There’s no race on earth as beautiful as Paris-Roubaix. Beautiful, but dangerous, too. Difficult, impossible, a killer of bicycles and riders—The Hell of the North is all this and more. Its primitive cobblestones shake bikes and bones to bits. The fickle weather slurs from rain to snow to driving wind. The muddy course sucks and pulls at the racers’ wheels, with the treacherous ditches that flank the slippery cobblestones offering no surer path to victory.

From L’Équipe’s accomplished writers and celebrated archives comes this tale of Paris-Roubaix’s champions and their triumphs: Octave Lapize, Gaston Rebry, Rik Van Steenbergen and Fausto Coppi from the race’s early history; Eddy Merckx, Rik Van Looy, Roger De Vlaeminck, Bernard Hinault, Sean Kelly and Francesco Moser of the celebrated middle years; Marc Madiot, Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen of our modern era. The definitive history of these racers—and many more—are woven through a breathtaking narrative of cycling’s purest and most challenging event.

Paris-Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell recounts the history and exhilaration surrounding The Queen of the Classics through the voices of the race’s most fervent supporters and fans, and the awe-inspiring feats of the contenders themselves.
Hardcover; 224 pages; 320mm x 260mm; Colour Photography; Bouvet, Philippe; Callewaert, Pierre; Gatellier, Jean-Luc; Laget, Serge