Bicyling and Plastics

Looking at the links on the left side of this page, you can tell that I am a bicycle racing fan (used to race, and would love to do so again). Normally there is not a lot of overlap between the racing and plastics/rheology, but sometimes a link can be made.

Unless you are a cyclist, this report of a fire in a plastic sheet factory in the town of Roubaix (pronounced ROO-BAY) will mean nothing to you. Roubaix is a small French town (pop. 100,000) on the Belgian border, but it, or more properly, the Velodrom within it, is the finish line of the the most famous 1-day race of all, Paris-Roubaix. Nicknamed the "Hell of the North", the race is loved and hated for the cobblestone roads that it passes over. But these are not the cobblestone roads that we have here in the US that are made from bricks, these are made from stones: Imagine racing over that...I certainly have no sympathy for a pothole in a racetrack.