Paris-Roubaix

The first time I saw pictures of the Paris-Roubaix cycling classic I thought it was some backyard brutality contest. I couldn’t believe that professional cyclist would take part in something that crazy. The only thing that seemed remotely as brutal was a rugby match at a wet Nuweland (Rugby stadium in Cape Town South Africa) in the middle of the winter. But a rugby match doesn’t go on for 7 hours and is therefore child’s play in comparison.











All images by Graham Watson

However, the more you learn about cycling the more you learn that cycling is a modern day battleground where the main objective is to hurt those that you are competing against as much as you can whilst still maintaining your image as a gentleman. It’s a battleground where there is space for both pain and immense respect for your rivals and even camaraderie. I believe this is because the battle is first against the boundaries of the human abilities and secondly between the competitors. It’s both a festival of the human strength and an effort to stand out amongst those competing, as the strongest one.

I try to have a similar little festival every Sunday. It’s just me and my friends, but it’s the only think the modern man that I am has left of the ancient hunter, protector, warrior that I would have been if I lived 500 years ago. Our society is making it ever increasingly difficult for a man to be a man. The difference between men and women has been reduced to pants shape and breast size at the cost of men because men can never take the role of motherhood way from women, yet women have joined men at an equal level as providers for their families, and society has grown, thank God, to a point were the role of protector has mostly been reduced to emotional task which men and women can fulfill equally well. It’s just the warrior in us that still has a place in this world, but most of us would agree that we’d rather fight our battles on the bicycle than in Iraq.

I love cycling.