Unforgettable Rides: 1993 Paris-Roubaix

In 1993, before the UCI put a stranglehold on the means by which riders sought to go faster, innovation flowed through the peloton. Training methods evolved rapidly (apparently in tandem with the potency of the drugs available at the time) and bicycle design was in a period of exciting change spurred on by Greg LeMond’s win in the 1989 Tour de France after using aerobars to overturn a 50-second deficit on Laurent Fignon.

Paris-Roubaix, more than any other event on the calendar, would see some of the most dramatic experimentation, as riders lost themselves in their pursuit to smooth out the race’s brutal terrain. In a five year span, we went from LeMond fitting Rock Shox to his bike to Johan Museeuw showing up aboard a full-suspension Bianchi. The Rock Shox were at first met with raised eyebrows and thinly-veiled snickers until Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle used them to roll over the finish line as the victor at age 37 in 1992. Not surprisingly, 1993 saw many more machines sheepishly toeing the start line with products borrowed from Mountain Bikes, including the GB Team’s custom-built Bianchi’s decorated with Softride suspension stems.

Balance is a critical component in cycling. Balance between rider and machine, of course, but also between comfort and rigidity. As anyone who has ridden with font-suspension will tell you, what is good over the cobbles may not be as good in a closely-contested finish. Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle, the defending champion, and Franco Ballerini, the upstart Italian, broke away together and, with their front-ends quivering like plates of over-cooked pasta, made their way to the velodrome.

The Italian’s confidence in his sprint was matched only by Duclos-Lassalle’s experience on the track. The two wobbled their way to the line, sprinting as hard as their soggy forks would allow and threw their bikes with a synchronization that would be the envy of any Olympic swim-dancing team.

Ballerini was certain he’d won. Duclos-Lassalle wasn’t so sure he’d lost. The referees went to the photo and served Franco a juicy slice of humble pie, in what was one of the closest finishes in Paris-Roubaix ever. Ballerini swore he’d never ride Roubaix again, but nevertheless won it in 1995 and 1998. Solo. On a bike without suspension.

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71 Replies to “Unforgettable Rides: 1993 Paris-Roubaix”

  1. You know, as brutal a race as P-R is, with its inbuilt potential for accidents and punctures, the fact that it occasionally comes down to a photo finish sprint is quite remarkable.

  2. I’ve never seen that Softride suspension stem before. I’m having a hard time thinking of anything more annoying than having my handlebars be able to move independently of the bike frame.

  3. Ahhhhhh! Love that Bianchi!

    There’s a 50+ yr old cycling vet in my neighborhood that does MTB rides on a 1980-something Fat Chance bike with a soft ride cro-moly stem. He fucking annihilates us on the singletrack, uphills, and most downhills. Makes us feel terrible about owning $1-3k bikes.

    There’s also lol pics somewhere on the internet of a full suspension ?Trek Fuel EX? with a cane creek suspension seat post, the softride stem… Complete overkill.

  4. @Frank. Great article. I had one in the q about the ’94 PR bikes. Yours is better (just barely!). Nice job and back to the electronic pen and paper for me……….

  5. @mcsqueak, @WV Cycling
    My mountainbike still has a softride and a sus seatpost. Actually works great. I always really preferred the softride stems over rockshocks because the handled about the same interms of either changing where your bars are vs. changing your effective head tube fork rake etc with a sus fork – it all sucked back then – and really liked that the softride could do a much better job of dampening and didn’t suffer from sticktion, meaning it could absorb alot more of the little bumps rather than the rock shox, which really only helped with the stuff big enough to overcome that friction in the system.

    Cool times. I may actually buy a 29er this year; possibly the Ritchey. The new MTBs do seem to work better than my beloved Zip.

    @scaler911

    @Frank. Great article. I had one in the q about the ’94 PR bikes. Yours is better (just barely!). Nice job and back to the electronic pen and paper for me……….

    Uh….I forgot about that, mate. (I’ve delegated all guest article management over to Gianni and had in the meantime forgotten you wrote it.) Ah well, the beauty about this is that its still another race, so no reason not to use it anyway!

    I actually had another article I was working on for today, but then we got talking about the Bauer chopper bike and I got thinking about this race and it just plopped out in one chunk.

    @Steampunk

    Every time you post something about cobbles, it’s like punching me in the feelings…

    Every time you whine about the, The Prophet makes a deduction from your V-Bank account.

    @WV Cycling
    (Oh, and welcome back – its been a while, I think. Possibly since the picture of the guy in the livestrong kit.)

  6. @Pedale.Forchetta

    I suffered badly that day…

    I can only imagine. I thought both of them rode beautifully that day…I usually find I hate one rider and love the other, but that day I truly respected them both. I was glad, though, to see that he didn’t stick to his promise to never to ride Roubaix again. In fact, he ended up with a bit of a love affair with it, as @scaler911’s gravatar suggests.

  7. @frank
    Every time you stick a Softride stem and a Thudbuster post on a too-small MBø, Gene Oberpriller’s kidneys cry a dusty tear for the yellow-breasted Durango wolf lark.

    Yeah. It’s that bad.

  8. @frank

    @Steampunk
    Every time you post something about cobbles, it’s like punching me in the feelings…

    Every time you whine about the, The Prophet makes a deduction from your V-Bank account

    Touché! That was more of a kidney shot. Although, I’m not quite sure what you think I’m whining about.

  9. @brett

    @frank
    Ballerini didn’t have suspension that day either… so he got out-sprinted by a mountain biker.

    He did, actually – you can see it in this shot. Unless you’re teasing me that a softride isn’t really suspension.

    I love that Bianchi built him a bike with a sloping-down top tube to accomodate it. Clever, actually – much better than chucking a fork in there that raises the front end of the bike.

  10. @frank
    Exactly. Softride stems aren’t real suspension.

    Have you not been listening to me? Get yourself a 29er trail bike. That Ritchey is nice, but are you an XC racer? Well are you, punk?

  11. I’m always completely amazed when a long, hard race, or the longest, hardest race like Paris-Roubaix comes down to a close finish. It seems like all that madness would sort things out well before the line. A photo finish though is just wild.

    Wow, good on Ballerini for both swearing off the Hell of the North and for coming back and winning the bastard. That’s strong work.

  12. @frank

    @mcsqueak, @WV Cycling
    My mountainbike still has a softride and a sus seatpost. Actually works great. I always really preferred the softride stems over rockshocks because the handled about the same interms of either changing where your bars are vs. changing your effective head tube fork rake etc with a sus fork – it all sucked back then – and really liked that the softride could do a much better job of dampening and didn’t suffer from sticktion, meaning it could absorb alot more of the little bumps rather than the rock shox, which really only helped with the stuff big enough to overcome that friction in the system.

    These are the words of a deranged mind.

  13. @Ron

    I’m always completely amazed when a long, hard race, or the longest, hardest race like Paris-Roubaix comes down to a close finish. It seems like all that madness would sort things out well before the line. A photo finish though is just wild.
    Wow, good on Ballerini for both swearing off the Hell of the North and for coming back and winning the bastard. That’s strong work.

    The cool thing about Roubaix is its the only race where the terrain is this hard, and there aren’t any climbs to speak of. I was just browsing other pictures from 1993’s cobbled classics, and Museeuw, for instance, didn’t ride a tweaked bike for de Ronde – but he did for Roubaix.

    As you say, to have that come down to a sprint, then – let alone a photo finish – is amazing. And sprint finishes happen pretty frequently.

    @brett
    You can’t ignore my techno.

  14. Nice piece frank. A sprint finish for PR; truly the epitome of a finish for the Queen don’t you think?
    Having just watched “Hell of the North” again (for the umpteenth time) two days ago, the mention of Duclos-Lasalle always reminds me of Stuey’s comment about him – “there’s hard and then there’s Duclos”

  15. @frank

    @brett
    You can’t ignore my techno.

    Whilst your services to road cycling are peerless, your thinking on mountain bikes is slight misguided but as far as music goes WTF, mate?! I’m a little concerned about meeting you in Belgium now.

    On the basis that the guy is wearing budgie smugglers and appears to have helmet vent hair, that isn’t one of the antipodean Velominati is it?

  16. I am very thankful for this site and the other cycling aficionados in this world. Each article is a welcome escape for me from the working world, especially on days I don’t get to ride. In my next lifetime I will be a famous classics rider. In this lifetime I’m just a working stiff who must settle for beating other weekend warriors up short climbs in Florida. :)

  17. @Chris
    As for my mountain biking, just think “1991-1993” and channel that logic. You know – when people still rode their bikes uphill rather than only down, and when “technical riding” still meant going around things rather than hopping on boulders…

    As for Electric Six, mate, they are the only band from Detroit that Jack White has not only not gotten into a fist fight with, but has actually collaborated with. They do take a certain subtle sense of humor to appreciate, though…kind of like…hm?

  18. @frank
    Wow, are you actually an orangutan? I’m pretty jealous of the amount of drop you can get, I have short arms.

    If you get a new MTB with sloping TT, you’re going to need one unbelievably long seatpost.

  19. In a similar vein, do you guys have any preference for fit systems? I am going to see if I can start a build up, and was wondering the best way to go about fit.

  20. @frank
    People still do ride their bikes uphill and technical doesn’t mean trials riding. Sheesh, haven’t you even heard the phrase All Mountain?

  21. @Chipomarc

    The complete package, Allsop Powercurve, RevXs, Softride Beam.

    Every time someone posts a photo of a softened – a cycling fairy falls from the sky

  22. @Marcus

    @Chipomarc

    The complete package, Allsop Powercurve, RevXs, Softride Beam.

    Every time someone posts a photo of a softened – a cycling fairy falls from the sky

    Looks like they need to add a few links to the chain – that rear derailleur is looking a bit stressed! Mind you, if you’re riding one of these with that handlebar tape, your judgement is likely impaired to begin with.

  23. @DerHoggz
    The Competitive Cyclist site fit calculator will get you 95% there. You may still have to adjust seat post height, offset, and stem by tweaking, however. Just grab a friend you trust and do the measurements.

  24. Sorry if I missed it, but has anyone found/posted a video of this race?

    Also, while looking for it I came across this. Damn, Roger still looks great. I like the bike he’s riding too – is that splash tape? More proof that in the off-season/retirement, the PROS will ride whatever bike is kicking around their garage.

    In that finish at P-R that they show who is wearing the Rainbows and getting overtaken at the line?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lLflfpuk6o&feature=related

  25. Ha, was just checking out Paris-Roubaix videos & then checked the 1985 finishing spots…awesomest cyclist name I’ve never heard of: Ferdi Van Den Haute, 10th in 1985.

    I wonder if Ferdi was short for Ferdinand or if that was it?

  26. @mouse

    @Marcus
    And his name is?…
    @Scaler911 was sailing pretty close to the wind in previous posts

    Ya. I do tend to do that, not on purpose though………..

  27. @Oli

    @frank
    People still do ride their bikes uphill and technical doesn’t mean trials riding. Sheesh, haven’t you even heard the phrase All Mountain?

    I’ve never heard of All Mountain except for downhill skis. I think that was sarcasm from Frank. You’re kinda grumpy this holiday season, no?
    Speaking of skiing:

    Sorry (not really), I do love my downhillers, and I’m absolutely certain thats a girl.

  28. @scaler911
    It was a joke! I was taking a swipe at the arbitrary classification of various MTB riding types, but obviously my ascerbic wit doesn’t translate well into dry text…

  29. @frank

    @ChrisAs for my mountain biking, just think “1991-1993″³ and channel that logic. You know – when people still rode their bikes uphill rather than only down, and when “technical riding” still meant going around things rather than hopping on boulders…
    As for Electric Six, mate, they are the only band from Detroit that Jack White has not only not gotten into a fist fight with, but has actually collaborated with. They do take a certain subtle sense of humor to appreciate, though…kind of like…hm?

    I’m a day late and a dollar short (this site wouldnt let me log in yesterday) but if people are posting electric Six then we need to have this. Scaler 11…don’t look. You will be confused.

  30. @sgt

    @Marko

    FTW Especially now that I’ve flipped the stem and gone tubeless…

    Where are the nuts? Was that your bike?

  31. @frank

    @Chris
    As for my mountain biking, just think “1991-1993″³ and channel that logic. You know – when people still rode their bikes uphill rather than only down, and when “technical riding” still meant going around things rather than hopping on boulders…

    Also been struggling to log in. Was going say I quite liked the last Electric Six clip but I’ll rephrase that as I’ve not had a chance to watch the Gay Bar clip (internet is too slow this time of night, 256k slow. Danger High, Voltage is a damn sight better than the Euro synth offering. Is that where some of you chaps got your obsession with tweed?

    1991 – 1993, wasn’t that the point when everyone else realised that suspension was the way forward and that it had to be between the wheels and the frame rather than between the frame and rider. As for “technical riding” didn’t that mean that you had to go around everything rather than having the choice and being able to find your flow, the mountain biking equivalent of La Volupte. Does Michelle have to wait for ages at the top and bottom of the hills when you go mountain biking together?

    I understand the reason for the oversize epms now, to carry spares for your suspension tech.

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