Mons-en-Pévèle
Cobbled sector · Roubaix
Checked
part of: The pavé of Paris–Roubaix
Mons-en-Pévèle is a 3.0 km cobbled sector in Roubaix, essentially level (+14 m over its full length). It is 1.9 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
One of only three five-star sectors in Paris-Roubaix, alongside Arenberg and the Carrefour de l'Arbre, three kilometres of farm track about 48 km from the velodrome. It keeps settling the race: Cancellara rode away on it in 2010, and the five who came off it together in 2016 were the top five in Roubaix.
3.0 km · level · +14 m · 1.9 km cobbled · 51 → 63 m
Route and surface read from OpenStreetMap, elevation from satellite data — approximate.
Download GPX ↓Navigate to the start ↗
Elevation is drawn to the same scale on every segment, so a level sector looks level. The bands beneath the line are surface, not gradient.
History
Paris-Roubaix came to these farm roads in 1978, when the organisers were hunting cobbles to replace the ones vanishing under asphalt, and took the rue du Cimetière, the pavé du Blocus and the Croix Blanche, tracks the tractors go back to work on the day after the race. The race had climbed the same hill before by a different road, the Pas Roland, 1.1 km of cobbles at 4% where Felice Gimondi attacked to win alone in 1966, and which was tarmacked before the 1967 edition. Every edition since 1978 has used the sector except 2001, and in 1997, 2000, 2002 and 2003 only its first 1,100 metres. Classed five stars, one of three on the route with the Trouée d'Arenberg and the Carrefour de l'Arbre, and standing about 48 km from the velodrome, it keeps settling the race: George Hincapie's aluminium steerer tube snapped here in 2006 and he crashed out with a separated collarbone, Stijn Devolder's attack in 2008 set up the win for his Quick Step team-mate Tom Boonen, Boonen cut the lead group to six on it in 2009, Fabian Cancellara went away on it in 2010 to ride in alone, and in 2016 the five who came off it together, Mathew Hayman, Boonen, Ian Stannard, Sep Vanmarcke and Edvald Boasson Hagen, were the five who filled the top five at Roubaix while Cancellara crashed here out of contention. The stones are kept by hand: since 2002 pupils from the horticultural schools of Raismes and Lomme have relaid sectors each year alongside Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix, and from 14 to 28 March 2022 twenty-three Lomme students rebuilt about 120 m² of the Croix Blanche and the Blocus, some 3,600 cobbles over 80 metres, for 3,372 euros paid by the Pévèle Carembault community of communes, three weeks before the 2022 races came through.
What it’s like to ride
Mons-en-Pévèle is three kilometres of farm track and one of only three five-star sectors in Paris-Roubaix, alongside Arenberg and the Carrefour de l'Arbre. The stones are less vicious than Arenberg's, less disjointed, less irregular and less protruding, with dusty earth filling the gaps in places, and it can be ridden faster than the forest, though it still shakes very hard. There is no clean line: it is full of dust, the crown breaks up under the wheels, the gutters that look smoother pull you over, and the nearest thing to a good trajectory is in the first third, on the Pavé de la Croix Blanche. The shape does the rest of the damage, a narrow right-angle entry onto a short descent, then a slight rise, a 90 degree right, a break of asphalt, and a tight left that takes away whatever speed is left, after which the pavé gets worse again before the final 1,100 metres tilt up at about 2 percent to the village. Two percent sounds like nothing, and after three kilometres of stones it hurts. The sector crosses open fields east to west with no shelter from the wind, and in the wet it is muddy end to end, the left-hand turn worst of all. The road is a public farm track with light traffic, back under tractors the day after the race, and it is on the Paris-Roubaix Challenge route, for which 28 to 32 mm tyres are the recommended minimum.
Surface and what to expect
1.9 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
- Cobbleskm 0.0–0.2
- Cobbleskm 1.3–3.0
More to ride in Roubaix
Common questions
- How long is Mons-en-Pévèle?
- Mons-en-Pévèle is a 3.0 km cobbled sector in Roubaix, essentially level (+14 m over its full length). It is 1.9 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
- What is the surface like on Mons-en-Pévèle?
- Mons-en-Pévèle is 1.9 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt, measured from OpenStreetMap surface tags along the route.
- Is Mons-en-Pévèle flat?
- Effectively, yes. It gains 14 m across 3.0 km — an average of 0.4%.