Roubaix Week Notes and Updated Power Poll!

The photo? Ahem, yes GOATS, the animals not the acronym for TdF/Flanders winners, have been brought in to graze the weeds off of the famous pavé of Paris-Roubaix in time for Sunday’s race. Mark my words, they will have these roads completely cleared of every unwanted substance in time for the race. Except for maybe goat poop. Riders beware, it’s probably slippery?

How’s that for an intro to the 120th running of the Queen of the Classics?

For many fans of spring cycling, this is THE moment you’ve been waiting for, and while I don’t always see it that way, once Flanders is over I am fully supportive of coming around to this line of thinking. Paris-Roubaix is almost never dull, and often explosive, whether it’s wet or dry (the latter this time I think). It’s the same course and the same considerations we always apply here, and in that sense there may not be much to say in advance. But let’s start by rewinding to last Sunday.

There are two reasons I can think of as to why last weekend’s Ronde van Vlaanderen victory by Tadej Pogačar was so perfect.

First, as you have already heard people say, he’s doing really good things for the sport by competing and winning on the cobbles, something no Tour de France champion has done since Merckx. That grows the sport, which is good for the riders who can make more money, which is good for us because more athletes will look to cycling if being great at it pays more than being a mediocre backup trequartista. So then how does it grow the sport? By catching those more casual Tour fans in places like … well maybe not Seattle but most of the rest of America who haven’t heard much about the classics, but could easily be drawn to cycling at this heightened level of urgency — everyone at the start can theoretically win; nobody is saving their legs for another day. However wonderful it is that Jonas Vingegaard can tap out a climbing rhythm the likes of which we have never seen before (apart from the dirtiest eras), seeing riders do incredible things across highly divergent terrain and circumstances brings the sport to a whole new level of awesomeness. I haven’t been a big Pogačar supporter because he keeps scoring way too many points while not being on my FSA Directeur Sportif fantasy team, but rooting…