The Holy Week is reaching its climax. And, based off what we heard last weekend, the commentators will reach theirs too if Pogacar wins this one. Paris-Roubaix is always big, and the 123rd edition on Sunday April 12 presents Pogacar with the opportunity to go three-for-three on Monuments this season,
We designed some cool looking t-shirts that say VISIT HELL on them and had the cobbles and the headframe of the Fosse Arenberg. Focus groups said it was a bit Auschwitz, which, yes, big mistake on our part. So we’re not selling them.
But you can still visit Hell this weekend. The Hell of the North is 260 km long, with 55km of cobbles designed for whipping horse drawn carts on.
We’re coming off a historic, jaw-dropping Tour of Flanders. The stakes are high. You don’t want to miss it. Here’s what you need to know.
The 2026 Paris-Roubaix Route: 260 Kilometers of Blunt Force Trauma
Unlike the Tour of Flanders, which relies on steep climbs to fracture the race, Paris-Roubaix is entirely flat. The damage here is done through attritional cobble-based trauma.
If you want to understand how hard it is, Bernard Hinault – a man who’d pause mid-race to punch a farmer, win the race, then go home to blow up mammals with sticks of dynamite – won it once and immediately called it bullshit and a ‘bad dream’ for being too dangerous. “I thought I was dead, I thought it was the time,” he said. Well, now he knows how a marmot feels.
The men roll out of Compiègne and face nearly 100 kilometers of smooth tarmac before hitting the first of 30 cobbled sectors. Each sector is graded from one to five stars based on its length and the sheer brutality of the stones. While the weather dictates whether the race is a dust bowl or a mud bath, the race is always defined by three legendary five-star sectors:
- Trouée d’Arenberg (Sector 19): A 2.4-kilometer trench cutting straight through a mining forest. The stones here are jagged, irregularly spaced, and covered with mud and moss. The peloton hits this at 60 km/h and it fragments the race. For the viewers: this sector is when you turn on the television and start watching.
- Mons-en-Pévèle (Sector 11): Arriving with roughly 50 kilometers to go, this 3-kilometer sector is where the elite selection is often made. It is an exhausting drag that slowly strips the domestiques away from their team leaders.
- Carrefour de l’Arbre (Sector 4): The final test. Just 17 kilometers from the velodrome, this is where the winning attacks are launched. The corners are incredibly sharp, the crowds are deafening, and the riders are completely running on empty.
Ones to Watch: The Main Favorites for Paris-Roubaix 2026
We don’t want to overstate things, but this is one of the most highly anticipated heavyweight clashes in the history of the sport. Yeah, really.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) – MVDP owns the Roubaix velodrome. He has won the last three consecutive editions (2023, 2024, and 2025). The terrain suits him and his cyclocross skills. Can he make it four? We have him as the overwhelming favorite, but this race is rarely predictable.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – The World Champion wants his third Monument of the season. After his Sean Kelly-dubbed “torture fest” at Flanders, Pogačar is attempting to do the unthinkable: beat the heaviest, most powerful classics specialists on a completely flat course. If he survives the Arenberg Forest, we’ll start thinking about the Monument clean sweep. But the consensus in the secret Instagram group chat is: nope.
Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) – It’s a bit mental that Wout hasn’t won this one yet, really. He’s got it in him. And we think he’s been written off prematurely this season…
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) – If Pogačar and Van der Poel play too much cat and mouse (a term for when one cyclist slaughters the other and leaves it on your bed as a gift), Mads Pedersen could steal this race. The former World Champion has the diesel engine required to overcome the cobbles. He’d look good with a cobblestone in his hands at the Roubaix Velodrome.
The Women’s Race
In a massive scheduling victory for the fans, the Paris-Roubaix Femmes has been moved to Sunday, meaning both the men and women will finish in the velodrome on the same day.
The 143-kilometer women’s route features 20 cobbled sectors. The storyline is entirely dictated by Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ). Fresh off conquering her white whale at Flanders, Vollering is hunting for back-to-back cobbled monuments. However, she will face a highly motivated Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), who is absolutely desperate to avenge last weekend’s tactical disaster and reclaim her status as the queen of the classics. Also watch out for Lidl-Trek’s powerhouse duo of Elisa Balsamo and Shirin van Anrooij.
Nerd Corner: Roubaix Trivia
- The Showers: The concrete showers in the Roubaix velodrome are just as legendary as the race itself. Each open-air stall features a small brass plaque honoring a past winner.
- The UCI’s Timing: The UCI waited until the week of the race to ban Visma-Lease a Bike’s Gravaa tire pressure system, citing a corporate bankruptcy loophole.
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They Won It Five Times T-shirt
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How to Watch Paris-Roubaix 2026
Clear your Sunday schedule. The women’s race will hit the velodrome first, followed by the men’s finale later in the afternoon.
On Demand Coverage:
- Cyclry TV, of course. Maybe an hour after the podium. Probably only about 10 minutes long but we can’t afford to outbid NBC yet so please just give it a click when it’s available.
Live Coverage:
- United States: Live on Peacock.
- United Kingdom: Live on Discovery+.
- Canada: Streamed live on FloBikes.
- Australia: Broadcast live and free on SBS and SBS On Demand.
A Correction
If you’ve read this far, we want to clarify that Bernard Hinault’s hobby wasn’t really blowing up animals with dynamite. That’s an urban legend we have perpetuated using a technique called ‘lying.’ Sorry about that.
