2023 SPRING CLASSICS
PARIS ROUBAIX 4 DAY LONG WEEKEND

About our day:  Roubaix Challenge – Menon Gate WW 1 Memorial

Today is the day many of you will have been dreaming about for a long time – it’s your chance to ride the Paris Roubaix challenge over the same cobbles as tomorrows Paris Roubaix race. Within the stated 70km-145km routes, there’s an option available to riders of all fitness and abilities, let us know your preferred distance and we’ll work out a great option to suit you. 

After the Roubaix Challenge ride we transfer back to our Hotel, we’ll shower and clean up after a superb day on course. Late today we drive across to the Menin Gate Memorial to discover the town of Ypres and it’s incredible world war history.

8pm: We attend the Menon Gate, Last Post ceremony, it’s extremly moving to visit this ceremony dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed during World War 1 and whose graves are unknown. 

The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town Ypres and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927.

After we’ve visited The Menon Gate service, our return drive to our Hotel is approximately 45 minutes.

Non-cycling options:

Plenty of options today, based on your personal interests, you can travel with the group across to Roubaix in the morning, explore the town of Roubaix, or relax in Lille and discover more about this historic French City.

Alternatively Lille is only one hour away from Paris by TGV fast train, you could travel to the French capital to take in a spot of shopping and sightseeing.

Travel with the group to the Menon Gate to see the Last Post ceremony.

Our Rides:  Paris Roubaix Challenge

Ride Start: From 8.30am • Distance: 70km – 145km • Climbing: 300-600m 

The same roads, the same dreams, the same joy, the same pain: as a cyclists today you’ll experience the same emotions as Van Avermaet, Boonen and the other professionals on the Queen of the Classics, Paris-Roubaix!

Paris Roubaix Challenge is a ride you’ll never forget, it’s an incredible day every cyclist should experience once in their lifetime.

 Après Bike:

Suggested Post Ride rehydration: Plenty of great local sparkling mineral water. The minerals will assist in you recovery.

Vehicles Depart: 5.30pm Depart Lille to the Town of Ypres.
Dinner: Informal Social Dinner, we’ll take a quick dinner while we are in the town of Ypres pre the Last Post Ceremony (non inclusion).
The Last Post: 8pm

 Accommodation:

France, Four-Star Hotel. 2 of 3 Nights

About our day:  Paris Roubaix Race Day

The day we’ve all been waiting for, the 2020 Paris Roubaix race.

An exciting day of VIP Spectating with Phil Anderson as he guides us through the 2020 Paris Roubaix. We Depart our hotel early after breakfast to visit the Paris Roubaix start town. 

Upon arrival we’ll have some time to discover the race start town, take some morning tea and watch the riders prepair for the big day ahead. At 11am we’ll be there to see the official race start, it’s an incredible experience to see the riders headout to do battle on the roads of the Hell of the North.

After the start we’ll head back quickly to our waiting vehicles to transfer ahead of the race. We’ll pick up the race mid-route and enjoy a gourmet roadside picnic lunch including Champagne, some nice Belgium beer and cool drinks of your choice.

Back on the road, we jump ahead of the race again to position ourselves at various points along the race route, then move quickly to see the exciting closing stages of the race from inside the Roubaix Velodrome.

The Paris Roubaix race and the finish into the Roubaix velodrome is a once in a life time experience, it’s a very unpredictable race and incredible to be a part of all the action. You’ll absolutely love it.

Non-cycling options:

Travel with the group to experience the Paris Roubaix, it’s an exciting day to be around one of the biggest cycling events in Europe.

 Race: Paris Roubaix 257km

The Paris Roubaix is one of cycling’s oldest races, it was first run in 1896 and is one of the ‘Monuments’ or classics of the European calendar, and contributes points towards the UCI World Ranking.

The race has stopped only for the two world wars and was created by two Roubaix textile manufacturers, Théodore Vienne and Maurice Perez. Both men had been behind the building of the velodrome on 46,000 square metres at the corner of the rue Verte and the route d’Hempempont in Roubaix which opened on 9 June 1895

The course is maintained by Les Amis de Paris–Roubaix, a group of fans of the race formed in 1983. The forçats du pavé seek to keep the course safe for riders while maintaining its difficulty.

The race starts in Compeigne, France and covers 29 cobbled sectors over the 257km course til it reaches Roubaix. The race course route changes slightly over the years, 2019 Roubaix Winner was Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

Philippe Gilbert delivered a masterclass on the way to Roubaix to claim his fifth success in a Monument, after his victories in Lombardia (2009, 2010), Liège (2011) and Flanders (2017). The Belgian star is the first rider to dominate four different Monuments since Sean Kelly in the 1980s.

With the rise of young stars including Belgiums Wout van Aert and Dutch rider Mathieu van der poel, the 2020 edition of Paris Roubaix is going to be very exciting watching the establish riders do battle against the stars of the future.

History:
Seeking the challenge of racing on cobbles is relatively recent. It began at the same time in Paris–Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders, when widespread improvements to roads after the second world war brought realisation that the character of both races were changing. Until then the race had been over cobbles not because they were bad but because that was how roads were made.

André Mahé, who won in 1949 said, After the war, of course, the roads were all bad. There were cobbles from the moment you left Paris, there’d be stretches of surfaced roads and often there’d be a cycle path or a pavement and sometimes a thin stretch of something smoother.

You never knew where was best place to ride and you were for ever switching about. You could jump your bike up on to a pavement but that got harder the more tired you got. Then you’d get your front wheel up but not your back wheel. That happened to me, then you’d go sprawling of course and you could bring other riders down. Or they’d fall off and bring you down with them.

The cycle paths were often just compressed cinders, which got soft in the rain and got churned up by so many riders using them and then you got stuck and you lost your balance. Come what may, you got covered in coal dust and other muck, it’s all changed and you can’t compare then and now.

 Après Bike:

Suggested Post Ride rehydration: 

Dinner: 7pm, Farewell Dinner and Drinks. meet Hotel lobby for a short walk to our restaurant.

 Accommodation:

France, Four-Star Hotel. 3 of 3 Nights

About our day:  Departure Day – Au revoir

This morning after the excitement of the Paris Roubaix weekend, we’ll gather again over a hearty breakfast. Today we offer two transfer options depending on your needs, we’ll transfer you and your luggage to either:

9am: Lille TGV Train station, it’s very well connected by superfast TGV trains to all of the major European centers including Paris, Amsterdam, London etc or

12pm: Brussels Airport for flights departing after 3pm