The Trouée d’Arenberg is not for the faint hearted. It is a foreboding place, hemmed in by trees, and with a slight descent to begin with. There is no wonder that it’s a five-star sector at Paris-Roubaix, with the cobblestones jutting up at you, looking for an opportunity to rip a tyre open, or cause a crash. I’ll be honest, I don’t want to cycle it, definitely not on a road bike, even one with the right tyre pressure and reams of bar tape. Fortunately, I don’t have a bike this weekend while covering the event. What do you do if you don’t have a bike? Well, run, I suppose.
I am a runner as much as I am a cyclist - I’ve run almost 300km this year so far - but I don’t usually run on cobbles. My home city of Bristol has some, in patches, but I don’t make a habit of running down the worst bits, seeking them out. There’s something fun, chaotic and masochistic about cycling on pavé that doesn’t really apply to running. When you’re running, the cobbles are an ankle's nightmare.
