The Arenberg Trench
by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 9, 2009 2:58 AM EDT
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PrintIn keeping with the theme of a slow, sequential race preview, here's a great video of Le Trouee d'Arenberg: showing all the various challenges a rider faces just getting through it. My favorite part is where the solo rider loses momentum and looks like he's about to keel over. These are some of the top pros in the world, and this is no more than a slight uphill grade. Anyway...
paris roubaix arenberg (via jimadorX)
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It's always over too fast (for us spectators anyway)
I love the moments after they get out of the trench and people start looking around to check out who survived and if it’s worth putting the hammer down to once and for all kill off the poor bastards who didn’t.
Is it Sunday yet?
Remember a few years ago when
Boonen went into the forest first, and when they exited he had exactly zero teammates left?
Note to Tom – don’t blow up your own team in the process of riding the trench.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
That's the beauty of complete mayhem
People are so busy trying to survive themselves they can’t be spending time looking at others and making sound tactical decisions. What happens happens. That’s why I love that moment after the storm when people check out the damage. They literally have no idea what just happened.
Totally agree
There was either a miscommunication among the team, in that no one knew Boonen was going to go to the front so hard, or the team failed in getting close to him before he blew it up. Either way he ended up isolating himself when he shed some of the other riders. If you weren’t him it must have been comical coming out of there when he looked behind him.
“Let’s see, Hincapie, Spartacus, Ballan, Hoste, Gusev, Devolder……..and non of my fucking teammates!”
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
But
what choice did he have? The race was going to hot up, and his guys weren’t there. I guess he could have let someone else do it and maybe hope that a few of his guys catch on if it’s slower. But the Forest makes you hit it hard, for your own safety.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 9, 2009 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm not saying he necessarily made a mistake
I’m saying there wasn’t good communication within the team. If his mates weren’t in position he could have stayed in the first 5-10 and left it up to someone else to drill it. As it was I think he thought they were right behind him (relatively) when he dropped the hammer, and certainly expected to see at least one of them when he looked up afterwards.
Conversely, they probably didn’t expect him to go to the front full bore if they didn’t have the right position to stay with him. So, miscommunication could well have left him alone mistakenly. They sure didn’t draw it up that way in the team bus.
"I didn't look for him and I didn't see him. If you base your race on another rider, most of the time you lose."
Tom Boonen
What speed do they have when they enter Le Trouee d'Arenberg?
50-55 kph? I’m not going to try that.
No longer that I call them tights, I call them freedom ware.
Try
this video for a clearer idea. No Wagner, but even more frightening for that. The AG2R rider is Rene Mandri.
The rider who just slowed down to nothing is Rolf Aldag
the same guy who enters the trench alone at the start of the race. You’ve either got it or you haven’t I guess. I like seeing one rider bunny-hopping over the chap who had fallen inn front of him at c1:03. Not a move you often see on the road.
Get there
To ride the Arenberg is probably the best experience I’ve had on a bike ever. Almost undescribable. The adrenalin-kick, max-puls at the same time you hit the first stone, yourself absolutely focused on the next cobbles, less than a second ahead – the wow-feeling when you get to the end.
Nah
Better than reverse-forstoppelse, you know. That would urge for some rain over Arenberg.
It's time to watch A Sunday in Hell
Again. And I’ve just learned that one can buy Jørgen Leth’s films from the Danish Film Insititute. Collection #2 contains the Sports Films, both A Sunday in Hell and Stars and Water Carriers (plus a film about Pelota, go figure).
No longer that I call them tights, I call them freedom ware.
Collection #2: also known as "the Albertina Box Set."
People say I'm cocky or arrogant when I win, but they don't see the deep self-loathing when I lose a race I think I should have won. It really hurts me, you know. --Mark Cavendish
I actually think my favorite bit
is watching those two guys dragging a motorcycle that had fallen out of the way of the cyclists. If it’s that tough for a motorcycle, jeez…
The Cofidis rider lying in the middle of the road, more or less motionless
is Philippe Gaumont with a broken femur.
yes, I've been to Flanders, GW and Roubaix
but I did not go to Arenberg as I wanted to be in the Velodrome, went to the start, an early pave section, Orchies and the velodrome to see Boonen win – that was the year that the trio came in together w/ Hincapie in there.
saw that
last night on the trainer. Love the straight-up two arm salute. Could you hear him whoofing?
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 9, 2009 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions
nope too noisy
but there is a large screen in the velodrome to watch the riders coming in. I got goosebumps
Can't figure out why the
motorcyclists can’t e ahead of or behind the riders. Why do they have to pass during the melee?
We need one of those railmounted cameras
that they use in track & field (and on the Champs Elysee). Or rather 10 cameras mounted on that rail to follow all the action.
Yes
Have the EU build a 265km rail for this camera. Of course you still need official cars to make sure guys aren’t getting help by holding on to the moving camera.
CQRanking.com, you complete me.
by Chris Fontecchio on Apr 9, 2009 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Don't tempt the Boys in Brussels
If someone mentions this idea to them and sweetens the deal by saying the rails need to be greased twice daily with surplus oliveoil I’ll have to go and dig a hole in my garden to hide my lifesavings again..
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