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China's first Roubaix rider finds it a tough, tough road
China's Jin Long made history for his country here on Sunday by competing in arguably the world's toughest one-day classic bike race, the prestigious Paris-Roubaix.
Unfortunately for Jin, his pre-race fears of not being able to negotiate the 27 sections of bone-shaking cobblestones peppered throughout the northern French epic came true as he failed to make it to the 100km mark.
As a result, Jin did not make it to the finish line in Roubaix's famous outdoor velodrome where Belgian star Tom Boonen triumphed to join the elite club of three-time winners.
"It was a little bit difficult for me. Once we started racing on the
cobblestones I began to realize how difficult it would be," Jin told AFP after the race.
"The pace was fast and in the end I stopped just before the 100km mark."
Nearly 53km of treacherous cobblestones, spread out over 27 sections of varying difficulties, pepper the 259km long race course from Compiegne 50km north of Paris to Roubaix near the Belgian border.
Those usually leave their mark on the peloton, many of whom crash, suffer punctures, lose ground and eventually drop out.
Boonen, a winner in 2005 and 2008, showed his mettle on Sunday. He crashed once, and in the finale had to ride 30km with a buckled wheel before finally taking a risk and changing bikes with 29km to go.
When considering that over 68 of his fellow riders also failed to finish, and 19 others finished outside the time limit, Jin wasn't the only cyclist having a tough day.
"I'm not so happy with what happened today, I wanted to go a lot further in the race. But racing in Europe is never easy," added Jin, who races with the Dutch continental (second tier) team Skil.
"In China the conditions, the weather, the pace, the wind - everything is different.
"But it's been a good experience for me. At least I got to come here and see for myself what the race is about. Hopefully that will serve me well in the future."
