by Justin Davis

COMPIEGNE, France, April 15, 2009 (AFP) – China’s Jin Long made history for
his country here on Sunday by competing in arguably the world’s toughest
one-day classic bike race, the prestigious Paris-Roubaix.

Unfortunately for Jin, his pre-race fears of not being able to negotiate
the 27 sections of bone-shaking cobblestones peppered throughout the northern
French epic came true as he failed to make it to the 100km mark.

As a result, Jin did not make it to the finish line in Roubaix’s famous
outdoor velodrome where Belgian star Tom Boonen triumphed to join an elite
eight-man club of three-time winners.

“It was a little bit difficult for me. Once we started racing on the
cobblestones I began to realize how difficult it would be,” Jin told Bicycle.net after
the race.

“The pace was fast and in the end I stopped just before the 100km mark.”

Nearly 53km of treacherous cobblestones, spread out over 27 sections of
varying difficulties, pepper the 259km long race course from Compiegne 50km
north of Paris to Roubaix near the Belgian border.

Those usually leave their mark on the peloton, many of whom crash, suffer
punctures, lose ground and eventually drop out.

Boonen, a winner in 2005 and 2008, showed his mettle on Sunday. He crashed
once, and in the finale had to ride 30km with a buckled wheel before finally
taking a risk and changing bikes with 29km to go.

When considering that over 68 of his fellow riders also failed to finish,
and 19 others finished outside the time limit, Jin wasn’t the only cyclist
having a tough day.

“I’m not so happy with what happened today, I wanted to go a lot further in
the race. But racing in Europe is never easy,” added Jin, who races with the
Dutch continental (second tier) team Skil.

“In China the conditions, the weather, the pace, the wind – everything is
different.

“But it’s been a good experience for me. At least I got to come here and
see for myself what the race is about. Hopefully that will serve me well in
the future.”