Tomorrow is the 104th running of Paris - Roubaix. It is - in my not so humble opinion - hands-down the most exciting race of the year. Roubaix requires a unique blend of tactical smarts, teamwork, and toughness found in few other races. This year promises to be extra special due to the return of the Arenburg Trench - a 2.4km section of especially bad pave that was recently "restored" after being absent for a few years.
This race has always brought out cycling's hard men - guys who have an unbelievable tolerance for pain. Guys like Sean Kelly, Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, Johan Musseuw, Francesco Moser, Rick van Looy, and Eddy Merckx (naturally!) In recent years Tour contenders have shied away from this race and for good reason. Paris - Roubaix has one of the highest DNF rates of any race on the pro calendar (last year only 80 riders crawled across the line out of 248 starters) and many of those are due to injuries sustained in crashes on the pave. No Tour contender in their right mind is willing to take that risk.
My hopes for tomorrow rest with George Hincapie. George is an all around nice guy who has made numerous sacrifices over the past few years in support of Lance Armstrong. Many would argue that the Postal/Discovery teams all-consuming focus on le Tour has cost George some major classics wins. Several times George found himself in the winning break with none of his team mates to be found while other teams had 3-4 riders in the break. This year things look very different for Discovery. This year the team looks pretty well stacked with classic specialists including British cyclocrosser Roger Hammond, Belgians Stijn Devolder and Leif Hoste (himself looking like a possible contender!), as well as Australian Matthew White. Piloting the team car will be '88 winner Dirk Demol. Safe to say this is probably the strongest classics squad fielded by Discovery/Postal.
Good luck George!
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