Your Weekend Cycling Update

I know I've been a little lax in my cycling coverage here on Deadspin, but I got a good tip about an interesting finish in a pro cycling race this afternoon. Fabian Cancellara was the winner of the Paris-Roubaix race, which, explains a tipster, is to cycling as the Daytona 500 is to NASCAR. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place riders, however, were disqualified for speeding through a railroad crossing that was closing near the finish line.

With about 10km to go, Cancellara reached a railroad crossing, whose barriers began dropping as he passed through. The first chase group - Hoste, Van Petegem and Gusev - reached the same spot with the barriers clearly down. They went through, anyway. When Boonen, Ballan and Flecha arrived, race officials stopped them and were forced to wait about 15 seconds as a train came barreling past.

If Rob Schnieder made a movie about cycling, I believe that's how it would end. With the bad guy having his quest for victory ended by a train with bad timing, as he sits there and seethes while the protagonist cruises to victory and gets the girl.

Maybe we should check the train schedule before the race next year, race organizers.

Paris-Roubaix; Fabian the giant killer [VeloNews]