Race Officials Beg: Please Stop Stealing Course Cobblestones

Professional cycling now has a stranger hazard to contend with: Fans are literally making off with parts of the road. Writing for Outside, Frederick Dreier reports that spectators are prying cobblestones out of the legendary Paris-Roubaix course in northern France, treating the signature rocks of the "Hell of the North" as souvenirs. That's a problem, because those brutal, jarring stone sections aren't just the race's calling card and even its trophy motif—they're central to how the 160-mile one-day classic unfolds.

Race chief Thierry Gouvenou is publicly urging people to stop, warning that every missing stone leaves a dangerous pothole that can shatter carbon wheels or trigger high-speed crashes in both the men's and women's races, which are already notorious for their resulting injuries. Dreier, a former pro-cycling reporter who has ridden the course himself, ties the cobblestone thefts to cycling's unusually intimate fan culture, where discarded bottles and caps already double as collectibles. But he draws a line at souvenir hunting that could injure riders, arguing the only legitimate way to take home a cobblestone is to win the race: The winner's trophy is made up of a giant mounted stone. Meanwhile, here are some hacks for riding the Paris-Roubaix course if you ever find yourself in that situation.