Riding through the History of Northern France

Bring on the pave

Tonight, pictures are going to have to tell the main story. I'm a bit shagged, well, - half cut actually - after more glasses of red wine than I would normally consume. Briefly though, it was another day redolent with history: both of a cycling nature and of social class and early industrialisation.

We're talking of the Lille region, as well as the towns of Roubaix and Orchie: real Emil Zola stuff straight out of Germinal.  Thankfully, we are in a different time and able to see the area from a historical perspective, rather than being caught in the middle of a brutal class struggle 200 years ago.

Leaving Ypres

After last night's observances it was hard to imagine another day of bike riding would be so steeped in history and culture. However, one of the things about travelling through a landscape at the pace one does on the saddle of a bicycle is that it provides the opportunity for contemplation and observation. And when you combine that with expert knowledge of local guides and an archeological historian ... well, the chance for soaking up deep understanding of local culture and history is enormous. Farewelling Ypres was interesting; it would have been good to have a few more hours there, but now we're got an incentive to come back some day.

Hitting the Velodrome in Roubaix

Our first stop for the day involved visiting the famous Roubaix velodrome, finish line for the world's most revered one-day bike race. An obligatory aspect of visiting this famous temple of cycling is to ride around the velodrome. What a buzz - especially for those like Dianne and myself who have never ridden on a bike track before, let alone a steeply-banked one! Here's Chris and Roberta, having just arrived, brimming with excitement ... 

Man Meets Road

After our respective periods of worship, including buying bits of cycling kit, we drifted off, as we'd arrived, in various bunches. In my case, "drifted off" was indeed the correct term. Only a half-kilometre or so out of the velodrome I was thinking how wonderful it was to be doing just what we doing when a car suddenly appeared out of a side street and I wasn't ready for Richie's call of "Slowing!" and came crashing into him. Luckily we were only going about 15 kilometres per hour. Ritchie landed on me, which I was so pleased about as I would have been absolutely mortified had he been injured by my inattentiveness. As it turned out, apart from my pride,  neither us nor our bikes were injured and I received a timely reminder that one just has to be attentive even the most innocuous moments when riding in a bunch.

Lunch!

Normally a lunch stop wouldn't merit mentioning. However, today's stop in the beautiful square of Orchies does. We arrived with the van and trailer pulled up in front of the town hall ...

... and Federica busily preparing sandwiches. Bruno, who'd been towing us along for most of the day pitched in to help her ...

After refuelling and having a quick coffee at a bar-café across the square we were back on the road and passing this interesting bit of kitsch on the way out of town ...

Riding the Rough with the Smooth

After our visit to the Roubaix velodrome it was obligatory to ride a few sections of cobbles, which was a real eye-opener. Perhaps I will be able to edit this post in a day or two with a video and some additional photos from other members of the group. In the meantime here is a view of cobbles on the famed Arenberg forest section of the Paris-Roubaix race ...

We all rode some bits of cobbles but Kay and Aaron easily win Queen and King of the cobbles for staying on the pavé for all the bits that we traversed.

At the complete opposite of the spectrum of riding experiences is this bit of road alongside one of the canals we passed today ...

Another Great Day Comes to an End

After about 115 kilometres of fairly flat riding we arrived at our two hotels relatively early. Here's a photo I took of the other hotel, about a kilometre down the road where Di and I were not staying ...

... and one of our hotel after we rode back up the hill ...

Before going inside for a delicious repast a few of us enjoyed a couple of drinks on the terrace while waiting for the rest of the party to arrive ...

Featured Face(s) Section Part 2

Yes, I know. That isn't actually a face. But I couldn't resist getting a photo of Harold's impressive calves pumping away between his old-school shorts and footwear. Harold, who is one of two Americans in our party, is an endearing, voluble bloke whom we have decided bears certain resemblances to Jack Nicholson. He's from Savannah, Georgia, but we won't hold that against him, especially with his smile you can see from a mile away ...

Harold with that great smile

We're starting to get somewhere ...

After three days of riding we are beginning to put some distance between us and our starting point in central London. Here is a graphic roughly showing our route so far with today's ride highlighted ...

Bearing in mind that today's ride was about 115 kms and, jokes about riding across water aside, you can certainly see some distance has passed, but also that we are really only just starting when you consider how far we still have to go to get to Rome ...

Next up we move into a less populated area for a while, with a 140 or so kilometre stage along mostly quiet country roads and laneways, headed for Sedan and the largest castle in Europe. Looks like yet another fantastic day in the saddle ahead!