{"id":33811,"date":"2026-06-10T18:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/33811\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:59:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:59:35","slug":"where-paris-roubaix-will-be-decided-part-3-carrefour-de-larbre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/33811\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Paris-Roubaix will be decided, part 3: Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Tree Junction\u2019 \u2013 or \u2018Crossroads\u2019 \u2013 really does sound so much better in French, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0But banish all thoughts of barreling your way around the similarly named French supermarket by bike. Just as with the Arenberg<\/a>, at the Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre it\u2019s a case of eat or be eaten, hold on or be damned as, with just 17km left to race at this point, whatever\u2019s left of the Roubaix pelotons will thunder through here at as high a speed as their by-now beaten and broken bodies will allow.<\/p>\n

\u2018The pav\u00e9 at the Carrefour is so bad,\u2019 says Dutchman Tristan Hoffman, who finished second to Swede Magnus B\u00e4ckstedt in the 2004 race.<\/p>\n

Related questions you can explore with Ask Cyclist, our AI search engine.If you would like to ask your own question you just need to , or subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"insight_paris_roubaix_07\"Kevin Faingnaert<\/p>\n

\u2018The cobbles are brutal \u2013 really brutal. The road\u2019s 30cm higher in the middle than on the left or right side. Now, as a sports director, it\u2019s hard for me not to smash the car, but for the riders, you\u2019re tired. If you have anything left in the legs, it makes sense to try something there.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was at the Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre sector that the main selection of riders was made in 2004, Hoffman points out: Magnus B\u00e4ckstedt, Johan Museeuw, Fabian Cancellara, Roger Hammond, Hoffman and, for a short time, George Hincapie, before\u00a0he dropped off the pace.<\/p>\n

\u2018I knew from the start that day that I needed to gamble,\u2019 remembers Hoffman. \u2018Well, it was\u00a0more of a tactic actually, knowing that with a headwind it\u2019s more difficult to stay at the front.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Stay calm and wait\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"09\/04\/2023 \u2013 Paris-Roubaix \u2013 Compi\u00e8gne \/ Roubaix (256,6km) \u2013 VAN AERT Wout (JUMBO-VISMA)ASO\/Pauline Ballet<\/p>\n

He continues: \u2018I decided to stay calm and wait, and wait. Suddenly we were approaching the finish, and Museeuw had a puncture [with 6km to go], I knew it was the moment in my career to win Paris-Roubaix\u2026 but it didn\u2019t happen! That day, B\u00e4ckstedt was a little bit stronger. Looking at our previous results however, I think I was a bit of a better rider in the Classics.<\/p>\n

‘Twice before I’d been fourth, so I just lacked that little bit to put my name to that Monument. But he was better that day, and I was second, and that\u00a0is how it is,’ he shrugs.<\/p>\n

‘At the Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre, you either have it or you don\u2019t have it \u2013 or somebody has \u201cit\u201d a little bit more than you,’ adds Hoffman\u2019s former CSC teammate Lars Michaelsen, who was tenth at Roubaix in 1999, and fifth in both 2002 and 2005.<\/p>\n

‘The cobbles are seemingly placed at random and they seem to get worse and worse every year.’<\/p>\n

After the Arenberg and Mons-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le<\/a>, the Carrefour de l’Arbre is the third of Roubaix’s three sectors of cobbles rated as five-star \u2013 the toughest to ride, with the gnarliest stones. And coming so close to the end of the race, it’s really no coincidence that they are the most storied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018The Tree Junction\u2019 \u2013 or \u2018Crossroads\u2019 \u2013 really does sound so much better in French, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0But banish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12904],"tags":[12908,7447,2798],"class_list":["post-33811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carrefour","tag-carrefour","tag-classics","tag-paris-roubaix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}