Long Live The Queen

It's Sunday... It's April... It's time... L'Enfer du Nord. Paris-Roubaix, the Queen of the classics. The wiki page for this race is one of the best I've seen, well worth the read if you are interested. If you're not, here's the short version. 259km long, 28 sections of cobblestone roads, runs rain or shine. Shine is better.

The image above is from Sector 18, Trouée d'Arenberg. The Arenberg is one of the most famous sections of pavé. You hit it at 96km to go. You don't win the race here, but over the 2.4km of it, you certainly can lose it.

Here are a couple of YouTube clips. The first is the from best cycling movie ever, A Sunday In Hell.



The second is from the centenary edition of the race in 2002, set to that most awesome tune, O Fortuna from Carmina Burana. Carl Orrf's music is quite fitting here. It was not dry that year, also fitting.