Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Video: Dramatic on-bike footage of Paris-Roubaix including Cancellara crash

On-board cameras make their debut at the Hell of the North

Yesterday’s Paris-Roubaix has been hailed as one of the most dramatic editions of the race in decades – and for the first time in the race's history, Velon had cameras on some of the bikes from the 11 teams belonging to the joint venture.

One of those captured the moment that Fabian Cancellara, riding the race for the last time, saw his hopes of a record-equalling fourth victory dashed when he crashed with more than 50 kilometres to go.

The footage shows Etixx-Quick Step’s Niki Terpstra, another past winner, crash into the prone Cancellara, and the video as a whole gives an idea of just how stressful and chaotic the race is.

- Paris-Roubaix Tech: Fabian Cancellara's Trek Domane SLR

Here’s the TV footage of that crash, which took place on the Mons en Pevele sector, and which shows Peter Sagan managing somehow to bunnyhop over Cancellara, even though he had a foot unclipped.

Here’s some more GoPro footage from the race, followed by the official highlights.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

4 comments

Avatar
lavielemond | 8 years ago
0 likes

Well said, "mulebeatsdrum"...have you seen the roadside spectator's camera footage of the motorbike slamming up the rear of poor Viviani from SKY?! Freaking frightening, & once he's freed himself you see him grab his sternum, but thankfully it was only bruised & not fractured. You can see it if you Google "Roubaix pileups send several riders to the hospital" on VeloNews. Might not have seriously damaged his sternum but I can guarantee that his shorts are ruined after that shock!

On the plus side, what an absolute freak of a rider Super Sagan is!! "Ghisallo" is spot-on re: his skills becoming an inspiration for young riders to acquire similar abilities, just as Cadel Evans did from his mountain biking days (MTB World Champ' 2 years straight). It's just the same with the best Aussie Grand Prix/Moto GP riders (& those from many other nations as well), who all plied their 'trade' in motocross before moving onto the bitumen, becoming supremely confident sliding the rear & pulling off some other pretty crazy skills on the dirt.

Avatar
willythepimp | 8 years ago
1 like

You know when you are blasting about the lanes with the club and you think, "yeah, I'm fast"? And then you see how fast they are banging along the cobbled sectors with riders nipping in and out and all hell breaking loose, and then think "I'm slow." That just happened to me. 

Avatar
balmybaldwin | 8 years ago
0 likes

at 1:47 another example of a motorbike nearly hitting a downed rider

Avatar
Ghisallo | 8 years ago
1 like

It appeared Sagan pulled out of his right pedal while pulling his rear wheel up, causing him to dive forward and to the left, as you would expect. Bunny hopping is an excellent skill for every racer to master. Sagan is inspiring many young cyclists (and some old ones too) to work on handling skills, which is great.

Latest Comments