Boonen, Robbie McEwen and Mario Cipollini. The hills towards the end of the course simply weren’t tough enough to weed out the sprinters.

This year’s race would have been of special interest to anyone who watched the prologue of the Tour de France last summer in London. We all saw Andreas Kloden riding super smoothly, and our local hero Bradley Wiggins riding so well to come in 4^th. And then the last rider set off, Fabian Cancellara. Before he’d gone 100 metres it was clear that Cancellara was faster, his whole rhythm and speed was different, and sure enough he won by more than 10 seconds in a 9-minute race.

And he did the same in the Milan-San Remo. When he hit the front 2 Km from the end, nobody could keep up. That’s amazing - you’re not supposed to be able to outsprint the field from the front. Those of us that saw him last July saw how good he was, and I was delighted to see him win. Read more about the Milan-San Remo and read about this year’s results at www.cyclingnews.com.

It was the Paris-Roubaix on April 13^th. A fabulous, historic race, the most famous 1-day bike race in the world. 260 Km from Paris to Roubaix, the main feature of the Paris Roubaix is a series of cobbled sections, known as ‘pavé’.

Milan San-Remo 2008