Crossword Genius

Like the rocky road to the centre of Le Havre! (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hard

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'like' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

'rocky road to the centre of le havre' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'road' could be 'rd' (abbreviation) and 'rd' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ha' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hard that I've seen before include "Novel featuring Mr Gradgrind" , "Newspaper's sure" , "Emergency lane" , "Difficult; severe" , "Difficult; rigid" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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