Paris Roubaix Cycling Event

Apr 10, 2020 at 7 AM – Apr 12, 2020 at 10 PM

Our longest standing and favourite trip of the year.
This will be our 4th time heading over to France for Paris-Roubaix.

Paris-Roubaix – April 10^th-12^th

£350 including return travel in our minibus, accommodation in twin rooms, lunch on race day including hot tea! Travel to race start and return from finish, race entry and insurance, trip to watch the pro race on Sunday. You will also have a ride captain out on the road with you and rolling support from our professional soigneur in the team van.

Does not include celebration dinner on Friday and Saturday evening or breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, however there are plenty of options for all budgets. You may also want to take 20 euros for a cobble stone for your fireplace.

Nicknamed ‘The Hell of the North’, this is one of the biggest, toughest and most iconic bike races you can do.
For those that don’t know it, it’s 110 miles long, including 55km of cobbles, or Pave as it’s known locally, split over nearly 30 sections, lasting from just 500m to nearly 4km long. The finish is one of the most famous in bike racing, in the Velodrome of Roubaix itself, completing a lap to finish on the same stretch as former winners such as Peter Sagan, Eddy Merckx, Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen and a host of other hard men of the sport.

We travel on Friday morning, taking the Eurotunnel to Calais, then arriving and pickingriders up race packs at the Roubaix Velodrome in the afternoon, before heading back to our hotel for a relaxing evening. Then in the morning we’ll take you out to the start of the race, grab a last minute coffee and pastry before setting off. This is what makes coming with us so special, most people will have been sat on a cold bus since 4am with their bike put onto a lorry to meet them there. We will leave at a much more civil hour, have breakfast in the nice warm van, listen to the specially selected Paris-Roubaix mix tape (no refunds…there’s not much quality Euro Pop music about bike racing!) before making a choice 5 minutes before the start about what to wear, how many layers to stick in the jersey, and what to leave in the van for our halfway meet up.

We will then ride at our own pace, stopping at one aid station laid on by the race, before meeting the van again just after the infamous 5 start sector of cobbles, the Arenburg Forest. We will then have lunch laid on for you, hot soup, cup of tea as well as sandwiches, nibbles and energy food. Again, no-one else is getting this, most riders are pushing on to the 2nd aid station, but you will be able to change, add layers, leave clothes behind, top up your bottles, apply extra bum cream, put on gloves…the choice is what makes coming with us so special.
Then it’s one more aid station, another 5 star section of cobbles (or maybe 2) and a sprint round the velodrome to be met by us with a nice beer!
Then it’s back to the hotel, shower, change, relax and hit the restaurant next door for dinner together and as many 12% Belgian beers as you dare to drink.

Sunday is all about watching the Pro Race, back to the Arenburg for the street party that the locals put on, watch the race unfold on the big screen, before heading to our vantage point up n the bridge to watch the top guys come through (they fly through, it’s quite upsetting really!).
Then jump in the van, back to the Eurotunnel and back to HQ for around 10pm, ready for work on Monday. It’ll be like you were never away…but you’ll always know (unless you buy a commemorative cobble and put it on your desk so people have to ask you where you were at the weekend).
We’ll do all the driving, you sit back and relax, chat, eat, make friends, and don’t forget the now world famous quiz!

The whole Roubaix Cycling Event will cost you just £350, that includes race entry, travel there and to the race start, accommodation in a twin room, aid station, beer at the velodrome, day out to watch the pro race. You’ll need extra money for food and beer (there’s a McDonalds if you’re on a budget, or a 5 star restaurant if you’re celebrating and a couple of other choices inbetween, plenty of options to suit everyone) and some Paris-Roubaix related souvenirs if you want them.

There are only 6 spaces for this event, so get your deposit in now.

£150 non-refundable deposit, then two payments of £100.

THE LEGEND OF THE HELL OF THE NORTH

Like the Paris-Nice Challenge and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège Challenge, the Paris-Roubaix Challenge offers amateur cyclists the possibility of getting as close as possible to a legendary professional race: Paris-Roubaix.

24 hours before the professionals, amateurs from around the world will have the opportunity to measure themselves against the legend of the Hell of the North with its mythical cobbled sections like the “Carrefour de l’Arbre” or the “Trouée d’Arenberg”.

There are three increasingly difficult routes on offer, on roads which are open to traffic but secured by numerous volunteers and motorcyclists. There is a legendary race for everyone, covering distances from 70km to 172km.