I tuned it near the end and only saw a replay of Hincapie's incident, but it wasn't clear to me if the fork broke, or the stem, or the stem just came loose from the steerer. But I imagine broken forks and stems, even classic ones, are not uncommon in the history of Paris-Roubais.
What may be more memorable is the disqualification of the 2nd through 4th finishers, two of them Discovery Channel, for riding around the barriers at a rail crossing. The cynic in me can't help but wonder if two French riders on a French team would have received the same penalty. Also interesting that this meant Tom Boonen, who thought he had won the sprint for 5th, instead found himself in 2nd. If those extra points should make him ProTour (or whatever it is this year) winner at the end of the season, then this would no doubt be debated over beers for years to come.
To inject at least some classic content, I believe P-R has always had railway crossings and I doubt they ever had the clout to stop the trains running for the race. So was it alway forbidden to ride around the barriers? Were any big names in the classic era disqualified for this offense? Was a winner ever so disqualified? Perhaps a question for Aldo.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Julian Shapiro <julians@optonline.net> wrote: A little detail from a cyclingnews.com interview with Trek on Hincapie's bike at Paris-Roubaix:
Scott Daubert: One thing I forgot to tell you about is that George is running with a different fork; it has a longer axle to crown dimension, and it has a longer rake than the normal Bontrager Race Lite fork.
CN: Is this something new you'll bring into the Trek line?
SD: No, it's actually from Bontrager's Satellite line, almost from their commuter level, but it has dimensions that are appropriate for Roubaix. It's an in-house made fork, made at Trek from OCLV carbon, it's just on a different model bike.
CN: Is it a steel steerer?
SD: No, it's aluminium; it's been blasted then anodized black.
Julian (hmmm.....) Shapiro
Sag Harbor, NY