For the first time, cyclists set out on a pilgrimage between Paris and Roubaix 120 years ago. Then, in 1919, Eugene Christophe, the legend of the Tour de France, created the nickname of this classic when he said after the race: “It’s a real hell of the north.” But in the 1960s, hell was suddenly threatening to lose frightening of its cobbled sections.

“At that time, the mayors wanted to modernize everything, so when the race led through their village, they ordered asphalting the road. They did not wish the rest of France to think of them as Backcountry, ”Stablinski said.

By 1965, only 22 out of 265 kilometers had led to pave while more than 60 had been before the war.So race director Jacques Goddet called on his adjutant Albert Bouvet: “Find some other dice roads in that area.”

“Oh, yeah. In the countryside, there are plenty of terrible paths to pave. His father worked in the Arben mines, but died during the war, run over by a Nazi military transporter. At the age of 12, Jean left school and trained as a plumber. Despite his mother’s resistance, he started racing on a bike.But before he became a pro, he worked in the local mines as a coal cart pusher, while his mother worked in a pottery workshop on the surface, where she sometimes came down the road through the Arben forest. “I knew it was a pretty horrible journey with terrible cubes. When I was afraid to show her to Bouvet, “he remembered later. “Yet I did and he was overwhelmed.”

In the spring of 1968, Goddet and Bouvet brought the riders of the Paris-Roubaix race here for the first time. The last time Stablinski starts, his Fan Club puts on mining mines.While he gives the race goodbye as a rider at the age of 36, he remains as a “discoverer” of cycling Arenberg with him forever.

“What did you think? Are you not a sadist? ”The reporter asks.

” Maybe a little, “he says. “I mainly wanted to preserve the character of Hell of the North. To always win a really big champion. ”

Currently, Arenberg is coming 96 kilometers ahead. “You can’t win a race here, but often a band is born here with a later winner,” Stablinski said. tens of 2,400 meters of tension on a neglected road along the mining towers and in a landscape devastated by a long-dead industry.An exhausting passage through a shabby wood with birch trees that seemed to never see enough sunshine.

There’s the worst surface a cyclist can encounter. The path leads along sharp, strangely broken, often crumbling and wobbling stones, beneath the rusting railway bridge, where so much dirt fell from the coal train to the track. . Especially the first hundreds of meters, when you fly here over 60 km / h, are extremely dangerous. The bike flies here in all directions. ”

FIGHTING ARENBERG. Stuart O’Grady leads the field of riders in the 2013 season. “You have to be ready to make a decision in a split second and do it right,” says Eddy Planckaert, the 1990 champion. His colleagues add: And you have to put your bodies in the hands of a guardian angel.

From 1974 to 1983, the National Forest Office closed the passage through Arenberg.When the race came back in 1984, all Renault-favored cyclists lost all hope here, and their manager, Cyrille Guimard, said: “At the end of Arenberg, half of my riders were lying on their backs and the other half stabbed. The Ardennes Pave has always been a witness to a brutal struggle for positions. Johan Museeuw, a triple winner, fell in 1998 and gangrene nearly lost his leg. That’s why in the next two years cyclists headed for Arenberg from the other side with a slower raid. In 2001, however, the original itinerary was back. Philippe Gaumont rode the road from the first position, fell and broke his femur.

“My knee holster turned to the right, and my open fracture tore my muscles.At a speed of 60 km / h and 180 beats per minute, a colossal amount of blood was pumped into them, so it sprayed all around. ”

He spent a month and a half in his bed, unable to move. In 2005, the organizers left Arenberg out of their minds, and, according to their court, the desperate state of the security had gone beyond safety. The regional and local authorities then donated 250,000 euros to replace the missing bricks that had been faded or stolen by the fans, while extending the width of the trip from three meters to three and a half.

The local mine was closed down in 1990. Jean Stablinski, who ironically never won Paris-Roubaix, died 17 years later after a long illness. During the following year, his memorial was unveiled at the track.

WINNER AND TROFE.Fabian Cancellara won the rare trophy three times, most recently in 2013.

After overcoming Arenberg, seventeen other pava sections will be tested this year. Peter Sagan is the biggest candidate for the title and Fabiana Cancellaro is another big parting career, while John Degenkolb, the wounded title defender, will remain on TV. But last year’s Crown Prince Zdeněk Štybar is one of the top five favorites according to sportsbooks.

Will you marry me? I’m not gonna give you a ring.I’ll give you a cube

“Paris-Roubaix is ​​the last madness that cycling offers,” said former director Jacques Goddet.

Not the oldest one, Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

He doesn’t like a million viewers like Flanders. Yet, the Hell of the North boasts the proud title of Queen of the Classics.When Andrea Tafi won it in April 1999, he said: “I will use it as the cornerstone of my new house because there is no more valuable stone.”

Johan van Summeren, the sensational winner of Hell of North 2011, asked she said, “Yes.”

Then he said to her, “Most people would give you a ring for such a request.” I’m giving you a dice. ”