Cyclists face tough Roubaix

Paris - Rivals of Quick Step, whose Belgian star Tom Boonen was victorious last year, expect them to lead from the front along the road to "hell" in Sunday's gruelling Paris-Roubaix one-day classic race.

Even without the inclement forecast of rain, the "Hell of the North," one of the year's most prestigious races, would be challenging enough as the 259km race includes a bone-shaking 52.6km of cobblestones.

Organisers have tweaked certain stages of the race because of the state of the cobbles, with this year's event missing out the 1.6km long Wallers-Helesmes cobbled section, which is apparently not safe for racing.

Another section that links Auchy-les-Orchies to Bersee, which has been shortened the past two years, goes back to its original length of 2.5km after work was carried out to improve the cobbles.

 Boonen triumphed 12 months ago, edging out Fabian Cancellara in just 1min 18sec shy of six hours - less than half the 12hr 15min winning time of Henri Pelissier, who struggled to victory in 1919 over a course ravaged by the carnage of the just-ended Great War.

'Dictate the pace' 

The gruelling nature of the race prompted one-time editor of French sports bible L'Equipe, Jacques Goddet, to dub the course "the last great madness of cycling".

Dirk Demol, who bagged a surprise 1988 win, says of Quick Step - which he recently left to join the technical staff at Astana - that "they are going to dictate the pace again.

"They have a number of wins under their belt; their morale is good and that will make the difference come Sunday.

"We will have to put them on the defensive. Otherwise we will be riding behind them and that quickly makes things difficult," says Demol.