In this short film by Rapha, legendary Belgian Johan Museeuw tells his compelling tale about his love affair with Paris-Roubaix and the beads from a stranger he believes saved him after his darkest moments in the Forest of Arenberg.
Laid during the reign of Napoleon I, the cobbled track through the Forest of Arenberg is perhaps the most romantic arena in world cycling.
Branded ‘The Hell of the North’; the name came not from the pain inflicted on cyclists by the infamously jagged stretch of stones, but after the devastation that was caused in the region on the Western Front in World War I.
It has been conquered by some of the legends of the sport in Paris Roubaix, but has also left the same men broken.
The next chapter of the race's history will be written this Sunday when the 2016 edition takes places.
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And this time around the Irish will have three man in the field in the shape of Ryan Mullen, Sam Bennett and Matt Brammeier, who rode and finished the race in 2011.
Legendary Belgian Johan Museeuw, who has admitted career-long doping, won here three times; twice in the years after breaking his kneecap in a crash in the forest.
He almost lost the limb due to the infection caused by the dirt from the unforgiving stones.
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In this short film by Rapha and Nick Livesey - “A Throw of the Dice” - brings Museeuw back to the forest.
He tells us the tale of his love affair with the race and the stranger who gave him the rosary beads that were looking over him in his hour of need in Arenberg.
He has passed them on to another rider since retiring, but to whom? This really is a great little film, watch it.
A throw of the dice
Museeuw takes his second win the Roubaix velodome, this time in 2000. His victory salute was a tribute to the leg he nearly lost when it became badly infected after being cut in a crash that brought him out of the race two years earlier.
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