Paris-Roubaix Challenge

Buckle up – things are about to get choppy

Date: Saturday 10 April Website: parisroubaixchallenge.com

This is the only one of the four Monuments sportives that Cycling Plus is yet to ride, but we did get the chance to preview several key cobble sectors of the first event back in 2011 with the one and only Bernard Hinault, the French fivetime winner of the Tour de France who won his only Paris-Roubaix in 1981. He famously referred to the race as “bullshit” shortly after that win as well as, upping his zinger count further, “a race for dickheads”. So you get the idea that he was no fan of the cobbles, particularly when they appeared on the Tour de France route, but he sure did relish putting the hurt on associated journalists, twinkle in his eyes, at the head of this recce, even then aged 56.

You may well be uttering similar epithets at the conclusion of the ParisRoubaix Challenge. The televisual spectacle of such a savage race makes it arguably the highlight of the whole season. Maybe Hinault is right. Perhaps Paris-Roubaix is one of the few bike races where the watching is better than the doing. Almost entirely free of any climbing, with distances of up to 172km and including all the famous cobbled sectors such as the Forest of Arenberg, it’s the sort of ride that you emerge from knowing you’ve had an almighty test. Then again, if this is the sort of riding you love and you’re in possession of the sort of physique that allows you to thrive on it, then this sportive is the ultimate example of the genre.