A Journey Through Hell. A few excerpts.

The incomparable book on Paris-Roubaix -- A Journey Through Hell -- is filled with great archival images of the race and chock full of excellent quotes.

Here are ten to get you worked up into a frenzy -- as if you really needed more frenzy with Hell just a day away.

"Paris Roubaix starts like a party and ends like a bad dream" -- Guy Lagroce

"A hardship approaching the threshold of cruelty." -- Jacques Goddet

"There's no safe haven. It's a full blown war out there. Everyone becomes crazy" -- Pello Ruiz Cabestany

"I'm not going to tell you I like this sort of race now that I've won one. It has too many pitfalls, too many motorcycles and too much dust" -- Bernard Hinault

"You have to be strong with her. I was facing a monument of the bicycle. She wasn't going to give me any gifts and I wasn't going to give her any either" -- Duclos-Lassalle

"The route is not responsible for your problems. It's you and you alone. You must think, live, eat and sleep Paris-Roubaix. It must become obsessive" -- Marc Madiot

"I'm a true martyr. My kidneys and hands are killing me. I wanted to finish as a matter of pride but it seemed interminable" -- Michele Dancelli

"Here, bad luck does not make you lose and good luck does not make you win. The race is never lost until someone has crossed the finish line" -- Alain Bondue

"What words, you ask? Beauty, sadness, pain, courage, injustice" -- Yves Berger

"Hell is worthy of this place" -- Antoine Blondin