The Olympics comes solely as soon as each 4 years, however for our man in France, Chris Selden, it solely passes the in-law’s home as soon as in a lifetime so a properly timed go to to their place noticed him roadside on the Olympic Street Race 2024 in Paris.
I’ve beforehand written concerning the stunning Chevreuse Valley simply outdoors of Paris right here on PEZ and it’s typically a fixture of Paris-Good and the final stage of the Tour de France however this 12 months it was residence to one thing much more particular – the Olympics Street Race. Even higher, the race itself was passing simply metres away from my in-law’s place so a go to with the household was all the time going to occur on the third August 2024.
I made a decision to reach a few days early to take a look at the circuit for myself and see a few the climbs that characteristic within the race that I hadn’t beforehand carried out.
All of the villages on the circuit had been enjoying their half with bike and Olympic themed decorations on each roundabout, road indicators and native squares.
Having simply come off a 7 day bikepacking MTB journey within the Vosges mountains I used to be on my MTB which simply occurred to be the proper bike to take a look at the circuit on. No, there have been no gravel or dust sections on the circuit however there was an unlimited quantity of safety and highway closures and chopping by way of the forest was my ticket round these obstacles. Suppose Tour de France safety after which instances it by 10… sure, the French are very, very critical about safety at these Olympics – and rightly so – however the highway closures introduced earlier than the race had been extreme to say the least.
Not a part of the safety element, just a few fascinating roadside ornament on the highway to Jouy en Josas.
For an instance of some critical safety, the principle highway in my in-law’s city was closed from 8 am by way of to 6pm with the race anticipated to cross at 1 pm! It is a massive, 4 lane highway and it was closed for 10 hours with pedestrians solely (no bikes) allowed to cross the highway simply up till one hour earlier than the race.
Catching the Olympics race roadside was clearly going to be more difficult than the Tour de France or any of the opposite races I’ve seen earlier than. I additionally determined to extend the problem degree by taking my children alongside – it was in any case simply metres away so at the least for the remainder of their lifetime they might be capable of say that they’d been roadside on the Olympics.
So my plan of the day was to catch the beginning of the race on the TV, go outdoors with the children to see the race stay in Montigny (km130) then soar on the MTB and race by way of the forest to try to catch the riders on the Côte de Saint-Rémy-Les-Chevreuse, a fairly little climb of 1.3 km at 6.3%.
After my reco journey two days earlier, I realised that attending to the difficult Côte de Bièvres can be too troublesome with all of the gendarmes and highway closures so I selected the climb two climbs earlier which hopefully had simpler entry for me on an MTB. It meant that I must do roughly 12 kms of highway/path driving within the time that the Olympic peloton would do 50km on the highway. Race on!
My ‘shortcut’ included stunning again streets by way of previous villages and muddy trails by way of overgrown forest.
Feeling a bit of careworn about my shortcut and the overzealous gendarmes I headed out the morning of the race to see if all was doable or not and shortly found that it was … not. Much more gendarmes, Nationwide Police and native police had been blocking the best way so it was time for a brand new plan with much more off-road sections to keep away from the closures.
With my new route sorted I efficiently made it by way of to the Côte de Saint-Rémy-Les-Chevreuse and noticed that many followers had been already lining the route greater than six hours forward of the race. Amongst them was this enormous Wout Van Aert fan who travels throughout Europe along with his tenting automotive following races. He was additionally amazed on the safety measures in place and finally discovered a spot on the prime of the climb however was instructed that he needed to be greater than 4 metres from the highway.
I hoped to meet up with him later however for now it was time to return to the forest and get again and seize some lunch with the household earlier than the race got here by way of my in-law’s village. Additionally heading again to Montigny was Canadian staff pursuiter and Israel Academy rider, Carsen Mattern. He and the remainder of the Canadian staff had been staying just some minutes down the highway from my in-law’s so we shared the highway for a couple of minutes and had a superb chat. He was simply out on a simple journey as he ready for his racing that was beginning on Monday.
He’d had dinner with Derek Gee and Michael Woods the evening earlier than and instructed me that the boys had been in type and extremely motivated for a superb displaying within the highway race.
So after a fast lunch it was time to take the children to a motorbike race. They used to look at me racing once they had been infants, however this is able to be the primary time watching a race with out me in it. My French son confirmed the place his true loyalties are although by donning my Australian jersey within the hopes of seeing Michael Matthews, Ben O’Connor or Simon Clarke choose up a medal.
After a half hour wait the break of the day got here by way of however with no one even barely harmful within the group…
The peloton had been taking it straightforward with the Belgians properly grouped round Remco and looking out relaxed.
Eventual silver medallist Valentin Madouas stress-free within the peloton after 130km in Montigny-le-Brettoneux
With the peloton now having handed by way of it was time to race them! I had 12 km to do (10 on trails) they usually had 50km by way of the Chevreuse Valley. Who would win?
Fortunately I’m not that sluggish but…
So I’d made it to the Valley and now it was only a query of discovering a great spot on the climb. I noticed one other bike owner who was additionally searching for a spot and we shortly bought chatting. Paul was a gravel rider from Fontainebleau south of Paris and being a Frenchie he was supporting Alaphilippe and co. of their quest for an Olympic medal. Paul additionally had stay TV on his phone displaying the race so was a fantastic individual to hang around with whereas we waited half-hour for the race to reach. (I may have ridden slower!)
Paul’s cash was on an Alaphilippe or a Madouas medal and that ended being a superb wager certainly.
We didn’t know what was going to occur at that time although and on the prime of the Côte de Saint-Rémy-Les-Chevreuse the race was on. The unique break had been caught by a counter assault of Viviani (Italy) and Mullen (Eire) they usually had been nearly to drop the final remaining rider from the early transfer in entrance of our eyes.
In the meantime the peloton had been sizzling on their heels and actually strung out as Sheffield (USA) and Healy (Eire) had been placing on the stress. The race had finally began!
It was now time for my final race of the day – heading residence to catch the final 50kms on the TV. So it was time to saddle up and hit the paths once more to work my method across the highway closures.
I made it again with plenty of time and was capable of see Remco destroy everybody one after the other while stress-free on my sofa.
An ideal time out for me (and Remco) and an virtually excellent day for the French staff too taking silver and bronze. A brilliant highway racing circuit, deserving medal winners and an unimaginable ambiance – regardless of the strict safety. Paris 2024 definitely delivered a fantastic males’s race, I’m simply disillusioned that I’ve to drive again to the South of France on Sunday or I’d have carried out some extra race chasing to catch the ladies’s race.
Cheers,
Chris
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