The Cobbled Hell of Trouée d'Arenberg

The famous cobblestone road through the forest of Saint-Amand-Wallers, in France. Photo: Radu Razvan/Shutterstock.com The forest of Saint-Amand-Wallers, just outside Valenciennes, in northern France, is bisected by a perfectly straight cobbled road. Laid during the time of Napoleon I, in the late 18th century, this crudely constructed rural road connecting the mining village of Arenberg with other villages to the north, is normally used as a short cut by the locals. But once a year, the quietness of this country road is upended with chaos and mayhem, and often times with broken bones, bloody noses and mangled metal. Known as Trouée d'Arenberg, or Trench of Arenberg, this 2.3 kilometer long road is one of the hardest and the most dangerous sections of Paris–Roubaix, nicknamed the Hell of the North , one of the oldest cycling races in the world. This one-day men’s bicycle race starts from Paris and finishes in Roubaix, at the border with Belgium—a distance of 280 kilometers. A characteristic feature of this race is its notorious bone-juddering cobblestone sectors called pavé, that can intimidate even the most seasoned rider. The pavé vary in length from 300 meters to 3.7 km, and there are more than two dozen of these distributed throughout the race course. Together they account for over 50 kilometers of the total distance. Trouée d'Arenberg is one of the most brutal sectors. The stones are rough and grooved, resulting from poor cutting, and are unevenly placed, with huge gaps in between. When hit at high speeds, it can buckle wheels and toss riders off the seat. Cyclists on the Trouée d'Arenberg. Photo: gdela/Shutterstock.com A view of the Trouée d'Arenberg from the bridge. Photo: Jack Thurston/Wikimedia Commons “When you hit the cobbles for the first time, you’ll think ‘this is actually not too bad’,” former professional racer Ian Holt told Financial Times .