henk ready for sunday in hell

Roughly 9 months ago, I had the pleasure of having a drink or two (water, that is) with a few cycling legends in a small Whisky bar in Gastown, just a few blocks from my office. It was the Tour de Gastown reception, held just a few days before the big Wednesday night event. Sponsors and supporters mingled with a few of the out-of-town pros that had come out for Superweek. Packed into the Shebeen (the annex to the popular Irish Heather pub) was multiple time Canadian National Champion, Eric Wohlberg; current Canadian National Road Champion and winner of just about every race in North America, Gord Fraser; and former Aussie National Champion and hard-man Henk Vogels. They shot the shit while watching old videos of Gastown and White Rock from the early nineties. Fraser exclaims watching the TV, "Here's where I take out the entire pack at Gastown... watch!" as he slams into some strategically placed hay bales in the 1993 edition.

He'd exact his revenge 10 years later by winning the 2003 Gastown crit.

Vogels was riding for the Navigators last year and I watched him punish the local field (myself included) in the Tour de Delta the weekend before. As I lay on the ground after a high-speed crash in the road race, he ripped by in a 3 man breakaway with a Sierra Nevada rider and local Devo-graduate/now Symmetrics neo-pro Marsh Cooper.

Recovering from a near-life-ending crash, Vogels used his time at Navigators and the North American pro scene to get back to his previous Euro-form, which included appearances in the Tour de France, podiums in the Belgian classic Ghent Wevelgem, and a couple of top ten appearances in Paris Roubaix, lovingly known as the Hell of the North.

Vogels returns to the pave of northern France this Sunday, riding for Davitamon-Lotto. Cyclingnews.com has a great and lengthy two-part interview with Vogels and his thoughts on his chances in the Queen of the Classics, Paris Roubaix.

Go Henk Go.