The Hell of the North

You would be mistaken if, in recent years, you have been lulled into the idea that professional road racing has become an anodyne pastiche of what it once was. The television images of riders, resplendent in their garish, lycra kit, astride lightweight carbon bikes and supported by a team with the latest technology belie the fact that bike racing is a tough sport. Every time I cycle up an Alpine col I think of this. When I am hanging over the front of my bars, grinding out the last of my gears available, my thighs and lungs burning with the effort, I can’t help but marvel at the professionals who ride these cols at a race pace, day after day. They don’t necessarily make it look easy, but their demeanour contradicts the pain and effort that they are putting their bodies through.

Paris-roubaix, on the other hand, is the precise opposite, an anachronism in the modern peloton. It is a race that nails its brutality firmly to the mast from the starting gun and the physical magnitude that it takes to not only win this race but to just even finish it, is etched on the grime-encrusted faces of every rider who crosses the line. Dubbed the “Hell of the North”, Paris-roubaix is a race that savagely demonstrates the grit and the glory of road cycle racing with a demeanour that is a throwback to the early days of organised cycle racing.

The Hell of the North, the moniker given to the Paris-roubaix race, despite its gruelling route over farm tracks and cobbles the size of loaves of bread towards the industrial north-west of France, is not however due to its tough conditions but dates back to when the race resumed after the Great War. The battles at Verdun, the Somme and many other places in northern France had decimated the area and when riders ventured north to do some reconnaissance of the route for the newly-restored event, they weren’t even sure if there would be roads to ride on. Even the traditional finish at the Roubaix velodrome had been stripped of its wooden boards by German soldiers looking for firewood. The race directors sent Victor Bryer to assess the devastation and writing in “L’auto” he reported: “We enter into the centre of the battlefield. There’s not a tree. Everything is flattened! There’s one shell hole after another. The only thing standing out in the churned earth are the crosses with their ribbons in blue, white and red. It is hell!”

The area recovered from the reek of death and decay over time, but Bryer’s description of what he had seen stuck.

The resumed race was scheduled to take place on Easter Sunday 1919 and 130 riders lined up at the start line. They took a minute of silence before the race commenced. Octave Lapize and François Faber were just two of the previous winners among many prominent pre-war cyclists who had lost their lives in the conflict. Many others were unable to cycle due to injuries sustained in the fighting. Henri Pélissier was the eventual winner that year, finishing in the Avenue des Villas in Roubaix as the velodrome was unusable.

This year’s edition of the race takes place tomorrow, Sunday April 8, and is a far cry from those early days at the start of the 20th Century, but it still evokes, as many of the great cycle races still do, the ghosts and memories of its long history. The eventual winner will receive a trophy, unique in cycling, of a massive lump of granite cobblestone. It is symbolic of the fortitude, not only required to win the race, but also of the weight of history that hangs heavy in the air in that part of France.

Where to ride: Paris Roubaix Challenge

Distance: 172km, 145km & 70km

When: The Saturday before the Paris Roubaix professional race

Description: The professionals race on the Sunday, but you can experience the “Hell of the North” the day before riding on three routes of different lengths. At first glance the longest distance seems achievable, but add in 54km of cobbled roads along 29 different sections and you have a whole new challenge ahead of you. You can sign up for the 2019 Roubaix Challenge on the event website Join the Blazing Saddles Strava Club at: strava.com/clubs/blazingsaddles Weekendcourier

The Hell of the North is a throwback to the early days of road cycling.