Paris – Roubaix 2013

Paris - Roubaix 2013
Paris - Roubaix 2013

From: Raymond Kerckhoffs
 (De Telegraaf)
Country: The Netherlands

Conclusion: The new pressroom is much better than the former one. No strict rules on the pelouse of Roubaix make working conditions after the finish easier.

  1. Information available on the website: Like for ASO events, you can find a lot of information on the website about the course and as well as about the riders.
  2. Accreditation: ASO accreditation system works without any problem. Information about the accreditation request status is available within a short timeframe.
  3. Signposting to the Accreditation Centre: The permanence is easy to find: you have just to follow the arrows. But there are no parking spaces for the press cars. You have to park between the public cars. It would be much better to reserve a parking for press vehicles on Saturday.
  4. Race live-ticker: There is a live-ticker on ASO website, but you can also follow the live-tickers on Het Nieuwsblad website and other ones too.
  5. Working conditions at the start: No ‘Presse-Arrière’ parking, which makes it a little bit difficult to find a place to park your car when you don’t want to park on the ‘Presse-Avant’ spaces. Team buses stay close to the start.
  6. Working conditions at the finish: No problems. The giant screen makes it easy to follow the last kilometers of the race. After the race it was this time easy to speak with the riders and also to go to the buses. Much better that the years before when the organization tried to keep the journalists away from the riders on the ‘pelouse’ of the velodrome.
  7. Pressroom: It is all right. It is located inside the new track. There is enough space and enough TV-screens.
  8. Distance Pressroom – Finish: Perfect.
  9. Distance Finish – Teams buses: No problem.
  10. Internet: There were a lot of problems with the Internet connection. After the finish it worked well and that is the most important moment.
  11. Information about the race in the Pressroom: You could follow the live ticker on the website and also follow the race on TV-screens.
  12. Results: No problem.
  13. Food or drinks at or near the Pressroom: There were bottles of water and sandwiches.
  14. Press conference: Professional press conference. The first three riders came one by one inside the pressroom. Good translations. For the numbers two and three there was time only for two or three questions. While waiting for the winner, it was possible to give the journalists some more time to speak with those riders.
  15. Amount of professional and non-professional journalists: ASO is also controlling more and more the journalists. This is a good sign.