Imagine voluntarily putting yourself through seven hours of torture. Every fibre of your body is aching with pain, your wrists have taken a beating from constant vibrations and your lungs are working triple overtime trying to pump air while fending off the red dust and clay, which covers every pore of your skin.

This is exactly what awaits for cycling's elite athletes as they prepare to put themselves through sporting purgatory and attempt to etch their name into cycling history as the winner of the 2011 Paris-Roubaix.

Cycling has two styles of racing, each carrying their own history and prestige. First there are the Grand Tours, of which the Tour de France is the pinnacle, closely followed by the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. These are designed for the lightweight mountain men, who can haul themselves over gruelling climbs - the domain of Alberto Contador, Frank and Andy Schleck and our own Cadel Evans.

Then there are the Classics, the most prestigious one-day professional cycling races on the UCI calendar. These are torturous events held over the toughest terrain Europe can offer, and each share a very special character relating to the region in which they are raced. Paris-Roubaix, nicknamed the ‘Hell of the North', is the Tour de France of the Classic races. The victor not only receives an instant upgrade to legendary status, he is also awarded a giant mounted cobblestone for his efforts.

Only the toughest - and perhaps maddest - men win the Paris-Roubaix.

First run in 1896, the race follows a winding route of 260km in northern France, starting in Compiègne, and ending with a 750m dash around the Roubaix Velodrome. The course varies slightly every year, but each edition races over at least 50km of rock-hard cobblestones, testing both the physical and mental capacity of the riders.

They finish the day caked with mud, dust and grime, and get to wind down with a public shower in the Roubaix Velodrome. Each of the three-sided concrete stalls is adorned with a brass plaque commemorating and celebrating a past victor.

In 2007, Stuart O'Grady became the first non-European to win Paris-Roubaix. In a remarkably distinguished career, which has seen him win an Olympic gold medal, three stages of the Tour de France, two World Championships on the track in the team pursuit and was crowned Australian National Road Race Champion in 2003, O'Grady rates his victory at Paris-Roubaix on 15 April 2007 as his finest day in cycling.

The race is perfectly suited to the gritty South Australian, and he was certainly a deserved winner. In between these career highlights, he's had more than his share of injuries, the most gruesome coming later in 2007 at the Tour de France, when he crashed on a descent, fracturing eight ribs, his right shoulder blade, right collar bone and three vertebrae. And puncturing his right lung.

Even in that 2007 Paris-Roubaix, O'Grady punctured early in the race and was forced to work extensively to get back to the lead group of 34 riders. He then attacked and rode like a man possessed for the final 15km, eventually savouring the cheers of the French crowd as he arrived solo to the Roubaix Velodrome.

Since 2005, only three men have won the Paris-Roubaix. They are three-time winner Tom Boonen, world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara and O'Grady. These three are the toughest cyclists in the world, with Cancellara and Boonen certainly the most prestigiously talented riders.

The race is not one for the faint-hearted and it makes for spectacular viewing. Riders are continually fighting the dust, terrain, constant punctures and fight - sometimes quite literally - for the best line. If it's raining, the excitement only increases tenfold.

Also keep an eye out for reigning World Champion Thor Hushovd, Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha, Belgian Phillipe Gilbert, home-town hero Sylvain Chavanel and our very own Matthew Goss, who currently leads the UCI World Tour rankings.