Paris–Roubaix is the Hell of the North, the Queen of the Classics, and the hardest one-day race in cycling. First run in 1896, it crosses roughly thirty sectors of brutal farm-road cobbles, the pavé, including the Trouée d'Arenberg and the Carrefour de l'Arbre, before finishing on the old concrete velodrome in Roubaix. There is no climbing to speak of and it is still the most feared race on the calendar, decided by punctures, crashes, dust or mud, and raw strength. Roger De Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen share the record with four wins each, the cobbled kings of their eras. In 2026 Wout van Aert finally won the race he had chased for years, soloing into the velodrome. A win here outlasts almost everything else a rider can do.