COMPIGNE: Defending champion Mathieu van der Poel goes into Sunday’s muddy, cobbled Paris-Roubaix bike race sceptical over new safety measures in a week when several of the sport’s biggest stars were hospitalised.

Miles of mud and millions of cobbles have lent the race the name of ‘the Hell of the North’ and a reputation of the most gruelling one-day race in cycling.

In 2018, one competitor the Belgian Michael Goolaerts was found slumped dead by the roadside after heart failure, and the peloton will pass a memorial to him along the route.

First run in 1896, broken wheels and broken bones have been part of the history of the annual race due to the hefty hunks of cobble that surface around 57km of the 260km route.

Organisers this week introduced a u-turn to slow the riders ahead of their entry into the legendary section outside the 650m deep Arenberg coal-mine.

World champion and one day racing’s hottest star van der Poel asked on X: “Is this a joke”.

But as cycling fans tune in Sunday, their thoughts will be with Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic, who were among those hospitalised after crashing at the Tour of the Basque Country on Thursday.

Of road cycling’s five huge one-day races known as the Monuments due to their epic length Paris-Roubaix, which now starts in Compiegne 80km from the French capital, is known as ‘Queen of the classics’ because it is the toughest.

The 25 teams select seven of their sturdiest riders on the cobbles to cope with the repeated punctures and frequent falls.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2024