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@BigFatAl
That person was me...
Having ridden my carbon road bike in two full length Flanders and a Paris-Roubaix lite (only 173km but all the cobbles), the back wheel decided to shed a spoke by pulling itself and a chunk out of the rim. This was a week ago and so a back up plan was created. In its stead, I decided to utilise my Concorde road bike. All steel affair, Campag Victory throughout and 32 spokes in each rim.
Off I went, luxuriating in the sofa of saddles - a nice fat Rolls. Yes the brakes were a bit of a hit and miss affair, Campag obviously hadn't acknowledged ergonomics back in 1987, and the levers required a bit more effort than I am used to. Oh well, the gale force winds had subsided and the day was cool, clear and bright. The pave was as I remembered, but the bike was comfortable and my preferred route on the crest of these sections afforded a reasonable pace with no mishaps. At 20 miles I saw a chap with a bike in one hand and a saddle plus section of seat mast in the other!
At approx 55 miles I entered a small section of cobbles, the Pave de Wavrechain, at only 500 meters I gave them little thought. Cycling behind a chap who had slowed as we neared the end of the section, I decided to overtake to his right. At this moment I noticed this small section in standing water and the cobbles noticeably in a really poor state compared to the rest of the section. I tried to move to the center, but the bike partially went from under me, I thought I'd managed to correct this, but it hit god knows what and off I came. This is the only time I've ever felt like a professional cyclist, in the sense that I dragged myself to the side of the ride, tried to stand, felt pain, and sat down again watching a succession of riders go past me. Some spectators came and asked me if I was OK and collected my bike. I got to my feet and some Dutch girls asked if I needed to wash my arm and get some first aid. A Belgian couple said 'look at your wheel, it is shit'. I did, it was more correctly 'fucked'. I phoned my fiancee, Paris-Roubaix for me was over. A few minutes later a guy came off and split his tyre on the same section - I donated the tyre from my bike, he could at least continue...
Today I can reflect and know that I now need to take a spare set of wheels and that roughly hewn granite is not a preferred stone to fall upon. I am also nursing an injured knee, shoulder and back, I have an elbow that hurts like hell and swelling and bruising to my hip. C'est la vie - I'll go back, I need to properly earn that third cobblestone.