Teams preview the rain-soaked cobbles ahead of the first edition of the women's Hell of the North
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SD Worx recon the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
The rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dutch Champion Amy Pieters and SD Worx recon the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jolien D'hoore and SD Worx recon the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lars Boom and SD Worx recon the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Lars Boom and SD Worx recon the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Camphin-en-Pévèle (km 95.8 - 1.8 km) - the rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
The rain-soaked cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes three days before the inaugural edition on October 2(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jolien D'hoore will retired from professional racing after the inaugural Paris-Roubaix(Image credit: Getty Images)
Trek-Segafredo riders on a fall recon near Arenberg, France are Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy and Trixi Worrack of Germany(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Trek-Segafredo riders Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy and Trixi Worrack of Germany check out the cobbles on Thursday before the race(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
After riding the famous velodrome in Roubaix, Trek-Segafredo said on its web site that Paris-Roubaix is the only race on the entire calendar that the team will race the Domane(Image credit: Trek Bicycle Corporation/Trek-Segafredo)
Team BikeExchange squad on a training ride Thursday before Paris-Roubaix Femmes(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Teniel Campbell of Trinidad & Tobago rides just behind Jessica Allen of Australia during training ride for Team BikeExchange (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Teniel Campbell and Jessica Allen of Team BikeExchange during training ride(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Team BikeExchange's Sarah Roy during training ride Thursday(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Georgia Williams of Team BikeExchange on cobbles Thursday(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The first edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes will take place on October 2 in France. Many of the women's teams have already previewed the cobblestone sectors over the previous year but the biggest contenders were out to recon the decisive pavè one last time before the history-making event on Saturday.
"It was not that bad. I expected much worse after the rain of the past few days. Everything went well, everything was in all in good shape. The sections that we did after the Trouée d'Arenberg (not part of the women's course), were nicely cleaned up," Jolien D'hoore (SD Worx) toldSporza following the recon on Wednesday.
The women's field will race 115.6km, starting with three circuits around Denain. The route will join the men’s route in Hornaing after 31km and it will follow the final 85km of the men's route into Roubaix.
The women will tackle 17 cobblestone sectors, for a total of 29.2km of pavè, and part of the route includes the two five-star sectors; Mons-en-Pévèle at the 67km mark and Carrefour de l'Arbre at the 98.5km mark, before the famed velodrome finish in Roubaix.
It had been raining in the area on Monday and winds from the southwest are expected to blow rain showers across northern France on Saturday, too. This might lead to tailwinds, and even some crosswinds are possible, and we can expect this to add an extra dimension of difficulty to the race.
D'hoore will retire from professional bike racing upon the conclusion of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, her last race after a 15-year career. She competed in her last race on home soil at the Flanders World Championships last weekend.
"It is special, but this is the most beautiful ending, because it is the first Roubaix for women. We are going to make history. And every Belgian was born with a cobble, hey."
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Click through the gallery above to see the women's teams previewing the cobbles one last time ahead of the first edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes.
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