Helmeteering

I continue to be fascinated by the evidence of the 20th century wars that generated so much trauma in Europe. I would think that, following these conflicts, the citizens would want to erase the evidence of war, put it out of their minds and try and get back to a semblance of normal life.

My tour of the First World War Western Front in 2019 proved that idea completely incorrect. The scars, preserved battle sites and memorials from the First World War are easily found throughout Belgium and Northern France. During my first visit back to this area in four years, I stopped to see some of these additional sites while I was traveling last week.

Northwest of where I was staying in Oudenaarde is the Flanders Field American Cemetery. The only permanent American First World War cemetery in Belgium this site commemorates 411 American soldiers who were killed in the final months of the Great War.

This is the final resting place for 368 American soldiers and inside the chapel the names of 43 missing soldiers are listed and memorialized.

As is typical for many Belgian and French towns, Oudenaarde has a memorial to their citizen soldiers that were lost between 1914 and 1918.

The Monument van de Opgeëisten serves as a memorial to the citizens who were deported from Oudenaarde to Germany during the Great War

There is a direct American connection to Oudenaarde.

The Audenarde American Monument commemorates the service of 40,000 American troops who fought in the areas around Ourdenaarde in October and November of 1918. These soldiers were attached to units commanded by Albert I King of Belgium and the casualties from these battles are interred at Flanders Field.

There are also plenty of easily found sites and memorials from the Second World War in and around this area.

Less than 10 kilometers north of Orchies, where I parked my car for the day of riding some of the Paris-Roubaix course, is a memorial to US aviators that died October 9th 1942. While returning from a bombing mission over the railroad installations at Hellemmes, the B17 41-9018 piloted by Lt Francis Chorak was hit by flak and German fighter fire. Despite a ferocious resistance, the bomber lost its tail and three engines. Four of the nine crew members bailed out successfully while the plane disintegrated over Lannay France.

Close by are numerous blockhouses and bunkers of the Maginot Line. These things are all over the terrain in this part of France as the maps below detail.

And finally, some memorials to the 2nd Armored Division, "Hell on Wheels", who on September 2 1944 crossed a bridge on the border of France and began the process of liberating Belgium after 4 years and 4 months of occupation.

Just north of the bridge is a memorial to the first American soldier to enter into Belgium on that day, by motorcycle.

A memorial in the first significant town north of the border, Rumes Belgium, celebrates the American soldiers who began the liberation of Belgium.

I like new experiences. Nothing to crazy mind you, I am not going to walk the entire equator or bungee out of an airplane. But I like making plans to do something out of the ordinary when I have the opportunity.

This last week I was back in Belgium for the first time in four years. It’s my most favorite country and given the opportunity to ride my bike I take advantage of it. So I planned to stay over the weekend and get some riding in around Flanders while I was there.

I have ridden in Belgium a number of times in the past. Racing for a couple of months in 1991. The Ronde van Vlaanderen sportif ride a handful of times. Riding around Oudenaarde would be nothing new but it was certainly something to look forward to. But the more I thought about it the more I started thinking about perhaps actually trying something new. And the more I thought about it the more I wanted to ride the Paris-Roubaix race route.

Not the entire route, not even all the pavé sections. Something reasonable to get an idea of what riding on those roads was like. I settled on the idea of the last 100 kilometers of the 2023 route. After duplicating the route from Wout van Aert’s April 9 upload I started making some adaptations. I would be staying in Oudenaarde so it would be an easy one hour drive to Orchies France where I could leave my car, ride down to Arenberg and start the ride at Sector 19, the Trouée d'Arenberg.

Here is the route that I came up with. It would work out great. I would get a nice easy 18 miles in before starting on the course. After 20 miles on the course I would ride through Orchies and be able to make a decision if I wanted to continue. I was not planning on bailing out and I am willing to suffer for the sake of an experience, but it’s nice to have an easy option to quit if things are not going well.

Stage one started with the All-You-Can-Eat breakfast buffet at the Leopold Hotel. If you are ever looking for someplace to stay for some easy Flanders cycling I recommend this hotel, especially the breakfast. Their pizza is pretty good too.

Stage two was the drive down to the Intermarché SUPER where I parked the car for the day. There is also a train station nearby with open spots and it looked free to park but I wanted to pick up some tape to put the pavé millage notes on my top tube and get some snacks for the day so the Intermarché SUPER was the choice for me.

Stage three was getting the bike set up, which meant putting the seat post back into the frame since it needed to come out every time I put the bike in the car. I also had to realign the stem as, after multiple attempts over the past few days, it was still crooked as compared to the front wheel and my obsessive nature would not allow me one more moment of riding until I got that fixed.

Stage four, got dressed. Leg warmers, long sleeve undershirt and jersey, short finger gloves, no shoe covers.

Stage five, got on with it. I put my Nature Valley Granola bar snacks in my pocket and headed out for the day’s adventure.

I have been pretty lucky all week with the weather and this day would be no exception. Despite bringing all my rain gear the ride down to Arenberg was sunny and dry although quite windy. Wind is something you are not going to get away from in this part of Europe so there was no surprise there. In just over 70 minutes I was at the south end of the Trouée d'Arenberg.

Just before the tarmac turns to cobbles there is a memorial to Jean Stablinkski, a former professional cyclist who worked in a mine under the road. After taking a few moments to appreciate the memorial I wheeled around and started down the pavé.

It did not take more than a few meters for utter disbelief to come into my head. People actually race on this road? You have to be kidding me? WTAF? I was not even riding 10 miles an hour and I was working really hard to keep the bike under control. The cobbles were slippery, having overgrown a bit with grass in between the stones and the vibration was making it difficult to hold onto the bars. I have never ridden on a worse surface and it was the longest and most difficult 2.3km section of roadway that I have ever been on. To my regret now, I was so focused on keeping the bike moving forward and avoiding any holes between the cobbles that might cause a flat or damage a wheel, that I forgot to stop and take some photos of the road. The idea of sprinting off the tarmac and hitting these cobbles at 30mph, attacking during this section or coming off your bike and landing on this road were all unfathomable. When I came out of the north side of the section I was glad to have avoided any problems for myself or my bike.

I had finished one section of the 19 that I had on my route and I was already questioning my plan.

Next up was secteur 18, Wallers à Hélesmes and Pont Gibus.

Pont Gibus is the remains of an old railroad bridge across the road and is named after 1992 Paris-Roubaix winner Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle. One of my reasons for doing this ride was to see the famous landmarks of the route in person and Pont Gibus is one of these famous places. While not nearly as bad as Trouée d'Arenberg, Wallers à Hélesmes was still terrible and it took more than a few minutes after getting back on the tarmac from the pain of vibration to work its way out from my hands, arms and shoulders.

Next up was Hornaing à Wandignies and it was this section of pavé that ultimately did me in.

The twin water towers of this part of the course is another iconic landmark of the course and the race, but 3.7km across this surface and I was feeling it in my back and shoulders and by the end of the cobbles I was making some really good progress with blisters on my right thumb and palm. This was the last section of pavé that I rode without looking for some way to avoid the cobbles. Any open dirt by the side of the road and that's what I was riding. I would say the fun and novelty of riding the stones lasted about 100 meters in total.

Two sections after Hornaing I was at Beuvry-la-Forêt à Orchies which is dedicated to former race winner Marc Madiot.

This is the first of three sections near Orchies and by the time I had come off the last of the three at section 12 I was ready to call it a day. The legs were tired from pushing so hard to keep momentum going on the cobbles, my back was screeching at me, my hands were turning to handburger and I was getting cold. I could have pushed on for a few more sections but there was no way I was going to make it the ten more sections to get to Roubaix and the finish line at the velodrome. So I turned around and rode the handful of miles back to my car.

Here is my Strava upload for the day.

I was a bit disappointed not to be able to complete the entire distance, ride into the Vélodrome André Pétrieux and cross the finish line. But it was another good day on the bike and an amazing experience that gives me an entirely new perspective on what the men and women that race Paris-Roubaix have to endure.

While I was nearby I took the opportunity to drive up to Roubaix and visit the velodrome.

It was magical to be there having watched the race finish on the broadcast so many times over the past years. There was a football match going on while I was there and the officials were not allowing anyone to ride on the track during the game. I met a guy from Australia who gave it an attempt and made it nearly halfway around before he got kicked off the track. I would have been pretty bummed to ride all that distance and not be able to ride the last 400 meters or so.

I rode 8 of the 19 sections on my route. Maybe I will come back someday and ride the final 11 and hope the track is open for me to ride a couple of laps. Or maybe I won't. We'll see how much of this day's pain I forget about.