[Garp]

Great to see that this gets coverage Stateside. I too like to see a Belgian win the one day Classics but Cancellara really deserves his victories.
Perhaps the weather has to be a lot more hostile in order for Belgians to have a chance. BTW, this year's TdF will have a stretch of cobblestones.

This is unquestionably one of the highlights of the first week of the race, and a major first for this stage start and finish. Cobblestones haven’t been negotiated on the Tour since 2004. There will be 7 cobbled sectors over a total of 13,2 kilometres, including the Haveluy sector, only ten kilometres from the stage finish. The finish line will be located at the entrance to the notorious Arenberg Trench, the legendary backdrop to Paris-Roubaix.

What can you say about Arenberg that hasn’t been said a million times before. For many people – fans and detractors alike – this is the essence of Paris-Roubaix. Despite the fact that it’s still nearly 100 km from the velodrome, there is always incident. This is the point where – because of the extremity of the surface – the favourites start to put the hurt on to the also-rans, and hopefully on to each other. Discovered by former Tour winner – and local boy – Jean Stablinski, and introduced in the 1968 race (the first “modern” edition), it’s been a fixture ever since 1983, except for in 2005 when it was decided that it was too dangerous and had to be repaired.

Because of the shelter given by the overhanging trees along its length, and because of the underground aquifer that is reputedly very close to the surface, the ground here never seems to fully dry out. Coupled with the subsidence that hundreds of years of mining can cause to the area, this is one of the most unbelievable roads in the world. In recent years there have been a number of serious incidents here that have put its use in jeopardy, most notably in 1998 when Johann Museeuw fell and smashed his kneecap just a week after his dominant third victory in the Tour of Flanders, causing the organisers to run the course from the opposite end so that they wouldn’t hit it so fast.

Until a few years ago, it was possible to ride along the mud at the sides, amongst and even behind the spectators, but the organisers have now put barriers along the length of the Trouée to prevent this. Now everybody gets to experience the seventh level of Hell!

The race hits this secteur at the end of a long straight road out of the picturesque old mining town of Arenberg so they’re generally travelling at speeds of up to 60 km/h. On dry days all they have to cope with is the fact that it seems to be surface with randomly sized stones, arranged in an uneven and seemingly random way. If it’s wet then the stones will also be glacially slippery. It slopes gently downwards for the first few hundred metres allowing riders to maintain, or even increase their speed, before levelling off and sloping ever so slightly upwards for the remainder of its length. The unevenness of the surface makes this slight gradient seem a thousand times worse.

There are always crashes here, because everybody wants to be near the front at this point. Mud on the cobbles – churned up by race vehicles, and often deliberately by the thousands of fans who always come here – makes it all the more treacherous.

They don’t give this one five stars because of its soft bathrobes!