Out on tramping the two loop yesterday I bumped into one soul who'd done Paris Roubaix... Twice! Which is a personal first as everyone I've ever met has just said "never again."
Count me in the "never again" category!
(admittedly, if I won a free entry to the short sportive, on Someone Else's Bike, I'd probably do it. Otherwise ... naaah ... )
The April sportive doesn't do the entire course that the pros ride as it misses out the first 80km or so of tarmac between Compiegne and Busigny. You do get to ride all of the cobbled sectors though.
I stayed in Roubaix itself which is a bit of a dump to be honest. I'd think about staying in Lille if I were ever to do it again, although that would likely make getting the bus out to Busigny a bit of a challenge.
I don't see the point of these shortened versions ( just MHO of course!) I mean, you're only riding this stupid route to see what the pros ride, right?
I am told the AUDAX version still runs (every other June??); I can recommend it. And we started at sparrow's fart, so it didn't matter what shit-hole town we stayed in, we weren't seeing much of it anyway. Just book a hotel that lets you get out of the car-park before the staff get out of bed