Paris-Roubaix Tee

Gildan softstyle ringspun navy tee.
One colour screen print (in red) to front & left sleeve.
Sizing:
S Chest 34-36" Width 44cm Height 67cm
M Chest 38-40" Width 47cm Height 71cm
L Chest 40-44" Width 53cm Height 74cm
Care instructions: Machine wash warm, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry medium. Iron inside out. Do not iron directly over the printed area. Do not dry clean.
Composition: 100% combed ringspun cotton.
One of cycling’s oldest races dating back from 1896. The Hell of the North (L’Enfer du Nord) starts in Compiègne, just north of Paris and finishes on the iconic Roubaix velodrome close to the border with Belgium. Famous for it’s rough terrain, farm roads and rutted tracks from northern France’s former coal-mining region. Roads made from cobblestones (pavé) cambered from centuries of agricultural & industrial transport. The race is characterised by early Spring weather which usually leaves riders caked in mud and grit. It’s a war of attrition. It’s heroic in every sense. The name Hell of the North derives from the post WW1 edition where organisers and journalists set off from Paris in 1919 to see how much of the route had survived four years of shelling and trench warfare. What they found was a centre of a battlefield. Everything was flattened, the earth churned up from the war, ragged stumps of trees and a countryside reeked in poverty and destruction. And yet a route was created through the battlefield and the race went ahead. The 1919 victor Henri Pélissier proclaimed ‘This wasn’t a race. It was a pilgrimage’. The modern Paris-Roubaix manages to maintain the aura of bygone days. The history is kept alive. Today’s racers take on the same parcours and experience the same velodrome finish as their idols from yesteryear.