Readers’ own stories · France · 2018
When the alarm clock cost
twenty minutes
Jonas B. Hansen woke up 45 minutes late in Roubaix. By the time he reached the start, the others had gone.
45 minutes behind
The alarm clock did not ring.
When I opened my eyes in the hotel room in Roubaix, I was 45 minutes behind the plan I had made the night before. I pulled on my cycling clothes and hurried through the dark streets on the bicycle.
I had been looking forward to the Paris–Roubaix Challenge for months. It is the amateur event in which ordinary riders tackle several of the same northern French cobbled sectors as the professionals.
I had come for the cobbles and the atmosphere around Roubaix. First, I had to reach the start.
When I arrived, the field was gone. Race-number collection had closed, and the organisers did not appear to have waited for a Danish rider with a defective hotel alarm.
After a little discussion, they let me ride. I set off about twenty minutes after the other participants. As I remember it, the people at the start called me le retardataire — the latecomer. It was difficult to disagree.
A long chase
The latecomer
From there, the ride became one long chase. Instead of finding a group and settling into its pace, I always had somebody ahead to catch. First one rider, then a small group, and later another.
Whenever I made contact, my late arrival was noticed. “Here comes the latecomer,” I heard in several places.
As the day went on, the situation became more amusing than annoying. I had come to experience the cobbles, and I did. I also acquired a particular place in the field: the rider who began alone and spent the rest of the day catching everyone else.
The event around the story
Cobbles on open roads
The Paris–Roubaix Challenge is a sportive held on roads that remain open to ordinary traffic. It is not a professional race on closed roads, but participants ride cobbled sectors used by Paris–Roubaix and finish at the velodrome in Roubaix.
The uneven pavé demands concentration. On such a route, a twenty-minute chase is not the calmest way to begin the day.
I do not remember the day because of a placing or a finishing time. I remember it because an alarm clock changed the entire ride. I have never trusted a hotel alarm on its own since. It was a fairly inexpensive lesson, but it cost twenty minutes on the road.
Photographs from later editions
Cobbles and a trophy
Jonas submitted these photographs as background to the story. They are from 2019 and 2025 and therefore do not document his ride in 2018.
Told by Jonas B. Hansen. Edited by The Evolution of Bikes.
Sources and image notes
The late morning, the start behind the field and the day’s chase are Jonas B. Hansen’s recollections from 2018. The description of the event was checked against official information from the Paris–Roubaix Challenge. All four submitted photographs are from later editions and are labelled with their year, creator and licence.
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