The Scott Sunderland Diary 2004

My first Roubaix

Paris-Roubaix, April 11, 2004

OK, I agree, Paris-Roubaix is a nervous race and everything, but after the race I felt no more tired than I do after any other World Cup. My hands were OK, my arms were OK - no problems at all. My legs felt really good; even today, the day after, I'm not sore. Well, maybe the undercarriage is a bit tender...

Not the ideal preparation

In the thick of it
Photo ©: Daniel Schamps

I've had a sore throat since last weekend, and started taking antibiotics after last Wednesday's Gent-Wevelgem. I wasn't feeling that flash health-wise in Flanders and was coughing a lot that night. I did feel like crap on Monday, but Tuesday was OK. With the bad weather on Wednesday I got home and was just coughing all the time. It got me worried I must admit. I'm still coughing up a lot of dust covered chunky bits. But hey, I'm happy with my race.

I had trouble in the start of the race with my breathing, but once I got going it was OK.

Instructions before the race were for me and Martin Hvastija to go into breaks at the beginning. Us being in an early break would mean that Fabio, Maggy and Andrea could sit back and go with the flow; let the other teams do the chasing.

On the first cobble section on the way to Arenberg forest I stayed close to Maggy, Tafi and Baldato. In case they punctured or had technical problems, I was there to give them a wheel or the required assistance. Once we moved onto good roads, I would move them back into a good position to start on the next pavé section. This was a repeated process throughout the whole race.

Without doubt, Paris-Roubaix is a great race. But I agree with Peter Van Petegem, the Arenberg Forest is a bit out of hand. There was mud everywhere We were just hooting along and must have hit the start of Arenberg forest at 60km/h I was sitting behind Magnus coming up to it, but there I backed off and left a bit of room.

Then boom, a motorbike went down, riders everywhere...a bit further, another crash. It takes a lot of energy to get over, around and past this kind of obstacles.

I'm glad I got through it without hitting the deck. It was unbelievable. I had to stop, walk over riders that were laying there on the ground and get going again. If you try and put too much pressure on the pedals to get going, it's like riding on an oil slick or on ice, you lose grip and your back wheel starts slipping all over the place.

It makes a good spectacle, sure, it's Paris-Roubaix!

Tafi and myself got caught up behind that crash in the forest, as did Pieri, Knaven, Bortolami, VDB, De Jongh... Tafi decided we would try and close the gap to the leaders, but pretty quick we realized we had been standing still too long and we never saw the front group again. It's a shame, because some riders in our group could have been on the podium. It's not because they didn't have the legs that they weren't in the front, it had everything to do with Lady Luck. Sure, that's Paris-Roubaix.

I am glad it wasn't bloody wet. We had a headwind the whole day and it was hard to get out of the wind on the cobbles because you have to leave a gap to the rider in front. You're riding on the top of the handlebars for the most comfortable position and if you are sitting really hard on the wheel, you have no time to reach the brakes in case something happens. With the headwind we were pushing it closer than was safe sometimes. There were some pretty severe crosswinds too, especially those last sections after Arenberg. So yeah, that made it quite a tough day.

For my first Paris-Roubaix I'm stoked. It's not really my terrain and to finish where I did and in the company I was with, I was happy. People think I'm crazy saying it was fun. Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead.

Maggy's win!

Celebrations
Photo ©: Olympia

It's fantastic that Maggy won. He told me at the start, 'I've been waiting for three years to do this race. I'm going to give it full whack' and he did. He's deserved it. It was his day.

Magnus has just taken a huge leap forward in his career. He'd been riding well in Flanders and he said he felt good. Then with the bad weather he gained a lot of confidence in Gent-Wevelgem. His second place there gave him more self confidence for Roubaix. Once he's got his mind set around it, he gets a lot of strength for that. The whole day he was able to position himself right for the start.

Fabio Baldato did great work for him before the end and the rest of us kept them out of the wind before Arenberg. We only started with six guys and we lost Marcus Ljungqvist early, as he's still suffering from the crash last week. It was a collective effort from everybody and it's just great.

The team director came up afterwards and cracked a bottle of champagne, and poured the whole bottle over Magnus's head! Then he said that he'd cancelled everybody's flights that night, so we were heading back to the hotel in Harelbeke for a big feed and some more champagne... a lot more in fact.

Museeuw's puncture

I can't help but feel for Museeuw after his puncture. Especially so close to the finish. He's such a great champion and he had the possibility to go for the win, again.

His race could have been different but that's Paris-Roubaix. You need a ton of luck. It was perfect for Van Petegem last year but it didn't go his way either this year.

As far as I know, we only had one puncture and that was Tafi's. We rode bigger tyres than a lot of teams with 24mm on the front and 28mm on the rear (Vittoria CG). It was a comfy ride I tell ya! They were as dull as anything on the asphalt, but on the cobbles they were really good. We had those radial spoked Nucleons (Campagnolo) and they were great. Also, I was really happy with the Bianchi titanium bike. It handled the pavé perfectly.

There's a fantastic atmosphere in the team and it was a great gesture from the team management to change the flights and have a party at the hotel like that. It's a great memory and I'm happy to have been part of it, and I might just ride it again next year!

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