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Why above all other classics is "La Pascale" venerated? At only around 260 kilometres it is not the longest of the classics (that distinction was held by the paced Bordeaux Paris); Paris - Tours is generally faster, the Tour of Lombardy has far and away a more beautiful setting; Milan - San Remo, coming at the beginning of the year, has a more eagerly anticipated build up, whilst some would have it that the Belgian Classics, and particularly Liège - Bastogne - Liège are physically the hardest. Yet Paris - Roubaix remains the classic above all others, exerting an almost talismanic grip on its devotees. Perhaps only the Tour de France can boast a more illustrious list of winners; even the World Championship has had more than its fair share of victors of dubious quality, but "jamais un cloche ne gagne la Pascale" - the Easter Race is never won by a tramp. Garin, Lapize, Pélissier, Leducq, Maes, Van Steenbergen, Coppi, Bobet, Van Looy, Gimondi, Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Moser, Raas, Kelly, Museeuw have all won the event. Even Bernard Hinault, who never disguised his loathing for such "lotteries", made sure he included the Queen of Classics on his palmarès first, outsprinting none other than Francesco Moser and Roger De Vlaeminck, winners of seven editions of the race between them.
Started in 1896 as a warm up for Bordeaux - Paris, the race has always been held on or about Easter Sunday, and has always featured the rough roads of the northern coal mining area. For many years it was the hill at Doullens which would cause the first splits (and also bring out the huge crowds), 150 or so kilometres into the route. Soon after the race would enter the infamous "l'enfer du Nord" - the hell of the North, where the succession of cobbles would pound all feeling from the tired limbs of the riders. The winner was often alone on the Roubaix velodrome; else he would be the one with most to spare as a small group settled into the last kilometre on the track, a finish further complicating the equation. Nonetheless, by the 1960s, rapid road improvements were causing wholesale replacement of the cobbled tracks, and the race was in danger of becoming the boring slog that Paris - Brussels became. Drastic measures were called for; in 1966 the start was moved to Chantilly, 50km nearer Roubaix, which allowed a more circuitous route to the finish, maximising the usage of those cobbles which remained. But it was 1968, following advice from local rider Jean Stablinski, that the route was truly revised, a route which saw 57 kilometres of cobbles, including for the first time the soon to be notorious Wallers - Arenberg forest. And the winner of such an heroic edition, clad in the jersey of World Champion, was none other than Eddy Merckx, winning for the first of three times. Still the roads were being tarmacced, so in 1977 the start was moved again, to its present location of Compiègne, with the inclusion of new cobbled stretches at Orchies, Landas, Saméon, Aix, Mouchin and Bachy. The new route did nothing to upset "Mr Paris Roubaix" himself, Roger De Vlaeminck: after achieving his fourth victory in six years, even Merckx was forced to admit, "I have never seen that before. Roger slipped over the cobbles as if he knew exactly where each cobblestone was".
The route has remained largely unchanged since, though in 1999, the traverse of Wallers - Arenberg is to be reversed, to avoid the mad 60 kmh sprint onto the cobbles which was widely blamed for Museeuw's terrible crash in 1998. Nonetheless, complacency mustn't set in, for every year there is another threat to the cobbles, and without the cobbles the soul of the race would disappear. Nor is just a reprieve sufficient: the cobbles must in places be renovated so that the race is not reduced to an anarchic cyclo-cross on a sunken track in a flooded field. As the writer René Fallet noted in 1979, "Fortunate climbers, your mountains will never be eroded. Cursed be those who destroy the cobbles and threaten redundancy to the De Vlaemincks of this world".
| 1896 | Josef Fischer | |
| 1897 | Maurice Garin | |
| 1898 | Maurice Garin | |
| 1899 | Albert Champion | |
| 1900 | Emile Bouhours | |
| 1901 | Lucien Lesna | |
| 1902 | Lucien Lesna | |
| 1903 | Hyppolyte Aucouturier | |
| 1904 | Hyppolyte Aucouturier | |
| 1905 | Louis Trousselier | |
| 1906 | Henri Cornet | |
| 1907 | Georges Passerieu | |
| 1908 | Cyrille Van Hauwaert | |
| 1909 | Octave Lapize |
The pacing was by bicycle (1896, 1897), by car (1898 - 1900) and by bicycle again until 1909. Initially the pacing was for the whole race; for 1908 and 1909 it was as far as Beauvais, thereafter the race being run without pacing.
| 1910 | Octave Lapize | |
| 1911 | Octave Lapize | |
| 1912 | Charles Crupelandt | |
| 1913 | François Faber | |
| 1914 | Charles Crupelandt | |
| 1915 | Not held | |
| 1916 | Not held | |
| 1917 | Not held | |
| 1918 | Not held | |
| 1919 | Henri Pélissier | |
| 1920 | Paul Deman | |
| 1921 | Henri Pélissier | |
| 1922 | Albert Dejonghe | |
| 1923 | Henri Suter | |
| 1924 | Jules Van Hevel | |
| 1925 | Félix Sellier | |
| 1926 | Julien Delbeque | |
| 1927 | Georges Ronsse | |
| 1928 | André Leducq | |
| 1929 | Charles Meunier | |
| 1930 | Julien Vervaecke | |
| 1931 | Gaston Rebry | |
| 1932 | Romain Gijssels | |
| 1933 | Sylvère Maes | |
| 1934 | Gaston Rebry | |
| 1935 | Gaston Rebry | |
| 1936 | Georges Speicher | |
| 1937 | Jules Rossi | |
| 1938 | Lucien Storme | |
| 1939 | Emile Masson Jr. |
| 1940 | Joseph Sofietti | (Le Mans - Paris) | ||
| 1941 | Jules Rossi | (Paris - Rheims) | ||
| 1942 | Emile Idée | (Paris - Rheims) |
| 1943 | Marcel Kint | |
| 1944 | Maurice De Simpelaere | |
| 1945 | Paul Mayé | |
| 1946 | Georges Claes | |
| 1947 | Georges Claes | |
| 1948 | Rik Van Steenbergen | |
| 1949 | André Mahé & Serse Coppi, tied | |
| 1950 | Fausto Coppi | |
| 1951 | Antonio Bevilacqua | |
| 1952 | Rik Van Steenbergen | |
| 1953 | Germain Derycke | |
| 1954 | Raymond Impanis | |
| 1955 | Jean Forestier | |
| 1956 | Louison Bobet | |
| 1957 | Fred De Bruyne | |
| 1958 | Léon Van Daele | |
| 1959 | Noël Foré | |
| 1960 | Pino Cerami | |
| 1961 | Rik Van Looy | |
| 1962 | Rik Van Looy | |
| 1963 | Emile Daems | |
| 1964 | Peter Post | |
| 1965 | Rik Van Looy | |
| 1966 | Felice Gimondi | |
| 1967 | Jan Janssen | |
| 1968 | Eddy Merckx | |
| 1969 | Walter Godefroot | |
| 1970 | Eddy Merckx | |
| 1971 | Roger Rosiers | |
| 1972 | Roger De Vlaeminck | |
| 1973 | Eddy Merckx | |
| 1974 | Roger De Vlaeminck | |
| 1975 | Roger De Vlaeminck | |
| 1976 | Marc De Meyer | |
| 1977 | Roger De Vlaeminck | |
| 1978 | Francesco Moser | |
| 1979 | Francesco Moser | |
| 1980 | Francesco Moser | |
| 1981 | Bernard Hinault | |
| 1982 | Jan Raas | |
| 1983 | Hennie Kuiper | |
| 1984 | Sean Kelly | |
| 1985 | Marc Madiot | |
| 1986 | Sean Kelly | |
| 1987 | Eric Vanderaeden | |
| 1988 | Dirk Demol | |
| 1989 | Jean Marie Wampers | |
| 1990 | Eddy Planckaert | |
| 1991 | Marc Madiot | |
| 1992 | Gilbert Duclos Lasalle | |
| 1993 | Gilbert Duclos Lasalle | |
| 1994 | Andrei Tchmil | |
| 1995 | Franco Ballerini | |
| 1996 | Johan Museeuw | |
| 1997 | Frédéric Guesedon | |
| 1998 | Franco Ballerini | |
| 1999 | Andrea Tafi | |
| 2000 | Johan Museeuw, Mapei | |
| 2001 | Servais Knaven, Domo - Farm Frites |