Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre
Cobbled sector · Roubaix
Checked
part of: The pavé of Paris–Roubaix
Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre is a 3.7 km cobbled sector in Roubaix, essentially level (+29 m over its full length). It is 3.2 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
The longest unbroken stretch of pavé in the race at 3.7 km, and the first four-star sector of the day. In the route since 1973, it opens the Cambrésis sequence where Roubaix starts wearing riders down; the Tour de France borrowed the whole sector in 2015.
3.7 km · level · +29 m · 3.2 km cobbled · 91 → 115 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 first took this road in 1973, and it has run in the opening Cambrésis sequence ever since, carried in the 2026 roadbook as sector 28 at km 104.9. Its 3.7 km make it the longest continuous stretch of pavé in the race, level with Hornaing to Wandignies-Hamage; it has held four stars for years, and its last section was re-laid in 2007. The Tour de France borrowed the whole sector on stage 4 into Cambrai on 7 July 2015, ridden the other way and numbered sector 2 of that stage, 23.5 km from the line, under the name Fontaine-au-Tertre à Quiévy. On 9 April 2017 it produced the first heavy crash of the day at 13h30, 151 km from the velodrome, putting Oliver Naesen and two AG2R team-mates down along with Yves Lampaert and Nélson Oliveira. In 2024 Alpecin-Deceuninck lifted the pace the moment the peloton came off these cobbles and the race split, with Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen, Mads Pedersen and Stefan Küng in a front group of 36. ASO renamed it Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre for 2026, after the hamlet at its far end, because the course no longer turns left for Saint-Python when the pavé runs out and heads straight on through Viesly instead.
What it’s like to ride
Sector 28 is the longest unbroken stretch of pavé in Paris-Roubaix, 3.7 km in the roadbook and the first four-star sector of the day, and it works by attrition: gentler than the five-star sectors, long enough that previews warn it wears riders down before the race has properly begun. It leaves the edge of Quiévy north on the rue de Valenciennes for about 1.75 km, turns right through ninety degrees onto the D134, then heads southeast across open fields to the Fontaine-au-Tertre farm, past a wind farm and a blockhaus with nothing to shelter behind. The stones are among the best in the race: recon reports call it clean pavé where you can put the watts down without hunting for a line, especially in the second half after the turn, and the last part carries some of the finest cobbles of the whole route, with patches chewed up by farm machinery. The profile is what catches people. It tips gently downhill for the first few hundred metres, flattens through the turn, then climbs the last two kilometres at about 1% before the final couple of hundred metres kick to around 5%, still on stones, after three kilometres of them. Both roads are public and open all year, and the Paris-Roubaix Challenge rides the sector every spring; a rider who took it damp in 2014 found the flat, sun-exposed part of it a relief after sliding front and rear on the sector before.
Surface and what to expect
3.2 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
- Cobbleskm 0.4–3.6
More to ride in Roubaix
Common questions
- How long is Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre?
- Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre is a 3.7 km cobbled sector in Roubaix, essentially level (+29 m over its full length). It is 3.2 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt.
- What is the surface like on Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre?
- Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre is 3.2 km of cobbles, the rest asphalt, measured from OpenStreetMap surface tags along the route.
- Is Quiévy à Fontaine-au-Tertre flat?
- Effectively, yes. It gains 29 m across 3.7 km — an average of 0.7%.