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The Hell of the North: Paris-Roubaix preview

April 7, 2016
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Sunday is the 114th Paris-Roubaix, the legendary cobbled Monument of the hard men, and it’s looking to be another engrossing round in the final year of Peter Sagan vs Fabian Cancellara, a rivalry that’s been hotting up again this spring. The weather is looking to be wet, something that make the race more treacherous and difficult.


There are 52.8-km of cobbles over 257.5-km, with the first set at Troisville not until the 98.5-km mark. As recently as Tuesday, it was unclear whether the Troisville cobbles would be used because they were under thick mud. One change that the organizers did make was to move the start 20-minutes later to avoid last season’s scenes of a train creating a split in the peloton and some riders ducking under the barriers after they were lowered.

The hardest, five-star sections of cobbles are the Trouée d’Arenberg or Trench of Arenberg (km 162-2400 metres long), the Mons-en-Pévèle (km 209-3000 m) and the Le Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 240.5-2100 m). The Trench is dead straight and often mossy. The Mons-en-Pévèle section is slightly downhill at the start. The Carrefour is close to the end and the place where decisive moves from a select group are often made. The Trench has the worst cobbles, but all three sections are an uneven ride.

Here’s Trek’s Jasper Stuyven in Arenberg.

A tough pairing of lesser-rated sections is Hornaing (km 175-3700 m) and Warlaing-Brillon (km 182.5-2400 m) between Arenberg and Mons-en-Pévèle. The position battle is fierce between the two long, bumpy roads.

Reigning champion John Degenkolb (Germany) is still out via injuries sustained in a January training crash when a car hit Degenkolb and five teammates head on. Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC), who won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Tirreno-Adriatico, broke his collarbone is last week’s Tour of Flanders. Milan-San Remo champion Arnaud Démare (France/FDJ) will also miss out from Tour of Flanders injuries.

World Champion Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff) was won his last two races, Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders, while coming runner-up in E3 Harelbeke and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He is looking imperious and only the brave battling of three-time winner and Strade Bianche victor Fabian Cancellara can compare this spring.

Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium/LottoNL-Jumbo) is erasing his frustrating 2015 with a fine 2016 campaign, standing on the podium with Peter Sagan over the last two weekends. Alexander Kristoff (Norway/Katusha) was runner-up to Stuyven in Kuurne-Brusells-Kuurne and fourth last week in Flanders.

Etixx-QuickStep has their usual gang of likely lads: four-time cobble trophy winner Tom Boonen (Belgium), last year’s runner-up Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic), and 2014 champion Dutchman Niki Terpstra.

One rider who have been talking about how a wet, slippery, mucky course would suit him is Ian Stannard (Great Britain/Sky). Another rider who might make his way into the famous Roubaix velodrome for the final sprint is Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway/Dimension Data).

Canadians in the mix are Svein Tuft (Orica-GreenEdge) contesting his second Hell of the North and the Direct Energie duo of Ryan Anderson–109th in his first ever Classic last week–and Antoine Duchesne, racing his third Paris-Roubaix.

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