I watched the Paris Roubaix race on OLN last night and for the life of me could not figure out why they would plot out a race course over all those cobble stones. I thought that’s what mountain biking was for. I don’t come from a cycling background. Hopefully one of you can explain this for me.
Hey Grumpy,
It’s history and with that-tradition. Sort of like the bricks at the Brickyard (Indy) are tradition. Ofcourse there are only a small-smooth row of bricks there now, it’s still tradition. So the cobble stones are part of the classic Races like Flanders and Paris-Robaix that go back for eons and since “that’s the way they did it then-that’s the way they’ll do it now” deal. It sure does make the races difficult and with it very dramatic, which makes it fun to watch but probably not so much to participate. It’s about the pain man ;-).
Nostalgia’s not what it used to be!
Thanx for the info. I can relate. As a fireman, I know what it’s like to work around 200 years of tradition unimpeded by progress.
Agreed that it is about tradition. It is also about the reality of the quality of the road surface where one happens to live. In southern Ontario we have everything from beautiful, smooth-as-glass ashphalt to cracked-up, frost-heaved chip and tar to dirt and gravel. The smooth-as-glass is harder and harder to find - government cut-backs I guess. I do notice an increase in the crappy surface riding these days. So I can relate to the guys over in Europe pounding over the cobbles.