Paris–Roubaix | Put his hand in the fire of hell

Simone Boilard first apologized for her slight delay by calling back from Nice on Tuesday.

“Sorry, I went to the pharmacy for my blisters. I thought it would take three minutes. But the pharmacist really didn’t like what she saw… She took out a lot of products for me and it lasted 20 minutes. »

Guillaume Boivin was back in Andorra when he got on his bike for a training ride. “I did 200 meters and returned home…”

Both saw the damage after competing in the classic Paris-Roubaix last weekend.

Despite special precautions after reconnaissance – raising the brake hoods and doubling the handlebar tape – Boilard did not escape blisters during the 145.4 km race, including nearly 30 km of cobbled sections, on Saturday.

“I really think I have fragile skin,” said the 22-year-old cyclist, who nevertheless tried not to grip her handlebars too hard.

“I look at the other girls and no one has had blisters like me. I felt it from the first sector. It hurt me. I said to myself: ‟I will not panic too much.” But in the last sector, I rode with one hand because the left was really hurting me. I think I have particularly thin and clammy skin. Finally, my hands are not made for cobblestones! »

The next day, Boivin experienced the same inconvenience on the cobblestones of the Hell of the North. A large blood blister formed in his left palm during the 256.6 km run, 54.5 km of which was on narrow roads slicing through beet fields.

This idea, too, of not wearing gloves… “I’ve never put them on and this is the first year that it’s happened to me,” said the 33-year-old veteran. “The other years, I didn’t have a blister, nothing, then this year, my left hand was damaged enough. »

The Israel-Premier Tech runner could find no explanation for this carnage: “I don’t know why. The only thing I see is that I changed to a bit narrower handlebar. Maybe the fulcrums are a bit different. Maybe that made the difference, but I was surprised. »

Boivin never puts on gloves on his bike. “It may be silly, but it’s cutting off the circulation between my fingers. My hands are all going numb with gloves on. It’s not because I don’t want to. If I could, I would. »

“I saw the skin tearing off”

Boivin was not the only one to pedal bare-handed in Paris-Roubaix. Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, among others, raised his arms without gloves, as usual. The Belgian Tom Boonen also won some of his four successes without bothering with this piece of clothing.

“I’m not convinced it changes much for the blisters,” said Boivin, who finished ninth in the mud in 2021.

Slowed down by a fall in the Trouée d’Arenberg, the Montrealer settled for 45^e row Sunday. The blood bubble eventually burst, splattering his leg.

“The last 35 kilometers were not cool. I saw the skin tearing off completely. When I got up on the pedals, I felt my hand moving… Today, I have practically no skin on my palm. »

Hence his decision to turn back after a few pedal strokes on Tuesday, even if he had bandaged himself and had exceptionally put on gloves. This discomfort could compromise his participation in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday in the Netherlands.

Two days after Paris-Roubaix, Simone Boilard lined up for the Ronde de Mouscron, finishing eighth under the fleet on Monday in Belgium.

“I felt good typed the hand and I did not feel it too much, indicated the native of Limoilou. But since the race, it seems to have woken them up a bit. There, they are not very beautiful. I have to take care of it this week. »

Boilard will be able to seek advice from his lover Nickolas Zukowsky, who came out of his first participation in Paris-Roubaix without the slightest scratch on his hands.

“I have absolutely nothing, it looks like I haven’t raced at all,” he noted from Belgium, where he will line up on Wednesday at the Brabant Arrow.

Delayed by a saddle problem with a little over a hundred kilometers to go, the Q36.5 cyclist has never really been in the heart of the battle in the cobbled sections, which perhaps explains the good condition his hands, he said.

Like his two compatriots, the athlete from the Laurentians is already looking forward to his next Roubaix.

“I almost get chills just thinking about it,” said Zukowsky, 125^e at the arrival. In racing, you’re so on adrenaline. You’re in pain, it’s hard, but afterwards, it looks like you just want to go back. »

A costly mistake

Simone Boilard spent the night from Saturday to Sunday brooding over her careless error in the Carrefour de l’Arbre, a key sector in which she entered last in the group of favorites, which cost her her place when a runner lost the wheel of Marianne Vos (10^e), three bike lengths ahead.

“By the time I look up and realize it, the group had taken us 10 seconds. Then there was a series of turns that technically I didn’t take fast enough. The 10 seconds quickly became 30 seconds. With a headwind, you don’t go back on a group that’s rolling with Lotte Kopecky [7^e], Vos and company. »

The 22-year-old cyclist blamed herself for having ruined her race without it being attributable to a fall or a mechanical glitch, practically inevitable on the cobblestones of the “queen of the classics”.

“In addition, I felt great on the cobbles and I saw that this was not the case for other girls. It was attacking, Kopecky really sent and I managed to follow. I said to myself: ‟The worst is done, there remains the Carrefour de l’Arbre, we will come back to the breakaways and we arrive at the velodrome.” I blew and that’s where I made my mistake. My race stopped like that. »

The representative of the French team St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 nevertheless went to the Roubaix velodrome to cross the line at the 39^e place, 1 min 45 s behind the winner, her compatriot Alison Jackson.

“In the end, it’s stupid, because it was not at all the legs or anything else, the problem. I finished the race and I could have gone to do other cobblestones! »