Photo by John Watson
Fans of elite cycling will need no introduction to why the Rouge Roubaix is so named. It’s an homage to the Paris-Roubaix, a one-day professional bicycle race held every year since 1896, which traverses 160 miles of cobbled, rutted tracks through northern France between Paris and—you guessed it—Roubaix, and is widely regarded as the most brutal, wheel-buckling day in the saddle that the pro-cycling circuit has yet invented. So, in 1999, when St. Francisville cycling fanatic Jon Anderson needed a name for the arduous route he had strung together—which led riders across one hundred-plus miles of the steepest, roughest, most remote roads traversing West Feliciana’s Tunica Hills—what better to name his creation than the “Rouge Roubaix.” Hardcore adventure cyclists got the message. Within a couple of years, the Rouge Roubaix was attracting as many as four hundred riders from all over the Southeast. Pro cyclists began to take notice and, in 2001, the event became a USA Cycling-sanctioned race. A cult classic was born.
On March 5, 2022, after a hiatus, the Rouge Roubaix returns to again lead participating riders on a punishing (but scenic) tour of the remotest parts of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana and Wilkinson County, Mississippi. True to the spirit of its French namesake, this twentieth annual event will be the longest to date, pitting the toughest and most masochistic cyclists and their machines against 127 miles of hills, mud, gravel, potholes, decommissioned bridges … and occasionally, stretches of smooth, fast blacktop. Held rain or shine (of course), the 2022 Rouge Roubaix welcomes amateur and pro riders to test their mettle by entering this sanctioned Gran Fondo event. After a four-year absence variously caused by course flooding, permitting issues, and COVID, the action will be fast and furious.
Best places to watch it will be the steepest sections of a route that includes more than 5,500 feet of elevation gain: quite an achievement for Louisiana. According to 2022 race director Will Jones these include: the Morris Road (north of St. Francisville between Hwy 421 and Jones Vaughan Creek Road), Block House Hill (a brutal, one-mile gravel climb between Fort Adams and The Pond Store), the Old Tunica Road (especially the gravel section right after the turnoff from Hwy 66 near Angola), and at the finishing climb up Feliciana Street in St. Francisville.
For those ready to put some teeth in their new year’s resolution, register to ride either the 127-mile route, or a shorter 78-mile option.
More information, lots of great photos, and registration are at rougeroubaix.com.
