Details, details

An e-mail has flooded in.

Steve Clarke writes, via the Washing Machine Post, as a three-times veteran of Paris-Roubaix. He calls it 168 miles of hell - hard, long and dangerous -- which is just the sort of encouragement I'm looking for.

There's plenty of practical advice as well: ride the cobbles as fast as you can; double wrap the bars in gel-tape; keep it in the big ring -- the chain's less likely to come off; and fit Vittoria's 24mm Pave clinchers -- which sound like a good bet when my Conti GP3000's wear out.

But then he says "don't use your best bike -- you'll be too worried about crashing and damaging it". I only have three bikes: a spindly track machine that glares accusingly at me because it never gets taken out of the cellar; the Condor Tempo that I use for work and winter training (Paris-Roubaix on a 68 fixed? I don't think so) And my "best" bike -- a five year old steel Casati with carbon forks and Campag running gear.

It'll have to do -- although I'm uncertain about the wheels.

Mavic Aksiums are good, i.e. reasonably priced and solid -- training hoops, but I'm old school enough to worry that factory built wheels will never match the sheer bomb-proofness of a set of Open Pros tied and soldered by a proper wheelwright.

So that's another thing to lose sleep over for the next few months.

The book arrived today. "Go slower to get faster" says the back page blurb. What's not to love?