Preparing For Paris - Roubaix

It is quite a long time since I've spoken about Classics but Paris - Roubaix is a very special race.
I love to hear every year the same refrain about the new powerful and innovative suspensions that  bikes constructor have prepared for the race.
It makes me laugh so much.
Specialized Roubaix bikes have amused me enough. This year I want to talk about the new Pinarello Dogma FS. "The carbon frame features electronic front and rear suspension system. A battery pack is located in the seat tube of the bike and powers the two suspension units, enabling them to adapt to the road surfaces as they change."
We have now read the presentation of this new fantastic technology and we are nodding at this great idea.
Now, I invite you to watch the picture above.
What the hell are we talking about?
Do you believe that a battery pack under your ass can make you feel more comfortable while riding a humpback cobblestones sector? Please, be serious.
That's the reason why I love Paris - Roubaix, you can't bluff.
In recent year I decided to boycott brands that create silly bikes ahead of Paris - Roubaix.
These brands desecrate this incredible race just to have a bit more of visibility.
The preparation of Paris - Roubaix is something spiritual.
During the recognition you just try to be part of the sector, to become a cobble, to adjust the pressure of your tires so as not to hurt the cobbles too much.
This is the only preparation you need and your bike should be as basic as possible, because in order to merge yourself with the simplicity of a stone, you have to be simple as well.
See you on Sunday.

Paris - Roubaix 2018

How hard is it to be Sagan?
"You are a champion","you are the strongest one","you have to win", "Of course you have won, you were the strongest".
These are the main sentences we hear about Sagan. In addition to this, you have to deal with the fact that what you do will never be enough.
In Sagan's position, once you have won a race, you have just done your job.
In my opinion ,every Sagan's success is fully deserved and is praiseworthy like every other cycling victory.
We often forget that cycling is a sport for losers.
When 200 riders start a race with just one winner, it is easy to understand that 199 will loose and just one will win.
This consideration seems obvious but I invite my 25 readers to think about this sentence and repeat it as a sort of Mantra.
Sagan is accused to be more talkative than active but this is just his way to deal with the enormous pressure that he endures every race.
Imagine being in Sagan's position without laughing about it; it would be a nightmare.
It is already hard to be a cyclist, it is impossible to be a rider that must win every race he starts.
On Sunday, Sagan rode a fantastic race and deserved this incredible victory.
Celebrating his success, he said an incredible truth: you can attack and ride the perfect race but you have to be lucky.
Paris-Roubaix is such an extreme race that sometimes is the best way to normalize situations pumped too much up.
Sagan used the Paris-Roubaix to do this and he did it in the best way.
He didn't tried to arrive alone in the velodrome, starting a battle with his breakaway mate in the last kilometers, he just wanted to win.
Paris-Roubaix is a race that brings everybody back on earth, you can't theorize or preach too much, you have just to ride the most concrete thing on earth: the cobbles.
The riders know this but for people who never tried the cobbles is easy to forget.

***

I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Michael Goolaerts.

Start of the Season

The new season just started and nothing seems to be changed.
Sagan is bossing in and out the competitions, his meeting with the Pope has been fantastic and showed us a grown Champion.
Greipel said again he is still in the game and in pure sprints he is the one to beat.
Degenkolb after a troubled season has already won a race, but will he return to be the champion he was before the horrible accident? I really hope so.
Porte seems to have done this, he won again on Willunga Hill, 6 months after his dramatic crash at le Tour de France.
In conclusion, what can we say about Quick-Step Floors?  They have started the season reaffirming their enormous superiority in the UCI World Tour, they have already won 3 races with 3 different riders.
Do we have to prepare ourselves for another spring of Sagan vs. Quick-Step Floors?
This are the first few 2018 impressions because I don't want to say a word about so many teams that, at first sight, appear significantly below expectations.

Red Hook Criterium Milano

Last Saturday I was in Milano to follow the last race of the Red Hook Criterium Series.
I've to say that I didn't assist to a Criterium, I assisted to a Masterpiece.
Seeing all the riders (men and women) on their minimal bikes and in their colorful leotards made me feel part of an incredible show.
I participated, as a spectator, to all the previous edition, but this time, finally, a new concept of cycling has been reached.
It can be summarized in: Cycling as a work of art.
The riders and the spectators were perfectly mixed and were part of the same big artwork.
The urban circuit has been the perfect scenario for the birth of this new form of art and cycling and where could this happen if not in Italy, the cradle of art and culture?