Monday, April 13, 2009

Roubaix Sunday

Yesterday saw eight of us start off to tackle the Point du Nord Spring Classic route. In a tribute to the legendary Paris Roubaix that's held in northern France, this route has 18 miles of gravel thrown into its 70 miles to try and imitate a few sectors of cobbles that are raced on. In the real classic race the cyclists make their way through the Nords(northern regions of France) as they head for the finish at the outdoor velodrome in Roubaix. In our best imitation of this classic we start(with a private mass for the riders before the start, since it's Easter Sunday)in downtown Stevens Point. We make our way through Nords named Dewey, Shantytown, Bevent, and gravel grind down through the Dewey marsh before finishing with the traditional lap(optional)around what's left of downtown Stevens Point(what remains is probably the same size as an outdoor velodrome) to take in and complete your own Roubaix fantasy experience.

In the end, the Point du Nord ride turned out to be great even with the small turnout because of Easter. It looks like good cycling weather is finally here to stay as next weekend brings the Amherst Gold Spring Classic to the schedule which is another classic route. Pedal on...

2 comments:

HDHB said...

i miss this ride quite a bit

Scott Cole said...

PdN and the other classics have been good. We just need to get the fair weather cyclists out when the weather is questionable to get numbers up. Every ride that has started out wet or snowy has turned out fine in the end.