IN PICTURES: PARIS ROUBAIX
We sent photographer Thomas Maheux to the Queen of Classics to capture the action on a dry, dusty and very fast day
As always, Paris-Roubaix was an incredible day, for riders, fans, journalists and photographers. ‘Crazy’ is definitely the best word I can think of to describe this 115th edition of the race, although you could use that same word to describe any one of the 114 that came before. Right from the Saturday before the race, the atmosphere was incredible, and seemed even more intense than normal.
I live 20 kilometres from Compiègne, where the race begins, and so the Saturday afternoon presentation has been a ritual for me since I was a young child. But I don’t think I’d ever seen so many people there. There was a huge influx, repeated on the Sunday of the race, of Flemish fans who’d come to watch their hero, Tom Boonen, one last time. I could see fans cheering for him by the roadside right from the very first kilometre of the race. And all the way along, fans held up signs celebrating his career and achievements in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
The race itself was madness. The crowds gave it a special atmosphere, but so did the dust and the weather. These inspired the peloton to really speed over the parcours: at 45.2 kilometres per hour average, it was the fastest ever. I went from sector to sector, and each one told a different story. Each rider also had their own story of suffering to tell. They say that a wet and muddy Roubaix is the toughest of all, but these conditions, at the opposite end of the scale, were very hard on the riders. They looked shattered at the finish, covered in dust and sweat.
It might have been a different ParisRoubaix to the norm - because of Boonen, and because of the conditions - but it was the same race we have come to love.