Our friend Jack Chevell will be contributing more to No Life Like This Life as time goes on, and we’re more than excited to have him sharing his amazing photos here!
I was initially supposed to head out to the Paris Roubaix to photo-document Jed Kornbluh of Somerville Sports fulfilling a lifelong dream to ride the Roubaix course with his dad until the story didn’t get picked up and funded. We shared a bit of Jed’s Paris Roubaix experience on our Instagram feed(follow us if you don’t yet!) over the weekend, and lived vicariously through his amazing experience and his epic father/son adventure. Oh, and his dad hand built the tandem they rode the course on(it’s the red and white coupled one here). Luckily Jack was there, had friends in Roubaix, and has what it takes to get some amazing shots.
Here’s what Jack wrote up about his experience:
Niki Terpstra won Paris Roubaix in 6h 09m 01s. Six hours is quite a long time. You could fly most of the way to New York from the UK in six hours. I doubt even the most enthusiastic fan would stay glued to their television for the full six hours. However for the race within a race, the race to get from one good position to the next to photograph a flat out and aggressive peloton, six hours isn’t a long time at all.
It’s a sprint from sector to sector just to stay ahead. There is no time to review images or linger for atmospheric shots. Just a short run to the car, which is parked in the direction of travel, and away. Distances, time gaps and average speeds are communicated in French, or English when I can’t work out the French, to Sébastien my secret weapon from Roubaix. We are in his 1970’s Peugeot team car, he knows every cobbled sector and all the roads in between. He loves them, it’s where he rides every day.
We arrive at Roubaix Velodrome having visited three sections of pavé, cross the course at a place he knows is never marshalled and take up a position in the old terraced seating. A winner turns on to the banking to complete his lap and a half moments later. Six hours have vanished and the race is over.
