Beyond Caudry, the route turns properly northern French: brick villages, open fields, low rises and roads that cut straight through the land. The tone changes at Wallers-Arenberg. Here comes the Trouée d’Arenberg, the hard, straight strip of cobbles through the forest, tied inseparably to Paris–Roubaix. After that, the stage stays in Classics territory: mining history, flat country, small towns and that rough mix of everyday landscape and cycling history. The closer Roubaix gets, the denser the Lille metropolitan edge becomes. The finish fits the day: not just somewhere in town, but with the classic lap and a half on the Roubaix velodrome.
