Cobbles
As you know by now, I like riding my bike and I also like watching a race every now and then. I’m not fanatic but if there’s one pro race I stay home for, it must be Paris - Roubaix. Last week I had the chance to experience a little bit of the arena of the most heroic race of them all.
The north of France where the action takes place is a bit of a weirdly attractive place to me. Cole mining made the region prosper at one point in history but unfortunately those days are long gone. On a gray, rainy day, the area is depressive. But on a nice sunny day, it looks like a place that is starting to find its new identity with respect to its industrial heritage.
The cobbles then … Most of the sectors are hardly used apart from the actual race day. And after riding Trouéé d’Arenberg a couple of times, I can see why. These roads are even worse than most of my local cycling lanes. Kudos to the Romans for building a road network that has stood the test of time but man, these cobbles are pure torture. I was honestly surprised my bike was still in one piece after riding over these cobbles. And my respect for the pros who race here at twice my speed (at least) is even bigger now.
Paris - Roubaix is very important for the area and therefor the locals take care of their cobbles. Did you know that they keep the gras from growing between the cobbles by letting goats graze on the sectors. We met some of the herders and their flock. Each day, they move the goats onto another part of the cobbles. They tried to do it with machines, but in the end the goats proved to be much better at the job.
Goats graze on the grass between the cobbles. it’s the only way to keep the grass at bay without removing the soil that keeps the cobbles together.
The goats take a lot of pride in their job and they even fight fiercly for who gets to be the alpha cobble cleaner.
But war and love are never far from each other.
This is one of the nice guys who keeps the goats in check.
I wasn’t here just to ride my bike, in fact I didn’t ride that much at all. I was here for a project by fellow creative Fenomeno. I can’t say much about the project yet but it will be out in a couple of weeks and it was an honour and pleasure to collaborate.
I’ve never been any good at multitasking but aside from what we were there for, I managed to take some pictures here and there.
All pictures were shot with the X100V and the WCL-X100 II.