Sean Kelly and Greg Lemond finish 3rd and 4th in the 1985 edition of Paris-Roubaix, the cobbles from which feature in Wednesday's stage 5 of the Tour de France (Photo: Sirotti)
By Graham Healy
At the launch of this year’s Tour de France in Paris last October, one of the main talking points was tomorrow’s stage 5 from Ypres to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.
What makes the stage so intriguing is that the riders will have to tackle nine sectors of cobbles, made famous in Paris-Roubaix.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said at the time: “Cobblestones are part of racing. It’s appropriate they are featured in the Tour.”
The use of pavé in the Tour polarises opinion. Whilst some riders relish the inclusion of this type of stage, others absolutely hate it.
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Despite winning Paris-Roubaix during his career, Bernard Hinault still described them as “those swinish cobbles” when asked about their inclusion in the 1980 Tour.
In that year’s race, on the stage from Lille to Compiegne over the cobbles, Hinault crashed. And possibly due to the pounding of the pavé that day, he would start to struggle with tendinitis.
The reigning Tour champion, Hinault was forced to withdraw from the race a few stages later.
Three years later both Stephen Roche and Robert Millar were taking part in their debut Tours for the Peugeot team. The riders faced an incredible 28 kilometres of cobbles on the third stage from Valenciennes to Roubaix.
Stephen Roche was not a renowned cobbles man, but he acquitted himself well when the Tour de France hit the pavé.
Unfortunately for Millar, he crashed that day, losing 17 minutes and all hope of a podium finish.
It went better for the two Irishmen that day. Kelly finished in fourth place behind the stage winner Rudy Matthijs, with Roche also well to the fore and jumping up to 6th place overall.
Meanwhile, the Colombia-Varta team were making their debut in the race and they really struggled, with two members of the team finishing over 36 minutes behind.
The next stage with sectors of pavé was in 1985. Kelly rode well again to claim second place in Roubaix, eleven seconds behind winner Henri Manders.
However, this was the last stage that would take place over cobbles for two decades.
In that year’s stage, many of the Spanish and Colombian climbers lost big chunks of time, as they carefully picked their way over the unfamiliar stones.
It was said that the organisers wanted to give the lightweight climbers a better chance, and therefore cobbled stages were dropped from the Tour.
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They finally reappeared for the 2004 race. That year, there was just 4kms of pavé. But that was enough to cause Iban Mayo to drop out of contention.
He had been tipped to possibly challenge Lance Armstrong having won the Criterium du Dauphiné. But he crashed in the run-up to the first of two sectors of stones and ended up losing nearly four minutes to other favourites.
Mark Scanlon did well on the cobbles when the Tour de France visited them in 2004; he finished in a very much depleted peloton.
Mark Scanlon rode well that day to finish in a much-reduced peloton, just five seconds behind the winner, his team mate Jean Patrick Nazon.
After the stage, Armstrong was to explain the difficulty of riding over the cobbles saying: “I felt like I was dropped out of an airplane.”
The most recent Tour stage over pavé was in 2010, when the riders had to contend with seven sectors on the stage to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut.
Whilst some of the favourites fared well and stayed out of trouble, for others it was an absolutely disastrous day.
Lance Armstrong punctured and was also caught behind a crash. It fared even worse for Frank Schleck who crashed out with a broken collarbone. Damiano Cunego meanwhile came in over 17 minutes down.
One of the big winners that day though, was Frank’s brother Andy, who was guided expertly over the pavé by his team mate Fabian Cancellara.
Nicolas Roche, meanwhile, rode particularly well, and lost just 53 seconds to the front group. For a man with little experience over pavé, it was a very good performance.
Tomorrow’s stage will see the riders tackle some of the most difficult sectors from Paris-Roubaix, including Mons-en-Pevele and Carrefour de l’Arbre, and time gaps will emerge.
As is often said about mountainous stages in the race, the Tour won’t be on the stage to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, but for some it could be lost.
Nicolas Roche out up a decent ride in the Tour's 2010 stage on the pavé and may well surprise a few people tomorrow.
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