“Try to ride with a loose grip – your hands resting on the top of the handlebars or on the hoods.” Sportive Breaks’ guide Christophe Smekens is sharing his advice for tackling the notorious cobbled roads of Paris-Roubaix, but it’s already too little too late.
My hands are in bits after my first taste of pavé: the four- and five-star-difficulty sectors Camphin-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre. Blisters are bubbling on my bare palms, while the skin has broken in places, causing a shooting pain whatever grip I try on the ’bars. And this was just a 40km warm-up ride.
The anxiety that had been building in my stomach all week about riding the cobbles has somewhat dissipated though: they’re hard going but when they’re dry, if you enter with speed, they can be ground out in a big gear without too much trouble. Instead, I’m now worrying about how my hands are going to withstand the following day’s Paris-Roubaix Challenge: a sportive that follows the final 170km of the professional men’s route to Roubaix’s iconic velodrome, including all 30 of the (cobbled sections).
