‘After Paris-Roubaix I felt like I was peeing razor blades’ | cycling

Premium

The best of De Telegraaf

For Kuiper, Boonen and Terpstra, love for ‘Hell’ displaces the pain

AMSTERDAM – The feeling of your organs being shaken in all directions doesn’t happen more intensely in any road race than in Paris-Roubaix. The images of mud-stained and exhausted faces betray the heroism. You love the ‘hell run’ or hate the spartan cycle race with 55 kilometers of unforgiving cobblestones. In the run-up to the 119th edition, Hennie Kuiper, Tom Boonen and Niki Terpstra tell how their love for Hell the pain recedes into the background. All three agree: you only notice the impact after the race. “I once felt like I was peeing razor blades,” says four-time winner Boonen.

ttn-2