Cat Ferguson's Spring Classics column: My dream stays alive - I want to reach the velodrome at the end of Paris-Roubaix

My Paris-Roubaix is not a success story, but nevertheless, it's drama-filled, and I'm sure it's just one of the many strange and bizarre tales from riders who have raced in the L’enfer du Nord (Hell of the North) - some have triumphs and others have unexpected experiences - every tale will be different, and this one is mine.

For context Roubaix was a big goal of mine that I picked out with my coaches and DS at the start of the year, and I was one of two proposed leaders before things turned sour on Friday, two days prior to the race, where I had planned on completing the third and final recon of the cleverly thought out schedule of recons and equipment testing in the final days before the race.

The first of the recons was with my parents, who were staying in Belgium for the whole period to watch me race from the start of my Classics campaign at In Flanders Fields to Paris-Roubaix (they are very big cycling fans).

Showing further commitment, my dad planned to accompany me on the bike across almost all cobble sectors. However, his e-bike didn’t prove very París-Roubaix proof after two punctures and a loose cassette after 8 sectors. He also now has his own Paris-Roubaix short story to tell after waiting for my mum to rescue him on the side of the main road before Mons-en-Pévèle. And no, I won’t receive any daughter-of-the-year award, as I didn't wait with him.

After a few days with my parents, I rejoined the team to do two more recons and, more importantly, some equipment testing ahead of the race. Thursday was spent reviewing the first half of the race and testing different tyre pressures. Where the final decision for tyre pressure was based on a mix of personal feeling and data that factored in power, speed and effectively the level of bounciness we and our bikes experienced across the cobbles, measured by a monitor on our bikes.

Friday's final recon would complete the course and commence at the iconic Roubaix velodrome. However, after 20 minutes of training, I turned back to the hotel due to stomach pain and nausea. I spent all of Friday and Saturday in bed with what we think was food poisoning. Some vomiting later, and Saturday afternoon was looking up. I managed to keep some carbohydrates in my body, meaning that my chances of starting on Sunday were back on the cards, provided I felt up to it on race morning.

I tried to keep a positive mindset and remember it wasn’t over until it was over, because you never know what can happen in a race like Roubaix, which favours the opportunists. And by Sunday morning, I had improved a little bit, so we decided I would start the race and constantly assess my feelings and therefore also the tactics.

The chaos that is Paris-Roubaix

The race itself was just as chaotic as my internal feelings. Just before we reached sector 3, the first important sector, Haveluy-to-Wallers (90.7km to go), I had a puncture, which is, of course, part of Roubaix but more of a disappointment this year to have to change bikes, although also a privilege, as we were using the new Canyon Endurace CFR frames.

They are very fast bikes, designed specifically with speed over cobbles in mind. They let us run 35 mm-width tyres, which I really found a great deal more comfy for the cobbles than the 32 mm-width tyres I switched back to on my normal race bike: the Canyon Aeroad CFX.

It was a shame not to get to use that innovation for the rest of my race, but I was grateful that we had the opportunity to use that bike. I really believe it was the fastest bike in the race.

That is one of the added bonuses about Roubaix: seeing and getting to use all the latest innovations from the team's partners: the new equipment, technology, and methods they’re developing to make us go faster. It makes me excited to come back next year and hopefully get to use an even faster bike.

Due to the puncture, I started those cobbles in the last of the group. Thankfully, my teammate helped me get back to and make the front group. But after that small test, I knew that no miracle would be happening, and my body was feeling pretty empty as expected. I said this over the radio, and we changed my role to help Arlenis Sierra, a co-leader for the race. I tried to help her with a bit of positioning into the cobbles until I said goodbye to the front of the race on Mons-en-Pévèle (48.6km to go).

Eventually, I found a gruppetta that I hoped would take me to the velodrome. However, on Carrefour de l'Arbre (17.1km to go), I was riding on the sides of the cobbles, which can sometimes provide a less bumpy ride, which was necessary due to my enhanced stomach pain on the cobbles themselves.

There, I learned the hard way that Carrefour de l’Arbre is not the sector to ride on the side, as I ended up crashing over the barriers and into the spectators. A very silly mistake to make, as my bike was still attached to my right leg, and whilst falling, I twisted my knee. At that point, my race was over. 


It was a big shame because after everything I'd already been through, a silly crash meant I didn't make it to the velodrome. A good race result was, of course, a goal of mine, yes, but also, I believe, that just finishing Roubaix is an achievement in itself.

I did Paris-Roubaix last year and got knocked off by a spectator over the fifth section of cobblestones. The race had just split up, and I was exiting the cobbles when a spectator put his hand out at the wrong time as I was passing.

And so, of the four times I've tried to reach the velodrome and the iconic showers in two recons and two races, I have only managed to arrive there once, last year in a recon before the race, but I've never been to the showers, and so therefore it hangs over me to arrive there next year.

Although this is how my Paris-Roubaix story turned out this year, I'm all the more excited for next year's race. It still remains one of the coolest races on the calendar for me from the innovation of the bikes, the organisation level it requires of teams and, of course, the special atmosphere around the historic race.

My dream still stays alive: I want to reach the velodrome and those showers at the end of Paris-Roubaix. I'm hoping that next time it can be my third time lucky.

So, what's next for me? I'll assess my knee. It's nothing serious, but I've potentially sustained some ligament damage from twisting it. I hope to be on the start line of the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, but we'll have to assess how my body develops and whether I'm ready. I'm still not 100% back to normal, so we'll see if I make the start line in Maastricht. And if not, then that really is my Spring Classics' season over, and I will take some time to recover before beginning my training ahead of the Giro d'Italia.