The Bullet's Belgian Adventure

Day 10- Sunday, April 9 , 2006 Paris-Roubaix WOW!       

This was a fabulous day!  Upon arriving at Compiegne for the start of Paris-Roubaix, I found Bernard Hinault at the hotel of fellow American Michael Ackley.  After taking pictures with the “Badger” we walked to the start area several blocks away.  Slowly the big team busses rolled into the “Place du Palais”.  At exactly 10:50 the starter’s gun sounded and they were off.  Quickly back to the car we headed for Troisvilles for the first cobbled section (#27). 

Once in Troisvilles we thought we were an hour ahead of the race, but this was a bright day sunny with a tailwind and the race was 10 minutes away.  The 4-rider breakaway rolled through with a 3 minutes lead.  The still large peloton bounced past with some riding on the grass along the sides.  Looking through the camera lens riders appear to be further away.  I had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid the action. 

From Troisvilles the plan was to beat the riders to Wallers for the Forest d’Arenberg.  Unfortunately so were 10,000 other fans.  We got about 8 miles when the traffic came to a stop in a small town.  Not wanting to wait, up the right hand lanes, several left hand turns, down a few back alleys to by-pass the main square.  Bang, we hit the race course again.  Police officer said “stop”, turn off the car… HAPPILY we did so and claimed our front row seat to view the race again.  After the broom wagon passed he waved us through. 

We were now part of the race caravan, but we wanted to be ahead of the race so we must find a different way.  Along a very narrow farm road we came to a stop again.  Off in the distant farm fields we saw the peloton rambling through, kicking up a dust storm behind.  We ran down the road to catch the breakaway and 3 minues later the Quick-step team controlling the peloton’s pace.  Hincapie came through glued to Boonen’s wheel.  Back to the car and another attempt to get in front of the flying peloton.

Still on the small farm roads the fan caravan around us was getting larger.  Here we go again, another stop!  But there, off in the distance, high on a ridge the caravan was rumbling along, kicking up dust from the dry cobbles.  Soon after the breakaway appeared still 3+ minutes ahead.  The traffic jam this time was longer.  The police cannot open the road until the broom wagon passed.  This seemed to be a popular spot to abandon so the broom was delayed sweeping up riders. 

One car behind us was one of the Discovery team support vehicles.  Tim Ackley (Michael’s son and my navigator) asked the driver how Hincapie was doing.  “He’s in great shape” the driver (Sean Yates) said with his British accent.  Not recognizing Sean, Tim asked “have you ever driven the course before?”  With a smile he said “Oh yes…”  Sean later admitted that people don’t recognize him as much anymore.  Sean Yates looked as though he could still be a contender at Paris-Roubaix.

Making Wellers/Forest d’Arenberg (and 20,000 fans) was now out of the question.  Option 2 was try to get to the Carrefour de l’Arbre.  Sounds easy, but as we got close all the roads to Cysoing were closed.  We opted to try the Velodrome for the finish (we even got a parking place one block away).  To our delight we all found good viewing points and watched the race on a jumbo-tron TV set up at the entrance of the Velodrome. 

A minor roar went up when the 1st chase group went around the railroad crossing barriers.  But a HUGE roar sounded when the defending champion had to stop and wait for the train to pass.  Team CSC rider Fabian Cancellara entered the Velodrome to wild ovation.  After completing his lap and a half of the track, he crossed the finish line victoriously.  Fabian Cancellara claimed the first Suisse Paris-Roubaix victory since Henri Suter in 1923. 

We had a day to remember and this adventure will be treasured for years to come!!!