Paris-Roubaix

**Paris-Roubaix** is a famous single-day professional bicycle road race held in northern France starting in Compiègne and finishing in Roubaix, near the Belgian frontier.  It was one of the ten UCI Road World Cup races and became part of the UCI ProTour. It is one of the 'Classic cycle races' has the nickname _The Hell of the North_ .

## History

Paris-Roubaix is one of the oldest professional bicycle races. Théo Vienne and Maurice Perez got the idea to run the race and in 1896, the sports newspaper Le Vélo worked out original route between Paris and Roubaix. The race has been contested every year since 1896, stopped only by the two World wars.

The first edition of the race was held at Easter, April 19 1896, so it got the nickname of _La Pascale_(English: _The Easter_).

188 competitors left the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris and raced almost 300 kilometres to Roubaix. Josef Fischer, the winner of this first edition, received 1000 francs.

The race is now organised by the media group Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) who also run the Tour de France.

Riders are often covered from head to toe in mud and grit, and race over the cobblestoned roads and hard rutted tracks of northern France.  However, the race got the nickname _l'enfer du Nord_, or the _Hell of the North_ from journalists who watched the race after world war I, and saw it  pass through many of the ruins, craters, and destruction along the way.

Originally, the race was from Paris to Roubaix, but in 1966 the starting location was moved to Chantilly, 50 kilometres to the north of Paris, to be moved in 1977 to Compiègne, approximately 80 kilometres to the north of Paris. Famous for rough terrain, the route of Paris-Roubaix is adjusted slightly from year to year as the older roads are resurfaced and the race organisers seek to replace them with other challenging cobbles, to maintain the character of the race - in 2005, for example, the race included 54.7 kilometres of cobbled sections. The race finishes  with 750 meters on the smooth concrete expanses of the large outdoor velodrome in Roubaix.

## The bicycles of Paris-Roubaix

Due to its challenging course, and poor weather conditions, Paris-Roubaix presents a challenge to riders, team support personnel, and equipment alike.  Special frames and wheels are often used specifically for Paris-Roubaix, in various configurations depending on the weather conditions.

## Further reading

- Philippe Bouvet (with Pierre Callewaert, Jean-Luc Gatellier, Laget Serge): _Paris-Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell_  VeloPress, . The inside story of the race, its great riders, its traditions, and its secrets

## Winners

|Country|Year|Name|Team|Team Country|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||1896|Josef Fischer|||
||1897|Maurice Garin|||
||1898|Maurice Garin|||
||1899|Albert Champion|||
||1900|Emile Bouhours|||
||1901|Lucien Lesna|||
||1902|Lucien Lesna|||
||1903|Hippolyte Aucouturier|||
||1904|Hippolyte Aucouturier|||
||1905|Louis Trousselier|||
||1906|Henri Cornet|||
||1907|Georges Passerieu|||
||1908|Cyrille Van Hauwaert|||
||1909|Octave Lapize|||
||1910|Octave Lapize|||
||1911|Octave Lapize|||
||1912|Charles Crupelandt|||
||1913|François Faber|||
||1914|Charles Crupelandt|||
|Not held|1915|World War I|||
|1916|||||
|1917|||||
|1918|||||
||1919|Henri Pélissier|||
||1920|Paul Deman|||
||1921|Henri Pélissier|||
||1922|Berten Dejonghe|||
||1923|Heiri Suter|||
||1924|Jules Van Hevel|||
||1925|Felix Sellier|||
||1926|Julien Delbecque|||
||1927|Georges Ronsse|||
||1928|Andre Leducq|||
||1929|Charles Meunier|||
||1930|Julien Vervaecke|||
||1931|Gaston Rebry|||
||1932|Romain Gijssels|||
||1933|Sylvère Maes|||
||1934|Gaston Rebry|||
||1935|Gaston Rebry|||
||1936|Georges Speicher|||
||1937|Jules Rossi|||
||1938|Lucien Storme|||
||1939|Emile Masson jr|||
|Not held|1940|World War II|||
|1941|||||
|1942|||||
||1943|Marcel Kint|||
||1944|Maurice Desimpelaere|||
||1945|Paul Maye|||
||1946|Georges Claes|||
||1947|Georges Claes|||
||1948|Rik Van Steenbergen|||
|and|1949|André Mahé and|||
||Serse Coppi||||
||1950|Fausto Coppi|||
||1951|Antonio Bevilacqua|||
||1952|Rik Van Steenbergen|||
||1953|Germain Derijcke|||
||1954|Raymond Impanis|||
||1955|Jean Forestier|||
||1956|Louison Bobet|||
||1957|Fred De Bruyne|||
||1958|Leon Van Daele|||
||1959|Noel Fore|||
||1960|Pino Cerami|||
||1961|Rik Van Looy|||
||1962|Rik Van Looy|||
||1963|Emile Daems|||
||1964|Peter Post|||
||1965|Rik Van Looy|||
||1966|Felice Gimondi|||
||1967|Jan Janssen|||
||1968|Eddy Merckx|||
||1969|Walter Godefroot|||
||1970|Eddy Merckx|||
||1971|Roger Rosiers|||
||1972|Roger De Vlaeminck|||
||1973|Eddy Merckx|||
||1974|Roger De Vlaeminck|||
||1975|Roger De Vlaeminck|||
||1976|Marc Demeyer|||
||1977|Roger De Vlaeminck|||
||1978|Francesco Moser|||
||1979|Francesco Moser|||
||1980|Francesco Moser|||
||1981|Bernard Hinault|||
||1982|Jan Raas|||
||1983|Hennie Kuiper|||
||1984|Seán Kelly|||
||1985|Marc Madiot|||
||1986|Seán Kelly|||
||1987|Eric Vanderaerden|||
||1988|Dirk Demol|||
||1989|Jean-Marie Wampers|||
||1990|Eddy Planckaert|||
||1991|Marc Madiot|||
||1992|Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle|||
||1993|Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle|||
||1994|Andrei Tchmil|||
||1995|Franco Ballerini|||
||1996|Johan Museeuw|||
||1997|Frédéric Guesdon|||
||1998|Franco Ballerini|Mapei-Bricobi||
||1999|Andrea Tafi|Mapei-Quick Step||
||2000|Johan Museeuw|Mapei||
||2001|Servais Knaven|Domo-Farm Frites||
||2002|Johan Museeuw|Lotto-Domo||
||2003|Peter Van Petegem|Lotto-Domo||
||2004|Magnus Bäckstedt|Alessio-Bianchi||
||2005|Tom Boonen|Quick Step||
||2006|Fabian Cancellara|Team CSC||
||2007|Stuart O'Grady|Team CSC||
||2008|Tom Boonen|Quick Step||
||2009|Tom Boonen|Quick Step||
||2010|Fabian Cancellara|Saxo Bank||
|10 April|2011||||

## Infobox (cycling race)

- **name**: Paris-Roubaix
- **date**: Early-April
- **region**: Northern France
- **english**: Paris-Roubaix
- **localnames**: Paris-Roubaix
- **nickname**: The Hell of the North
Queen of the Classics
The Easter race
- **discipline**: Road
- **competition**: UCI ProTour
- **type**: Monument one-day race
- **organiser**: Amaury Sport Organisation
- **first**: 1896
- **number**: 105 (as of 2007)
- **firstwinner**: Josef Fischer
- **mostwins**: Roger De Vlaeminck
(4 wins)
- **mostrecent**: Stuart O'Grady