In recent years, the sentiment toward the cobbled Spring Classics is that they're getting easier as a result of bikes getting better. The trend towards wider tyres, nowadays 10mm bigger than those being used just a decade ago, certainly smooth out some of the lumps and bumps, but the GP Denain just delivered a cruel reminder that the cobbles are no joke.
With 22km of the race to go, Belgian Jules Hesters (Team Flanders-Baloise) was forced to ride a cobbled sector without a saddle, after his snapped off as a result of being rattled over the rough ground.
TV cameras spotted Hesters riding at the back of the peloton, standing on the pedals, while tackling the Avesnes-le-Sec à Hordain cobbled sector.
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Atop the now nude seatpost, all that remained was a section of his saddle clamp, spinning freely in the breeze. The rest of it had clearly broken and ejected itself into the countryside alongside the saddle it was supposed to be holding in place.
Commentators on the TNT Sports live stream added a succinct but apt: "That's unfortunate," before stating the obvious: "That is going to be a very uncomfortable ride."
The saddle clamp on the Eddy Merckx 525 race bike is made using a common method that braces the saddle rails from above, and clamps it down onto a curved 'base' which sits in a groove at the top of the seatpost.
The whole mechanism is held together by two vertical hex key bolts, often tightened from below, clamping the two horizontal braces down onto the rails to secure it.
The system relies on both bolts to be in place, so in the case of one breaking – either as a result of an overtightened bolt, or feasibly also a too-hard impact with a cobblestone – the whole system will then be able to work free.
Assuming it was an impact with a cobblestone, and not simply negligence on behalf of the team mechanic, it doesn't bear thinking about the force of the impact between the Belgian's nether regions and the saddle that caused the failure to happen.
The GP Denain is about as severe a road race course you'll find. It's known widely as the Mini Paris-Roubaix, and is a 200-kilometre route that takes in many of the same roads as the Monument, especially in the latter parts where Hesters' incident took place.
Despite the incident, however, the Belgian rode on to finish 44th, and although he did eventually stop to get a besaddled spare bike from the team car, he was forced to ride aboard his broken machine to the end of the cobbled sector first.
