Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story. All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic

by Les Woodland

The Paris-Roubaix bicycle race, nicknamed "The Hell of the North", is famous for sending riders over brutal cobblestone roads. Only the strong, brave and lucky survive the hours of bone-shaking racing without suffering some mishap or catastrophe. It is so difficult no one wins it by accident, and winning Paris-Roubaix automatically puts a rider among the immortals of the sport.

How did that come to be? At one time roads everywhere were paved with cobbles. Why did Paris-Roubaix emerge to be such a special race? Les Woodland tells the inside story: how one of cycling's classics grew from several 19th century businessmen's plan to bring cycling to the mill town of Roubaix. It wasn't a sure thing, and several times it seemed the race might die. It's a fascinating tale, so fasten your seat belts, Les is going to take you on a bumpy ride.

Genres: Cycling, Nonfiction

198 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2013

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audible Audiobook

[James O'Carroll · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look at the history of one of cycling's most famous one day races. Covering its formation and quick overview of the winners through the years with quotes from riders who've experienced it. Not much depth to be fair but did cover how the race started and circumstances around it which I did find interesting to learn.

Jumps around at times and sometimes feels a bit disjointed but helped me learn a bit more about this race. Failed to grip me due to dull writing.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and enjoyable history of the race – alongside the usual descriptions of the races (often shortened due to the length of the book) there are side-tracks/anecdotes around the cyclists but also (the original part of the book) around the race’s founding and organisational history. Woodland has clearly carried out his own research – for example into the race’s Easter date (pointing out that the first race simply didn’t happen on Easter weekend despite the official historian’s version).

[Markg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Paris-Roubaix. Fantastic bike race. My favourite race of the year. I'm afraid to say that this book bored me to tears. Dry, dry history lesson that was interesting for a chapter or two and then just became stale and boring. It could have been so much better.

[Lee Kaliski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bit dull to be honest :-(

[Tudor Ciocarlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For every lover of cycling and Paris-Roubaix.

[Jay Waghray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classic. Where do I sign up?