Punctures. Cobbles. Crashes. Ask the average cyclist what Paris-Roubaix means to them, and it's unlikely that they'll regale you with stories of famous wins or daring moves. Instead, they'll focus on the brutality of road cycling's most notorious Classic, nicknamed Hell of the North. A 256.6km race that includes 54.5km of cobblestones over 29 separate sections (or secteurs if you know the lingo), the iconic Monument began in 1896, and often falls on Easter Sunday, when conditions can shift like the allegiance of Judas - any rain turning the dusty pavé into a mud bath.
Thousands of spectators line the streets and cobbled farm tracks of northern France, experiencing the mind-boggling speed up close as the peloton winds its way from the outskirts of the French capital to Roubaix's velodrome on the Belgian border. Although a Brit is yet to win one of its 120 editions, its influence is keenly felt on this side of the Channel. The race has become a must-watch moment for those whose only other fix of the World Tour is the Tour de France, and it has even inspired events, including Rapha's suitably named A Day in Hell.
An event run and organised by Rapha since 2010, it offers masochists the chance to sample a sector strewn ride of their own on the same day as the Paris-Roubaix before sitting back and watching the cross-channel action unfold in the warm and dry on a big TV with some Belgian staples - beer and frites. I went along to the London event to get the immersive ParisRoubaix experience a (cobble) stone's throw from my front door.
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