Tag: Tom Boonen

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Paris-Roubaix Classics History and Legends Races

Top 18 fastest Paris-Roubaix editions

Fastest Paris-Roubaix ever: Mathieu van der Poel wins Paris-Roubaix 2024 with a record average speed of 47.8 km/h.
Fastest Paris-Roubaix ever: Mathieu van der Poel wins Paris-Roubaix 2024 with a record average speed of 47.8 km/h.

Here are the top 18 fastest Paris-Roubaix editions – the winner, average speed, winning time, and weather conditions.

The average speed of the fastest Paris-Roubaix ever (2024 edition) was 47.8 km/h (29.7 mph), won by the Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck.

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Bicycles and Equipment

Specialized Roubaix 2013

Specialized Roubaix Elite Compact 2013 Road Bike
Specialized Roubaix Elite Compact 2013 Road Bike

Specialized Roubaix 2013: named after Paris-Roubaix, “the queen of the classics”, the famous classic race over the cobbles, Specialized’s endurance bike was designed to soak up the worst of the bumps through its innovative Zerts inserts.

The Zerts are essentially a damper placed in the rear stays and the forks that absorb road vibration. Specialized Roubaix is specifically designed for the cobbled classics in Europe and is good for bad road surfaces, cobbled roads, and long-distance endurance rides (i.e. century rides).

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Bicycles and Equipment

Specialized Tarmac 2013

Specialized S-Works Tarmac 2013 SL4 Di2
Specialized S-Works Tarmac 2013 SL4 Di2

Specialized Tarmac 2013: Tarmac may be the most successful racing bike in recent years. Only in 2012, Spring Classics Amstel Gold Race and Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), Monumental Spring Classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vuelta a España, and Olympic Men Road Race are won by the cyclists riding Specialized Tarmac.

UCI WorldTour teams Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Astana use Specialized bikes, and most of the races, they use Specialized S-Works Tarmac.

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Cyclists and Teams History and Legends

Nicknames of Cyclists – B

Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi behind
Gino Bartali with Fausto Coppi behind him. Unfortunately I couldn't find in which race the photo was taken. Some sources say it's from 1952 Tour de France, but I think it's unlikely, because Bartali was a gregario of Coppi at the 1952 Tour, and it seems Bartali is attacking Coppi here. But it must be 1950s though, since Bartali seems very old here. And what was going on behind Coppi? It seems like somebody is fighting. Gino Bartali (18 July 1914 – 5 May 2000) was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia three times (1936, 1937, 1946) with 17 individual stages and the Tour de France twice, in 1938 and 1948, with twelve individual stages. His second and last Tour de France victory in 1948 gave him the largest gap between victories in the race, which still remains. He also won Milan-Sanremo four times, Giro di Lombardia (today Il Lombardia) three times, became the Italian champion four times (first in 1935 and the last one was in 1952!), Giro d'Italia mountains classification seven times, Tour de France mountains classification twice, among with many other important stage races and one day classics. In September 2013, 13 years after his death, Bartali was recognised as a "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem for his efforts to aid Jews during World War II. Bartali has earned respect for his work in helping Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis during the time of the Italian Social Republic (Mussolini's fascist Italy). It emerged in December 2010 that Bartali had hidden a Jewish family in his cellar and, according to one of the survivors, by doing so saved their lives. Bartali used his fame to carry messages and documents to the Italian Resistance. Bartali cycled from Florence through Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche, sometimes traveling as far afield as Rome, all the while wearing the racing jersey emblazoned with his name. Neither the Fascist police nor the German troops risked discontent by arresting him. Giorgio Nissim, a Jewish accountant from Pisa, was a member of DELASEM, founded by the Union of the Israelitic Communities to help Jewish Italians escape persecution. The network in Tuscany was discovered in autumn 1943 and all members except Nissim sent to concentration camps. He met Pope Pius XII and, with the help of the Archbishop of Genoa, the Franciscan Friars and others he reorganized DELASEM and helped 800 escape. Nissim died in 2000. His sons found from his diaries that Bartali had used his fame to help. Nissim and the Oblati Friars of Lucca forged documents and needed photographs of those they were helping. Bartali used to leave Florence in the morning, pretending to train, rode to a convent in which the Jews were hiding, collected their photographs and rode back to Nissim. Bartali used his position to learn about raids on safehouses. Bartali was eventually taken to Villa Triste in Florence. The SD and the Italian RSS office, Mario Carità questioned Bartali, threatening his life. Bartali simply answered "I do what I feel [in my heart]". Bartali continued with the Assisi Underground. In 1943, he led Jewish refugees towards the Swiss Alps himself. He cycled pulling a wagon with a secret compartment, telling patrols it was just part of his training. Bartali told his son Andrea only that "One does these things and then that's that". In June 2012 a book about Bartali's wartime activities, Road To Valor by Aili and Andres McConnon, was published. I strongly recommend this book, you can buy it from amazon. In 2013 Yad Vashem recognized Gino Bartali the title of Righteous Among the Nations. He is a central figure in the 2014 documentary My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes.

Early 20th journalists started creating nicknames for the cyclists. This effort popularized the cycling sport and make the racers interesting to the people who were not interested in cycling much. This tradition is still continuing today. Here the list of cyclists’ nicknames in alphabetical order (by surname, starting with B):

By Surname: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W

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