Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story. All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic. by Woodland Les

Author:Woodland, Les [Woodland, Les]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: McGann Publishing
Published: 2013-02-20T05:00:00+00:00

“I managed to get going again, now in the middle of the bunch when, hell’s bells! Dutchman Jan Janssen gave me a whacking great pull and just about stopped me completely. I should have gone up and given him a good thump round the ear-hole but what was the use?”

Van Looy was on an off-day and blundered when he started the sprint too soon. Seeing the field moving up on him, he moved across the road, beside Beheyt, but still lost speed. One version was that he was holding off not the opposition but Beheyt, who was riding even faster. Either way, Beheyt put out his right hand and, according to whom you believe, fended off van Looy’s saddle or jersey or tugged it so that van Looy lost half a wheel and Beheyt became world champion.

“I’d have ended up in the barriers otherwise,” he said.

The row went on all winter. Cynics smiled when van Looy said: “I would have done just the same.” He was due to ride at Lokeren the next day but he didn’t turn up. He was at home in Herentals, answering neither the phone nor the door to anyone.

He and Beheyt cleaned up in village races for the rest of the year. But after that Beheyt’s career was over. Van Looy did all he could to hinder his career, so that he retired at just 26.

The rumpus over Renaix disturbed Belgian cycling the rest of the season and the start of the next. Such was Belgium’s fall that journalists predicted a “foreign” win in Paris–Roubaix for the first time in seven years. And they got one.

Van Looy said Paris–Roubaix was his dream for the season—and another chance to deny Beheyt—but other people had the same idea. There were more Italians than usual—Gianni Motta, Ercole Baldini, Italo Ziloli, for instance—and Raymond Poulidor was there for France, and Jan Janssen, although riding for a French team, for Holland. And another Dutchman, Peter Post.

Thirty riders broke clear near Arras, among them Simpson, Zilioli, Janssen and Stablinski. Van Looy and Poulidor were in the next group, at 1 minute 45 seconds. Out of that group came a smaller one, including Beheyt and Post. Together they got up to the leaders. Willy Bocklandt was the first to ride on to the track at Roubaix, Beheyt went past him and then Post went past Beheyt. At 45.131 kilometers per hour for 265 kilometers it was the fastest Paris–Roubaix ever, helped by a tail wind and a declining number of cobbles. It was a meritorious performance but the time had come to go back to how things were. What Paris–Roubaix needed was more cobbles.

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