First ever women’s Paris-Roubaix was a cracker, and a long awaited step in the right direction.

First ever women’s Paris Roubaix winner, Lizzie Deignan. From here

It’s been an historic week for cycling.  This weekend just gone saw the 118^th running of the men’s Paris-Roubaix and – and this is the truly historic and awesome bit – the first ever running of the women’s Paris-Roubaix.  Yep, a race that has been running since 1896 has for the first time allowed for a women’s race.  But park your outrage about that for just a minute (we’ll get back to it later…) and revel in what was one of the greatest editions of the greatest bike races of all time.

Paris-Roubaix 2019: this time I am going to sugar coat it. Because I watched it with a bunch of cycling-mad Belgians and it was brilliant.

There nothing like a bunch of cycling-mad Belgians to give you a deeper appreciation of just how fantastic bike racing is. Those guys really know their craft, and aren’t afraid to show it.  There’s nothing like going off the deep end with full immersion cycling experiences. So when the chance to watch the 2019 Paris-Roubaix with a group of friendly and well-connected Belgian (and kiwi) bike fans, of course I jumped right in.