The timeless charm of Paris-Roubaix

According to a recoverable passage on the official website: "the Paris-Roubaix is a race for specialists, perhaps the most untamable of the classics and certainly the one with the most severe physical and technical requirements". A definition that perfectly matches an elegant and aristocratic nickname with which the race has been renamed, namely the "Queen of the Classics". According to the most famous quote in the history of Paris-Roubaix, it is: "a shitty race! We race like animals and we don't even have time to pee, so we do it in our pants. We race in the mud, we slip everywhere, it's a mountain of shit!".

The words are from Theo de Rooij and were spoken on CBS microphones at the end of the 1985 edition to strongly reaffirm the second nickname by which the Paris-Roubaix is known, namely the "Hell of the North". Whichever point of view one chooses, the result does not change: the Paris-Roubaix is a cycling race like no other, a fascinating race that forces anyone who participates to face their physical limits, to deal with pain and to test their strength of will.

The cobbles of Roubaix

Undoubtedly the first element that makes the Paris-Roubaix unique is the cobbled roads, which make up 55 of the two hundred and sixty kilometers that separate Compiègne, the city from which the race has started since 1977 even though the original location is still in the name, from the Roubaix velodrome.

The most famous passage is experienced by crossing what has been renamed as the "Forest of Arenberg", one of the three sections characterized by 5 stars of difficulty, a straight line of 2.5 kilometers with a small strip of cobblestones that runs through a forest near the city of Wallers, first arranged by the Napoleonic army and later used to connect the coal mines in the area. Legend has it that this section was discovered by Jean Stablinski, appointed by the race director Jacques Goddet to locate as many cobbled roads as possible to include in the race route. This stretch of race was first used in 1968 and has only been removed from the program once, in 2005.

The scene is always the same: cyclists jostling at the front of the group to enter the section first and minimize the risk of a fall on the stones that could not only jeopardize the race, but also their career or even their life. As happened to three-time winner Johan Museeuw, who recounted risking the amputation of a leg after a fall in the forest as his knee wound became infected with the manure on the road.

The arrival at the Roubaix velodrome

For the 2025 edition of the men's race, there are expected to be 30 cobbled sections, where the bike is uncontrollable, where the hands are filled with blisters and the muscles harden from the vibration of the bike, where the slightest mistake results in a fall, where you can puncture and ruin everything. But if the riders are able to overcome all of this, the reward is priceless. In fact, the Paris-Roubaix ends at the André-Pétrieux Velodrome, the facility inaugurated in 1936 and which since then, with few exceptions, has always welcomed dusty and muddy cyclists for the final stretch of the race.

A lap and a half of the circuit, a circular strip of 750 meters, which sometimes represents the final catwalk for those who have managed to go on a solo breakaway, and sometimes becomes the saloon for the final showdown between escapees vying for victory. The decision to end the race in a velodrome represents the very reason for the existence of the Paris-Roubaix, as the first edition in 1896 was held to promote the construction of the "Vélodrome Roubaisien", a facility financed by entrepreneurs Théo Vienne and Maurice Perez, who convinced the director of the magazine Le Vélo to organize a race that started from Paris and ended in a velodrome near the border with Belgium.

The showers

There is one last aspect that makes this race, on the brink between the heroic and the romantic, even more fascinating. However, it is a passage that only cyclists can fully enjoy. The André-Pétrieux Velodrome is equipped with a shower room that is still the same as on the day of its inauguration. A room with dozens of showers separated by small concrete walls with plaques bearing the names of the winners and a chain system to activate them. A mystical place, where the cyclist can finally breathe and begin to become aware of their wounds, pains, and feelings. In the past, the passage of cyclists through this room was almost a natural consequence at the end of the race, but now it is no longer so obvious.

Professional teams, in fact, have mobile structures designed to offer the best possible recovery after a race. Nevertheless, the romantic side persists and almost all riders at least once in their career, in addition to participating in the Paris-Roubaix, take a shower in this place to "breathe in the history". There are those who indulge in a long expiatory shower, those who stay under the water just long enough to get wet, those who are photographed for sponsorship reasons, and those who joke with other cyclists to decompress the pressure. Everyone is satisfied or relieved to have completed the toughest and most fascinating road race in the history of cycling.