Maximilien Carlier
modified to
1:45 p.m., April 08, 2023
A hundred competitors are launching this Saturday in the 3ᵉ women’s edition of “The Hell of the North” with a course of around 150 kilometers. Some will also discover for the first time cobbled areas such as the crossroads of the tree or even Mons-en-Pévèle.
We hear the bikes slamming on the cobblestones. Six FDJ runners prepare the queen of the classics and cross different cobbled sections. A discovery for Clara Capponi. “It’s shaking, it’s hitting. You find yourself hitting a cobblestone, hitting a hole, it’s hell but it’s going to be one of the best days of our lives so it’s cool”. For this 3rd edition of Paris-Roubaix Féminin, the course extends over approximately 150 kilometers between Denain and Roubaix, of which around thirty kilometers are paved.
“We suffer a lot”
Marie Le Net is taking part in “L’Enfer du Nord” for the third time. So she gives some advice: “We are a little paralyzed in the arms because we have to manage to hold our handlebars, manage to stabilize it. I must admit, it’s not the best feeling on the body level, we suffer a lot and when we arrive on the road, it’s a relief… Except that it starts again a few kilometers later but it’s not serious.”
But experience is not enough to hope to win the mythical race. We must never forget the luck factor, and Marie Le Net is fully aware of it. “You have to know how to avoid falls, but also punctures”.