L’Enfer Du Nord

I rode Paris Roubaix on the 7th.  It is known as the “hell of the north” which is the French title above.

It was amazing. 173 km total with 54 of it on roads like in the video. I have wanted to ride the cobbles my entire adult life, ever since I have been a cycling fan.

I don’t expect anyone to understand this,  these cobbles are brutally hard.  This is almost the hardest day I have ever had on a bike.  6+ hours of pedaling with a few rest stops to socialize and refuel.  6000 people did the event.  (Not 8000, that was last year).

As a quick teaser, here is video from my handlebar of the Trouée (trench) of Arenberg, one of the most difficult sections. Watch the guy in front of me and next to me bounce around. I found that speed over these cobbles is the only way to make them smoother, so I tried to go as fast as I could.

Johan Museeuw crashed here as the race favorite in 1998 and broke his knee cap (open fracture) that got infected and almost was amputated. Video upload problems from hotel forced me to put it on YouTube in standard definition. Hopefully the next hotel has better WiFi?