Paris-Roubaix Bike Racers Avoid Injury During Race

The Paris Roubaix race is a one-day bike-ride that goes from Compiègne to Roubaix, in northern France. Compiégne is about 50 miles from Paris. The route itself is meant to be challenging and is full of not only level crossings, but cobblestone areas. Usually it goes on without any major disturbances, but this year the race was interrupted by a train that almost hit several of the bikers.

When the group of bike racers reached the town of Wallers, they were surprised to see the train’s wall barrier fall as they tried to cross the tracks. The peloton missed the train by only a few seconds, and avoided any serious injuries, save a few cyclists who were hit by the falling barrier.

However, several riders cross the wall barrier a few seconds after it came down, risking possible injury from the oncoming train. This included previous French cycling champion Arnaud Démare, who went past the train’s wall barrier to try to catch up to other bike racers.

After the train left, the riders regrouped with those who had been able to cross previously, which gave them a chance to catch up with everyone else. As it turns out, it’s against the Paris Roubaix rules to cross a train’s wall barrier, and could even cause those who did this to be disqualified.

Despite these problems, the bike race was able to continue as planned. The 253 kilometer race and was won by German Cyclist, John Degenkolb of team Giant-Alpecin. He managed to finish in 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 51 seconds. Seven bike racers reached the last kilometer together, including Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic, team Etixx-QuickStep) and Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium, team BMC Racing).

This year’s race was a bit shorter than in the past, and was the 113th edition. The race is known to be grueling because the first 100 kilometers are known for their flatness, while they become cobblestoned and more challenging during the last 52.7 kilometers. There are 27 cobblestone areas altogether. Twenty five teams completed altogether, with seventeen being past UCI teams, and eight teams that received random invites to the event.

For more bicycling madness, watch this short on mountain biking in Nepal and this young man’s passion for mountain biking:

https://youtu.be/a4cTnMvOplQ