Once again the Spring Classics dished out incredible weather. From the sleet, snow and rain from Flanders, to the horrible weather that was predicted at Roubaix that never happened. The weather in Northern Europe is always unpredictable as storms roll in off of the Atlantic with just a moments notice. And here you always thought that Chicago weather sucked. Check out this photo of Stuart O'Grady at Flanders this year, snow and all.
The weather for this years Roubaix was supposed to be so bad that most teams had custom bikes built just for the race. Most of the bikes that were built had seat and chainstays that were lengthened for more mud clearance as well as longer forks for additional clearance up front. The Silence-Lotto team went as far as using Ridley X-Night cyclocross frames with cantilever brakes. Fortunatley the weather turned out better than predicted, and most teams were able to use their standard road frames. It just goes to show how much the weather can affect a race such as Roubaix. Kinda makes you wish you had the choice to run different bikes based on the weather doesn't it?
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