Sunshine and Light

Hing-ca-PEEEEEEE

So all week in France/Belgium, the question was going to be - who was going to win Paris-Roubaix? Would it be studly up and comer Belgian Tom Boonen? Would American fav George Hincapie or his Discovery sidekick Leif Hoste? Would Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha get to show off his archer salute on the list?

Whereever we went as Americans, when it became clear that we had heard of cycling, people would tell us their favorites. It was pretty cool, kind of a reminder of what it's like to be in the mainstream. Since we don't follow much football, baseball, basketball, or hockey, these conversations are usually restricted to a select few in the US. The rest of the time we have that golden retriever "HUH?!" look on our face when people ask us about sports.

Our fearless leader, Phil, had procured a VIP pass which allowed us to travel over race roads. So the day of the race we headed down to the Arenberg Forest area, to cheer the racers on two different stretches of pave. First we went to sector 18, then we ran about a mile and a half back to sector 16 to watch the racers come through. The bit of excitement for our group was that Ryder Hesjedal of Phonak had a bit of intestinal trouble and stopped to relieve himself behind our van. And my tiny roll of toilet paper which I never leave home without in Europe was thus sacrificed for a good cause. Then we laid tracks for the Roubaix velodrome. And those tracks included driving approx the last 5K up to the velodrome on the spectator lined course. Chris, Joe, and Hollywood probably set back Franco-American relations 100 years with their enthusiastic flag waving and "Hing-ca-PEEEEEE" shrieks. Funny, definitely a high point, and then we walked into the stadium and George was out of the race.

Sigh.

Karma's a bitch.

We weren't the only ones a little down with the results. The winner ended up being a Swiss rider, Fabian Cancellara, known more for his stage racing than his spring classics riding. Tom Boonen got 2nd only because of a controversial decision made to DQ the three riders in front of him, two of which were members of the Disco boys (Discovery Channel). Bad day for them.

By the way, if you want to see what we look like in the velodrome, we're on the rail in this picture to the left of the steps. Good luck finding us.

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 11:15 AM