The following article appeared in Procycling magazine's April edition.
There’s no race quite like Paris-Roubaix, at once beautifully simple and incredibly complicated. Here, four former winners explain what it takes to survive and succeed in the Hell of the North.
MATHEW HAYMAN
2016 winner
“Knowing the roads and having a familiarity with all the sectors is key. In the Tour of Flanders you race over those roads all year but in Roubaix those sectors only come around once, maybe now and then in the Tour, so I’ve built up a bit of a repertoire there. I’ve finished the race 15 times and I’ve done recon maybe another 15 times. It takes a little while to learn the intricacies but after a few years you can pick up a hell of a lot.
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“That can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. I know every corner where someone has crashed or where I’ve punctured in the past. That can make you more tentative because there are quite a few corners that can be dangerous in Roubaix. Sometimes I’ve backed off even when there’s been no reason to do so.
“The advantages are that you save energy and you know what corners are coming up, and which ones you need to be at the front for. Roubaix is one big slog and it’s about conserving energy. You’ve got to weigh up each sector when it comes to how much energy you spend moving up. You don’t want to save all your energy and end up racing at the back.
“A lot of the efforts are done in the sprints for positioning and often when you get onto the cobbles near the front you save so much energy. The massive advantage I had last year was that I was in the break and didn’t have to do any of the high-end efforts until the break was caught at the second feed.”
TOM BOONEN
2005, 2008, 2009, 2012 winner
STUART O’GRADY
2007 winner
JOHN DEGENKOLB
2015 Winner
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