Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

[stompandgo]

That was a great watch, thanks. Ename is an incredible Belgian ale. Big fan. There is also a cycling museum in Oudenaarde. Less bikes, more pictures.

I owned a Klein Criterium, the second generation of the bike he showed, the Quantum Pro. I crashed it at a race, and it had to be sent back to Klein to have a new derailleur hanger welded on. I sold it when I got it back and was given a Fuji by the team.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

That was a great watch, thanks. Ename is an incredible Belgian ale. Big fan. There is also a cycling museum in Oudenaarde. Less bikes, more pictures.

I owned a Klein Criterium, the second generation of the bike he showed, the Quantum Pro. I crashed it at a race, and it had to be sent back to Klein to have a new derailleur hanger welded on. I sold it when I got it back and was given a Fuji by the team.

Lovely looking bike. He made very attractive bikes as well as being such an innovator.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Seixas laid low in Stage 3 with a little more than a minute on GC 2nd place Roglic. Easy to understand why he'd take the day to recover after his phenomenal output in Stage 2. But guessing he won't do that again in Stage 4.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Weather forecast for Roubaix is dry sunny 19C so another dusty edition rather than a muddy one. Less and less rainy ones it seems. This is now a dry time of year.

Seixas laid low in Stage 3 with a little more than a minute on GC 2nd place Roglic. Easy to understand why he'd take the day to recover after his phenomenal output in Stage 2. But guessing he won't do that again in Stage 4.

He's got the lead, up to the others to dethrone him. Let them waste energy and his team mark them.

 

[stompandgo]

Seixas laid low in Stage 3 with a little more than a minute on GC 2nd place Roglic. Easy to understand why he'd take the day to recover after his phenomenal output in Stage 2. But guessing he won't do that again in Stage 4.

Decathlon and Red Bull were at the front for a little bit, but nobody was going to work with them to bring the break back.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Quite a Stage 4 finish! Watch it if you can.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Quite a Stage 4 finish! Watch it if you can.

What a hill to finish on! Seemed to go on forever.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Seixas now has 2:05 on GC 2nd Roglic. Tomorrow's Stage 5 said to be the hardest of the 6. Should be interesting.

 

[stompandgo]

Great racing today. It should get serious tomorrow.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

So I found a fairly acceptable YT version of the incredible Paris Roubaix documentary "A Sunday night Hell" from 1976. Shot on 16mm by Danish documentary filmmaker Jorgen Leth, it covers the whole race in almost real time, following the riders, team cars, people watching, on the streets, in the bars, protestors disrupting, mechanics riding on the roof racks through the choking dust, motos kicking up yet more dust, it's all there, close up bloody and painful as the crashes happen and as the contest gets tighter and tighter between the favourites. It's an extraordinarily poetic film (1h 45m).

If you have time Jeremy it's well worth a full watch before next Sunday (in the next Hell of the North).

It captures what makes Roubaix such a crazy historic race.

Going to check if there is a remastered blu ray version as it's something I'd love to have a decent copy of - have an old VHS tape somewhere.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Bloody predictive text it's A SUNDAY IN HELL. Not A Sunday Night Hell which sounds a very different film!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

So I found a fairly acceptable YT version of the incredible Paris Roubaix documentary "A Sunday night Hell" from 1976. Shot on 16mm by Danish documentary filmmaker Jorgen Leth, it covers the whole race in almost real time, following the riders, team cars, people watching, on the streets, in the bars, protestors disrupting, mechanics riding on the roof racks through the choking dust, motos kicking up yet more dust, it's all there, close up bloody and painful as the crashes happen and as the contest gets tighter and tighter between the favourites. It's an extraordinarily poetic film (1h 45m).

If you have time Jeremy it's well worth a full watch before next Sunday (in the next Hell of the North).

It captures what makes Roubaix such a crazy historic race.

Going to check if there is a remastered blu ray version as it's something I'd love to have a decent copy of - have an old VHS tape somewhere.

Thanks! What utter chaos swirling around the riders from start to finish — especially the motorcycles. And OMG, all the dust they're breathing!

At least today's riders don't have to give shower room interviews.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Thanks! What utter chaos swirling around the riders from start to finish — especially the motorcycles. And OMG, all the dust they're breathing!

At least today's riders don't have to give shower room interviews.

The same if not worse dust will be there on Sunday.

It's the skinny tyres that now gets me. Riding at those speeds over those cobbles in that visibility on 20 or 23mm tubulars. And who needs helmets eh?

 

[stompandgo]

So I found a fairly acceptable YT version of the incredible Paris Roubaix documentary "A Sunday night Hell" from 1976. Shot on 16mm by Danish documentary filmmaker Jorgen Leth, it covers the whole race in almost real time, following the riders, team cars, people watching, on the streets, in the bars, protestors disrupting, mechanics riding on the roof racks through the choking dust, motos kicking up yet more dust, it's all there, close up bloody and painful as the crashes happen and as the contest gets tighter and tighter between the favourites. It's an extraordinarily poetic film (1h 45m).

If you have time Jeremy it's well worth a full watch before next Sunday (in the next Hell of the North).

It captures what makes Roubaix such a crazy historic race.

Going to check if there is a remastered blu ray version as it's something I'd love to have a decent copy of - have an old VHS tape somewhere.

This was a great watch. It opens with a mechanic cleaning up a Benotto. OK, nice bike. Campy SR/NR. You get to look at it for about 5 minutes. Then the context switches to a guy loading one of my Holy Grail bikes, a Gios, onto a trunk rack. Then he loads another. And another. Closeup after closeup. I was in heaven.

The rest of the show was great, except for Merckx losing. It was absolutely crazy how close the vehicles were to the riders back then.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

This was a great watch. It opens with a mechanic cleaning up a Benotto. OK, nice bike. Campy SR/NR. You get to look at it for about 5 minutes. Then the context switches to a guy loading one of my Holy Grail bikes, a Gios, onto a trunk rack. Then he loads another. And another. Closeup after closeup. I was in heaven.

The rest of the show was great, except for Merckx losing. It was absolutely crazy how close the vehicles were to the riders back then.

Great seeing all the doc footage of Merckx near the start; in his swanky rockstar 70s civilian clothes and shades, giving the mechanics a hard time, obsessive about saddle position. And then midst that printers demonstration, tyres of cars being slashed, police with bolt action rifles looking mean, it all about to kick off, race possibly cancelled, violence; And Merckx calmly going up to rival's team car "buddy lend me a spanner would you, just want to check my saddle." Hilarious.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Merckx = Pog
De Vlaminck = MVDP

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Romo could have been a Stage 5 contender if he hadn't fallen. Hope they make a big example of the fan who pushed him. Also hope the other fans taught him a lesson he'll never forget on the spot.

Wonder if Romo or his team could sue the fan — for personal injury and lost opportunity if nothing else.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Can we have a serious talk about cobbles?

Paris Roubaix, infamous for its punishing cobble sections, is only days away. And I have to ask,

Q1. Why do this to our cycling heroes?

Q2. Do any of them like racing on this stuff? How about falling on it?

The cobbles in bike races are many, many times worse than the traffic control pavers in some of our intersections. I understand why these pavers are used and actually like the look. I just hate riding on them — even for a few feet. Don't even wanna think about 20 km on Belgian cobble.

As benign as those pavers might look from a distance, they still give a taste of what cobble riders face. They can't catch a wheel or puncture a tire like cobble can, but they can certainly rattle your brains out with those beveled edges and random-fan tiling.

The strong handlebar vibrations turn my poor little cantilvered Wahoo into a blur.

So why put Pogi and Jonas and MVDP and Wout and Mads and all the other riders through that? Of course, it's part of long-standing cycling tradition in Europe. And of course, it puts certain skills and tolerance for beatings to the test. But none of that makes it a good tradition to continue in my mind.

Finally, the key question:

Q3. If riders had a vote tomorrow, would they elect to keep or ditch the cobble sections?

Maybe to be replaced with a mix of pavement and gravel?

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Can we have a serious talk about cobbles?

Paris Roubaix, infamous for its punishing cobble sections, is only days away. And I have to ask,

Q1. Why do this to our cycling heroes?

Q2. Do any of them like racing on this stuff? How about falling on it?

View attachment 208522
The cobbles in bike races are many, many times worse than the traffic control pavers in some of our intersections. I understand why these pavers are used and actually like the look. I just hate riding on them — even for a few feet. Don't even wanna think about 20 km on Belgian cobble.

View attachment 208523
As benign as those pavers might look from a distance, they still give a taste of what cobble riders face. They can't catch a wheel or puncture a tire like cobble can, but they can certainly rattle your brains out with those beveled edges and random-fan tiling.

View attachment 208524
The strong handlebar vibrations turn my poor little cantilvered Wahoo into a blur.

So why put Pogi and Jonas and MVDP and Wout and Mads and all the other riders through that? Of course, it's part of long-standing cycling tradition in Europe. And of course, it puts certain skills and tolerance for beatings to the test. But none of that makes it a good tradition to continue in my mind.

Finally, the key question:

Q3. If riders had a vote tomorrow, would they elect to keep or ditch the cobble sections?

Maybe to be replaced with a mix of pavement and gravel?

That vote would be mixed for sure! But majority of the Flemish would vote to keep them nd would fight to death to keep them! As they say in Holland those hard men "...have diamonds in their legs"!

Plus you know, traditions. It's a Monument for a reason.

That Sunday In Hell doc was 1976 and in it they constantly disparage the French riders because no Frenchman had won in like 20 years. Yet that year, 76 saw a young Frenchman have his first pro season. Bernard Hinault - he'd go on to win FIVE Tour de France's one of the greatest riders ever, still alive and well today I think. And in 1981 he won Paris Roubaix! Finally breaking the French curse at that race.

For winning you get a mounted Pave- one of the actual cobbles, on a wooden trophy stand. Lovely. Hinault hated the cobbles so much he chucked it in the bin!

He won his final TdF in 1985 and started another French curse - It's 41 years now and that was the last Tour won by a Frenchman - which will explain the insane expectation that will now follow 19 year old Paul Seixas around. HUGE pressure.

Going back to cobbles, some riders love the challenge and it gives an advantage to the skilled rider, the cycle crosser, the mountain biker, the daredevils who love it. Others run a mile from it. They used part of the route in a TdF stage a number of years ago and the Grand Tour riders were furious, not just hating it because of the unpredictability it might cause that stage to GC, but the real fear of a Tour ending crash. I seem to recall Chris Froome crashed but can't remember if it affected his GC chances.

To show its widespread international appeal, in the 1980s supreme US mountain biker John Tomac got himself into the US 7 Eleven team pretty much just to ride the classics and especially Paris Roubaix!

He raced XC with drop bars all season to prepare for road.

As a mountain biker first then road, I love it. But I would prefer a wet muddy Irish conditions edition, like the 2 Sean Kelly won.

Here's The Badger competing, you can see his absolute love of cobbles on his face!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

That vote would be mixed for sure! But majority of the Flemish would vote to keep them nd would fight to death to keep them! As they say in Holland those hard men "...have diamonds in their legs"!

Plus you know, traditions. It's a Monument for a reason.

That Sunday In Hell doc was 1976 and in it they constantly disparage the French riders because no Frenchman had won in like 20 years. Yet that year, 76 saw a young Frenchman have his first pro season. Bernard Hinault - he'd go on to win FIVE Tour de France's one of the greatest riders ever, still alive and well today I think. And in 1981 he won Paris Roubaix! Finally breaking the French curse at that race.

For winning you get a mounted Pave- one of the actual cobbles, on a wooden trophy stand. Lovely. Hinault hated the cobbles so much he chucked it in the bin!

He won his final TdF in 1985 and started another French curse - It's 41 years now and that was the last Tour won by a Frenchman - which will explain the insane expectation that will now follow 19 year old Paul Seixas around. HUGE pressure.

Going back to cobbles, some riders love the challenge and it gives an advantage to the skilled rider, the cycle crosser, the mountain biker, the daredevils who love it. Others run a mile from it. They used part of the route in a TdF stage a number of years ago and the Grand Tour riders were furious, not just hating it because of the unpredictability it might cause that stage to GC, but the real fear of a Tour ending crash. I seem to recall Chris Froome crashed but can't remember if it affected his GC chances.

To show its widespread international appeal, in the 1980s supreme US mountain biker John Tomac got himself into the US 7 Eleven team pretty much just to ride the classics and especially Paris Roubaix!

View attachment 208525

He raced XC with drop bars all season to prepare for road.

View attachment 208526

As a mountain biker first then road, I love it. But I would prefer a wet muddy Irish conditions edition, like the 2 Sean Kelly won. View attachment 208528

View attachment 208532

Here's The Badger competing, you can see his absolute love of cobbles on his face!
View attachment 208529
View attachment 208530
View attachment 208531

Exactly why I hang out here, my friend!