If, when Wout van Aert crossed the line first at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, your first thought was “I’d love a jigsaw puzzle of that”, then your wish, it seems, is Visma-Lease a Bike’s command.

The squad has this week launched a range of merchandise commemorating the Belgian’s first cobbled Monument win. Among the more unconventional items are a 500-piece jigsaw of Van Aert celebrating ahead of a defeated Tadej Pogačar, and a beach towel the team describes as “thin [...] so you can bring it easily everywhere you go”.

Both items are priced at £26.36 (€30 / $35) each, and are available to pre-order now, with stock expected to arrive with the team around 30 April.

The range also includes Nike t-shirts bearing the phrase ‘Never Stop Believing’, a hoodie, a poster, a ceramic tile and a fleece-lined blanket.

“That memorable moment when Wout raised his finger in the air at the Roubaix velodrome is one to cherish forever,” write Visma-Lease a Bike on their web store, adding that the commemorative products are only available for a limited time.

Writing about the jigsaw in particular, the team says: “The puzzle is the perfect way to relive this historic victory piece by piece. Whether you are an avid puzzler and cycling fan or simply looking for a special memory of this legendary and historic win, this is for you.”

Van Aert’s victory at Paris-Roubaix came on his seventh time of trying, having previously finished second, third and fourth at the race.

As he crossed the line, the Belgian gestured to the sky in tribute to Michael Goolaerts, his former team-mate at Vérandas Willems-Crelan, who died of a heart attack during the 2018 edition of Paris-Roubaix.

“Ever since then [...] it was my goal to win this race, and to be able to point my finger to the sky for Michael. He’s a lot on my mind but especially in this period,” Van Aert said of his celebration in his post-race press conference.

“Winning this race means basically everything to me. We make so many sacrifices to get to this level, to always fight back, and every year our target is this race and [the Tour of] Flanders. To finish it off in this way in a sprint with Tadej in his [rainbow] jersey, there’s no better way to do it. It’s a dream come true.”

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Van Aert Paris-Roubaix range is available to pre-order now.

There were 44 debutants at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. The oldest of these was Aaron Gate of XDS Astana, at 35 years and 135 days. The youngest was Ezra Caudell of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, at just 19 years and 216 days.

The American was not inconspicuous, because as well as being the youngest rider in the 123rd edition of Paris-Roubaix, he was also the tallest, at 6ft 8in.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly an hour before his first experience of the 'Hell of the North', Caudell seemed reasonably relaxed: "I have no expectations here, so I think I'm pretty free to just go out and have my best ride. There's not a tonne of pressure and I think that's going to help me today.

"I come from an MTB background, so hopefully that will help me out today. I think the pinch-me moment will happen when the race starts, it still feels a little unreal."

"Optimistically, a top 20 would be awesome, but I think realistically, I'd love to finish. To be there at the end, it's a dream," he added.

Six hours later, Caudell had lived through hell. The teenager finished, no mean feat in itself, in 120th place, 17:22 behind winner Wout van Aert.

"It was chaos, I pictured it being pretty crazy, but being out there in it was a whole different thing," he said, having done the obligatory catching up with his teammates to share war stories and taking a moment to compose himself. "Riding a 100km full gas before all the sectors, and then there was still 150km to go... I could have been done with the bike race right then.

"I feel like I had a really great day, I struggled with some positioning at the beginning, but during the race I was feeling good in all the sectors. Unfortunately I just had some mechanicals."

Unlike almost any other pro race, riders have a desire to finish Paris-Roubaix; just to say they have completed it, and to finish in the famous velodrome.

"It feels crazy, like coming in here and doing two laps of the velodrome. I did it. It's super exciting to be here," Caudell said.

"I don't think I was in the moment until I just got here. During the race, it just felt like another race, but standing here afterwards it's wild."

It was not just any other race, though, given the 30 cobbled sectors and record-breaking pace – it was the fastest ever edition of Paris-Roubaix with winner Wout van Aert averaging 48.91km/h

"The downhill sectors are insane, and once they start they feel like they'll never end," Caudell explained.

His size is definitely not an issue for a power race like Roubaix: "I feel like being one of the bigger riders definitely helps for a race like this, maybe that's another reason why I've always dreamt of doing this race. Being a bigger rider, it's the one for me.

Having finished one Roubaix, Caudell is not content to rest on his laurels. He wants to come back to the race and emulate Modern Adventure's team boss, George Hincapie, who finished in the top 10 multiple times, including one second place.

"I learned that I want to come back next year," he said. "Just better my positioning into the sectors and I think I could have a really good day. I think it's a race for me, and now I've done it I definitely want to come back."

First things first, though: "I think I'm going to go the showers, and have some French fries."

It grew from a rumble, a low chorus of a group in suspense. Wout van Aert was on Pogačar’s wheel in the Roubaix velodrome and people weren’t daring to hope - yet. Another few turns of the pedals and Van Aert was pushing ahead of Pogačar. The crowd roared.

But this chorus of joy wasn't playing out in Northern France, or in a small bar in Flanders. I’d just walked into Herne Hill Velodrome’s club room in South London with three precious minutes of race time left, and the atmosphere was electric.

Riders in multicoloured jerseys and cycling caps crossed with team names cluttered the room, all eyes trained on the small TV in front of them. The coffee machine whirred somewhere just behind the action, as time trial taster sessions rolled around the velodrome outside. Emily Stainer was, for the first time all afternoon, released from coffee-making duty as the crowd locked into the most exciting racing of the year so far.

"Everyone was on [van Aert's] side - it was super, super intense in the room,” Stainer recalled, proof of the Belgian's enduring popularity. “And then he suddenly went for it.”

“It was all drama, wasn't it?” CJ said, sat just across the room from where Stainer stood watching. “Van der Poel trying to drag himself back after his two punctures on the Arenberg. There were punctures and mechanicals everywhere, people falling off here, there and everywhere.”

CJ was recovering from a cobble ride they had - along with the rest of the captivated room - finished earlier that day. The Cobblemonster ride had started out on Sunday morning from UpCYCLE in Brixton, and headed north-west, ‘blasting across some early secteurs of the smoke’s Victorian pave before tucking into the east end and its myriad lanes of snaking cobbled nadgery,’ before ending back in Herne Hill for a victory lap of the velodrome in true Roubaix-style.' All according to the website.

“The cobbles, by the way, are excellent in London,” CJ said. To demonstrate their point, they compared them to the giant cobbles in Belgium: “The first set of cobbles that I saw, I burst out laughing. They are so big that you just bounce all over the place. It's uncontrollable. You have to go as fast as you can, so that you don't hit every single cobble. So when the pro riders are doing it, they hit like one cobble in 20, because they're so fast. But because I'm not very fast, I’m bouncing all over the place.” Luckily for CJ and the Cobblemonster riders, “the London cobbles are much more manageable. They're fairly small.”

The best cobbles CJ has ridden in the capital so far criss-cross the city. There’s a stretch in Farringdon and a load around the Docklands, as well as “a really long section down Wapping High Street.” The Cobblemonster tries its best to capture as many of the city’s cobbles as possible, with each edition offering a fresh treasure trove of hidden routes.

The ride finished at Herne Hill Velodrome, in time to catch the men’s Paris-Roubaix race - but not before the group did their own velodrome-finish. Unbeknownst to CJ, their final straight was about to imitate Van Aert’s own victory-lap, as their friend hung to their wheel only to overtake with metres left to sprint.

What is it about Paris-Roubaix that makes it such a special race, I asked Stainer, herself new to the world of professional racing. “Me and my friend were watching the Tour of Flanders the other week, and we were just like, well, this is going to be really boring, because it was basically decided who's going to win with an hour to go,” she said. “It felt like we couldn’t get excited about it.” Roubaix, on the other hand has a roster of underdog-victors, from Mathew Hayman to Johan Vansummeren.

Herne Hill Velodrome is a particularly special place to watch Paris-Roubaix. It is, after all, the home of VC Londres, Fred Wright’s first club. Though he finished 132nd this year, hopes had been high after finishing 9th last year. The 454 metre velodrome was where he first competed, in the track league alongside his dad as a kid, and where fans and family still come out to cheer him on, whether he’s riding on the track outside or beamed into the telly.

Maybe it was the collective post-ride high that gave the room such a buzz on Sunday, maybe it was the objective thrill of Paris-Roubaix, its unique capacity to produce race-long drama, maybe it was the fact that everyone was experiencing the race together - everyone in that room locked into the same drama. It was, if nothing more, a reminder of the importance of third spaces, where people can come together to celebrate and to share.

The only improvement to the day would have been more women in the crowd, a feeling CJ shared too, stressing the accessibility of an event like the Cobblemonster - no matter how alarming its name. "You always find that there's more blokes going to these things," they said. "[Other riders] might look at the distance and think, Oh, that's a long way. But it's such a chilled, relaxed ride."

But back in Herne Hill, Van Aert had won and I'd entered the pavilion just in time to witness the wall of sound that seemed to shift him across the line. Then as quick as the silence turned into screaming, chairs were scraped away, the telly switched off (before the women’s race could be streamed) and all trace of the day's event cleared to make way for the children’s birthday party about to head through the double doors.

Alastair MacKellar freewheels down the back straight of Roubaix’s outdoor velodrome, unclips his left foot, and stops in front of his EF Education-EasyPost soigneur. The time is almost five o'clock. Half an hour has passed since Wout van Aert whipped the crowd into a frenzy by beating Tadej Pogačar in a sprint, but the atmosphere has since slumped into a lull. There's barely a patter of applause for the Australian.

In fact, most of the fans don’t notice MacKellar’s arrival at all. They've turned instead to face the big screens, squinting against the sunlight to follow the end of the women’s race. With no other riders to welcome him either, all that remains are a few photographers, three EF staff members, and a fistful of empty gel wrappers, peppered across the grass in the track centre.

On the fastest edition of Paris-Roubaix in history, MacKellar missed the 8% time cut by three minutes and 58 seconds. He finished 29 minutes and 19 seconds behind Van Aert, and almost five minutes behind the next best rider.

“It was a pretty mentally challenging day,” MacKellar told road.cc after the race. “I was out the back a fair bit earlier than I would have liked.”

The 24-year-old’s debut woes began on just the third of 30 cobbled sectors. There, some 150km from the finish line, his team leader Kasper Asgreen punctured, and MacKellar dropped back to try and pull him back into contention. Suddenly, he found himself at the back of the race.

“At first, I didn’t think I was going to finish. I was like, ‘I’ll get to the Arenberg, find someone, pull out.’ And then on the Arenberg a few guys I was with were stepping off the bike and I was like, ‘I’ll just do another couple sectors and see.’”

More than any other race, there’s a badge of honour that comes with finishing Paris-Roubaix. Riders cross the line every year with a blood and mud dried to their skin, sometimes broken bones too, all for the pride of reaching the outdoor velodrome. Joey Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5), who got caught behind crashes and finished 53 minutes down last year, perhaps summed up the sense of perseverance best when he said: “I had to finish. it didn’t matter how long it took. I thought it would be dark by the time I got here."

MacKellar felt that same doggedness on Sunday. After the Arenberg Forest, home of the most jagged and bone-rattling cobbles of the 258km route, the rest of the road felt like smooth marble. His goal to tick off one more sector became two, then three, and though he knew he was far from the pack, the fans willed him on to Roubaix.

“I had no idea what to expect,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do a recon because I was racing earlier this week and I’d never even ridden proper cobbles, so I was kind of going in quite blind.”

By the time MacKellar reached the velodrome, the commentator’s voice on the tannoy had given way to hip hop music, played as filler before the women’s race arrived.

The Australian had ridden most of 150km by himself. In doing so, he also collected another Monument feather for his cap, having only raced Milan-San Remo before. This one, he explained, brought “mixed emotions”.

“I’m the last rider and no one ever wants to come last in a bike race,” MacKellar said. “I guess now I know I can finish it, which is a nice thing.”

At around 4:20pm local time, time seemed to stand still in the middle of the Roubaix Velodrome, as Wout van Aert crossed the finish line first at the end of Paris-Roubaix, ahead of Tadej Pogačar. The crowd went wild, Van Aert was mobbed, and the business of explaining the race went on apace. Less than two hours later, time stood still again, this time as Franziska Koch out-sprinted Marianne Vos at the end of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and the reaction ensued once more.

For the first five editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the organisers, ASO, had done something almost unique in WorldTour racing: hold the women’s race on a different day to the men’s race. It was something special, almost magical, giving the race a chance to breathe, to exist on its own, and for us in the media to tell its full story, and not be distracted by something else.

This year, both races happened on the same day, along with both the junior men’s and under-23 men’s events. It was a step backwards. It might be the norm in cycling for both races to happen on the same day, as at the Tour of Flanders or Milan-San Remo, but it deprived us of the beauty of both races having centre stage.

There was justifiable outrage at the lack of full television coverage of the women’s race, with only around 50km of racing shown; with it being described to CW as a “massive affront to women's cycling” by Deena Blacking, the managing director of The Cyclists’ Alliance. This only grew louder on the day. Fans on the course might have got a better deal, seeing two elite races rather than one, but it meant a worse deal for anyone not there, watching from home or hoping to read about it after.

With both races happening on the same day, at the same time in parts, it might not have been logistically possible for enough camera motorbikes and all the other infrastructure needed to show them live simultaneously, but that feels like an excuse after the fact. To be clear, this a decision of the organisers, not the broadcasters, some of whom, like TNT Sports, would like to show the women’s race in full.

As well as the reduced TV coverage, there were fewer photos of the women’s race than the men’s and fewer journalists covering the women’s race, many consumed by deadlines to file from the men’s race. It felt, unlike the first five editions, that Paris-Roubaix Femmes was in the shadow of Paris-Roubaix. French newspaper L’Équipe on Monday had seven pages on Van Aert’s triumph and the men’s race, and less than half a page on Koch’s epic win.

Post-race, Carys Lloyd of Movistar explained her frustration: “Last year people were able to see a lot of the race, and I think it’s just a really big shame that we weren’t able to have that this year. Even more especially because the junior boys and the under-23 boys had a full live stream. That’s just ridiculous. We should be a priority against them. I think there’s still a long way to go.

“They don’t even have a junior women’s race, which is something I really wanted to do as a junior. I was excited originally when they said we were going to be on the same day as the men’s, but actually, to be honest, I preferred last year for the live stream and the coverage. I think that’s more important than us being on the same day as the men.”

While we strived to cover both elite races in the same depth as before, it was more difficult, with so much happening at the same time – to pull back the curtain, Van Aert was still giving his winner’s press conference just 40 minutes before the women’s race ended. That meant it was impossible to get the all-important quotes from the men’s winner and watch crucial parts of the women’s race. Likewise, it was nigh-on impossible to cover both the start of the men’s race in Compiègne, and the women’s race in Denain, 100km to the south.

Grace Brown, former pro cyclist turned president of The Cyclists’ Alliance said it succinctly: “This format is holding the women's race back. There's no room for growth and any attention that the women's race gets is then erroneously attributed to the men's race... ie ASO says that people will only watch women's racing because they are already there. But we know this is not true and that people will come or watch on TV when women's racing has its own space. Just look at the Tour de France Femmes last year.

“We acknowledge that maybe at the moment without a big sponsor, it doesn't stack up financially to hold the women's race on a separate day. But the goal needs to be to get back to that and not settle for this as the inevitable conclusion.”

Having been to two previous editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the idea that people wouldn’t turn out for a standalone women’s race is just wrong and untrue, and it is a much worse look for the women’s race to have less exposure on the same day as the men’s. If it is the case that the money isn’t there to fund the separate days at the moment, then energy must be put into getting back there again.

As Brown said, we shouldn’t settle, and the race should be taken back out of the shadows. Roubaix was a model for how other races could work, over two separate days; we should not accept the pair being jammed into the same space as the norm.

I came away from Roubaix with adrenaline pumping, having tried to squeeze as much as possible out of two epic races, but with a sense of what could have been. The Roubaix weekend was magical with the two races on two different days. This year it felt different. I hope this isn’t the “inevitable conclusion”.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

“Since that day, I wanted to win here and point upwards,” Wout van Aert said, after crossing the finish line in the velodrome as victor in the 2026 Paris-Roubaix. “This one is for him, for his family, and for everyone who was there.”

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was talking about his late teammate, Michael Goolaerts, who tragically passed away after suffering a heart attack during the second cobbled sector of the 2018 Paris-Roubaix race, aged just 23. That year was also the first time Van Aert tackled the 'Hell of the North', and both men were racing for Vérandas Willems-Crelan. The loss of his teammate and friend had a huge impact on the young Belgian, and he often signs off his social media posts with “#All4Goolie”.

Van Aert vowed to win Paris-Roubaix for Goolaerts, and this year, during his eighth time of contesting the Monument, he succeeded, defeating Tadej Pogačar during a dramatic sprint finish in the famous velodrome, which had spectators roaring at screens all around the world. It was a moment drenched in emotion, and as well as dedicating the victory to his fallen teammate, Van Aert said he would be sending the winner’s bouquet to his friend’s family. Today it was confirmed that the podium flowers arrived, along with an urn shaped like a cobblestone.

The Belgian news outlet Sporza spoke to Goolaerts’ parents after Van Aert’s victory. "It is overwhelming,” said his father, Staf. “Since Michael's death I don't normally watch racing anymore… it hurts too much. Especially because these were his kind of races. I try to shut it out a bit. So today I wasn't following it either.

"But I was on my way back from visiting my mother and heard on the radio that Wout had a chance of winning. I pulled into our driveway and just stayed there, listening… I also heard Wout's first interview there. The tears were rolling down my cheeks."

"I went inside and my wife was watching everything on television – unlike me, she can still watch the races. Then we heard Wout's interview again in Dutch. Absolutely beautiful."

After the 2018 race, the cobbled sector at Briastre, where Goolaerts fell from his bike after suffering a cardiac arrest, was renamed ‘Secteur Pavé Michael Goolaerts’ in honour of the much-missed Belgian rider.

Van Aert described getting goosebumps when riding this sector, and after the race he said: “I like to believe he gave me a bit of extra power today. It’s a good thing, and a beautiful thing that I can dedicate this victory to his family."

“We’re not superstitious, but it felt like Michael was riding along with him," said Goolaerts' mother, Marianne. "He has never really let him go," she explained. "Michael is still in his heart.”

“He kept his word… For us, this feels like a victory for our Michael”

'The Hell of the North leads to paradise'. That is the title that new Paris-Roubaix champion Wout van Aert gave to the Strava activity he posted up for the race, although he wrote it in French: 'L'Enfer du Nord mène au paradis'.

Next to it the Belgian added a pair of emojis – a finger pointing skyward, and a champion's cup. The former is a replication of the Visma-Lease a Bike rider's winning gesture, in which he remembered his Verandas Willems team-mate Michael Goolaerts, who passed away during the 2018 edition.

Unsurprisingly, Van Aert's Strava entry is paired with that of runner-up Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), whose attacks the Belgian spent much of the sharp end of the race fending off. In Pogačar's case, his weary lack of jubilation is written all over the rather more prosaic entry title – 'Cycling'.

'Tadej Pogačar Pogi rode with Wout van Aert', Strava tells us, as if the pair had popped out for a bit of lunch time fresh air, rather than made history in one of the world's most revered bike races.

Strava credits Van Aert with numerous KoMs on the way to victory, including the rarely-used Briastre sector, the Wandignies sector (covered at 52kph, no less), and the mammoth Sector 17 [Hornaing] to Roubaix – 80km covered in 1hr 47min.

There was also a string of PRs, reflecting an incredible record average speed for the race of 48.9kph (30.4mph), that saw the 258km polished off in a scant 5hr 16min.

Pogačar also took a few KoMs to add to his extensive set, including the Beuvry-la-foret to Orchies sector – a crown he shares with Van Aert's team-mate Christophe Laporte, Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon CMA CGM) and yesterday's third place, Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step).

Van Aert's ride has gained Strava kudos from 119,504 people, Pogačar's 75,041. However, neither man has furnished us with what would have been the icing on the Strava cake – their power figures. In a race like yesterday's when they were pushing so hard for so long, the wattages would no doubt have been double-take impressive.

Sadly for fans, such things are the stuff of trade secrets, although Pogačar has posted his on occasion, as well as telling an interviewer that his zone two rates at 320-340 watts.

For a day or three at least, neither rider is likely to be pushing too hard on the pedals as they recover, Pogačar in readiness for next Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Van Aert for what's currently his next scheduled race, the newly named Tour Auvergne-Rhône Alpes (formerly Critérium du Dauphiné) in June.

Paris-Roubaix could have been Mathieu van der Poel's race once again this year. The Dutchman looked to be flying and was riding comfortably at the front of the race over the early sectors of cobbles. Then disaster struck as he flatted towards the beginning of the Trouée d’Arenberg, one of the roughest and most infamous cobbled sectors of the race.

With no team car behind and the peloton spread out down the sector the three-time winner was stranded at the side of the road. Then Jasper Philipsen pulled over and handed his bike to Van der Poel. The Dutchman jumped on and tried to pedal. Clearly in too big a gear, he struggled to get going over the rough surface with too much pressure on the chain to change gear.

But his troubles continued as it became clear he couldn't clip his shoes into the pedals. On a flat section of road a rider could push on the pedals without too much force even if they're not clipped in (as long as they didn't get out of the saddle), but bouncing about on the cobbles Van der Poel's feet were slipping off the pedal surface.

Alpecin-Premier Tech is a Shimano sponsored team, meaning all their riders will be riding Shimano Dura Ace pedals, one of the best road bike pedals on the market. So why couldn't Van der Poel - an eight time cyclo-cross world champion used to jumping on and off bikes - clip in?

It turns out Philipsen was using a new set of prototype Dura-Ace pedals, which also use slightly different cleats. As soon as Van der Poel realised this he climbed off, walked back to Philipsen and gave his bike back so the sprinter could continue. Van der Poel then calmly waked back to where he'd left his Canyon bike as the race went up the road.

When he got back to his bike, another teammate, Tibor del Grosso, was swapping his front wheel out so Van der Poel could continue. He did, but then incredibly punctured again just before the end of the Arenberg sector. By the time he got a new bike from his team car he was almost two minutes down and it looked like his race was over.

"I knew [about the pedals]. It was never the plan that I take Jasper's bike of course," Van der Poel said post-race. "But I think he didn't feel good himself so he gave me the bike. I tried to just get out of the Arenberg, and it was impossible. I took my own bike back because Tibor gave me a wheel. But then I flatted again, and I knew my race was over."

In hindsight it seemed like an odd decision for a rider like Philipsen to test protoypte equipment in one of the biggest races of the year, and the one that is the biggest test on equipment. It turns out two other riders on the team were also using the prototype pedal.

A team mechanic told Cyclingnews.com that they had been using the pedals for a while, and had riders swap bikes in other races with no issues. "But Arenberg is not the same as Kuurne." The mechanic said.

Team boss Christophe Roodhoft later said. "They fit, but it's not the same as normal. But it's done now. I can't undo it. I should have thought of it, but I never imagined it would all come together in such a crucial way.

"Right now, I think it was very stupid of me. That sounds harsh. But I don't understand how I didn't think of it. It's more unlikely than winning the lottery, all of it falling together like that."

Whether or not the decision cost the team and van der Poel their fourth consecutive victory in Roubaix will never be known. The Dutchman got back to within 20 seconds of the lead at one point, but couldn't close that final gap. He eventually sprinted to fourth place.

Shimano's SPD-SL pedals are common throughout the peloton and have gone largely unchanged for the last 20 years, but in 2025 the Japanese company released an updated set of it's popular off-road SPD pedals - also with updated cleats - to give better clearance. While the new road pedals will have to be listed with the UCI as Non-Commercial Equipment while they are being tested, no details have been released as yet.

Paris-Roubaix has always had a habit of making fools of perfectly good road bikes. Riders can turn up with the fastest, lightest, most wind-cheating machine in the world, and within a few sectors, feel like they have brought a toothpick to a demolition site.

From a tech perspective, the most revealing thing about the race isn’t perhaps who wins – though chapeau to Wout van Aert and Franziska Koch – but how the peloton bends the rules of what a road bike is allowed to be in order to survive it.

This year at the men's race, we saw tyres grow in size again to as big as 35mm. Single chainrings, or 1x drivetrains, are also the firm Roubaix favourite, even if the way teams are achieving them is increasingly archaic. Plus, we spotted plenty of small, telling compromises, some of which look more like damage limitation than optimisation.

35mm tyres

Not long ago, 30mm tyres felt radical. But as frame design has changed to allow more clearance, widths aren't just creeping up, they're maxing out available room in many quarters.

35mm was the clear width of choice for Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as well as Decathlon CMA CGM and Movistar, with all committed to it this time out, where they could fit it.

Interestingly, both UAE and Decathlon ran mismatched set-ups, with a 35mm tyre at the front, and a 32mm at the back. This may be more about available room than data, but it also seems likely there’s a trade-off some are calculating for here, with the larger volume tyres featuring up front where there’s the most benefit, and least downsides for acceleration, or rotating mass.

The debate on ever wider rubber strategy isn’t final, though. Modern Adventure Pro Cycling (multicoloured forks above), among the majority of the teams, ran 32mm tyres at this year's race, although press information supplied to us in the run-up suggested they’d been cramming in 34mm rubber ahead of the race.

The American ProTeam ran 58mm deep rims, so perhaps there’s some compromises they weren’t prepared to make in terms of the aero package, when the tyre is considered with the rim. This could simply be down to frame clearance, of course.

Groupama-FDJ United (red forks above), meanwhile, appeared to have room to go much wider, but chose not to, sticking with 32mm despite the available space. It seems somewhere in the low thirties remains the sweet spot once rolling resistance, aerodynamics and handling are all factored in – especially when the cobbles are dry and fast.

Double valves

Tubeless anxiety continues to plague plenty in the pro ranks, it seems. While some teams persist with tyre liners, or even glue their tyres on, others have hedged their bets, combining tubeless set-ups with a new two valve system.

Given away by the presence of a two-stem valve, the system Lidl-Trek used at the race is from BMX brand Odyssey, and essentially provides a tyre insert for your standard tubeless set-up, which looks like an extra TPU tube, inside the tubeless system.

Some digging around on the internet revealed that Odyssey claim to have solved the issue of tyre burping, while protecting the rim from impacts. The product also “locks the tyre bead on”, according to the brand, and provides a temporary “run flat” back up – perfect for those unwanted punctures across the cobbles.

1x drivetrains

If tyre width has settled into an uneasy consensus, drivetrains have gone in the opposite direction entirely. 1x set ups are now commonplace, but the routes teams are taking to fit them has become increasingly creative, bordering on rebellious.

SRAM’s XPLR gravel groupsets, first spotted last year on Lidl-Trek's bikes, provide the go-to ready made set-up, and they were in evidence again, unsurprisingly. Modern Adventure, for example, paired a 10-46 cassette with their single ring set-ups – that's gravel gearing, plain and simple.

EF Education-EasyPost, pictured below, also adopted the XPLR.

Shimano-supported teams, however, took a more improvised approach.

At TotalEnergies, the line-up looked less like a unified equipment strategy and more like a pick-and-mix: Anthony Turgis ran a mountain bike XTR rear mech (pictured below) for its chain retention, while Thomas Gachignard was among three TotalEnergies riders who opted for Shimano's GRX, the gravel equivalent. Others on the same team stuck with the standard Dura-Ace road groupset.

It would be easy to frame this as inconsistency, but in reality it’s a clear signal that chain security is worth bending the equipment hierarchies for. The theoretical neatness of a complete drivetrain – that Shimano is said to prefer to see from it’s supported teams – is perhaps growing a little old in events like this one, where good components are clearly available to solve some of the problems presented by the uniquely punishing course.

That's not to say that standard, off-the-shelf set-ups don't still exist at races like Paris-Roubaix. Take Alpecin-Premier Tech's Mathieu van der Poel, for example, who ran his usual double-ringed Dura-Ace groupset that brought him victories in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Unreleased pedals and wheels

There's evidence to suggest that Shimano may be releasing a batch of new products in the not-so-distant future.

On Alpecin-Premier Tech's bikes at Roubaix, we spotted prototype C60 wheelsets with carbon spokes, which we've seen several times at races now, and give us reason to be excited about what else might be in development.

Alpecin-Premier Tech were also trialling new pedals at the race. In fact, it's been reported that the reason Van der Poel was unable to ride his team-mate's bike after puncturing on the Arenberg sector was because they had different pedals – some on the old, some on the new.

Van Aert keeps it simple

Van Aert, the race winner, offered perhaps the clearest rebuttal to all the hacked groupsets we saw across the team paddock. The Belgian's set-up – a 54-tooth chainring paired with a tight 10-28 cassette and a standard road rear mech – prioritised closely spaced gearing over outright security.

We also saw plenty of 13-speed SRAM rear mechs being used with pins limiting their movement so they could be run on 12-speed road cassettes. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this of course, but it’s another tell that gearing is really critical on flat, fast races like this one.

There’s a clear tension there between survival, and out and out performance, which individual riders are making very different calls on.

Aero is still everything

FDJ had aero bottles on show. So what? Well, it's proof that marginal gains are still really important, and don’t stop mattering just because the road surface is cobbled and uneven.

Deep section wheels were also still present, albeit used more selectively, as well as Tudor Pro Cycling’s choice of DT Swiss GRC 1100 gravel wheels – a choice that sums up the blurred lines this race creates in equipment strategy: aerodynamic gravel wheels being used in a WorldTour race would only be odd at any other race.

Monster chain rings

There were also some massive chainrings on show. King of the ring was Ineos Grenadiers' Josh Tarling once again, claiming the unofficial prize for his whopping 62-tooth dinner plate that looks pretty absurd until you consider the speeds these riders still carry even over the roughest sectors.

Blacked-out kit

For all the polished kit on display, the spirit of Roubaix lived on in the less sanctioned details. Picnic PostNL provided perhaps the most entertaining example this year, appearing to sidestep sponsor obligations by running Vittoria Corsa tyres with logos blacked out in marker pen. The team usually runs sponsor-supplied Michelin rubber.

Ineos Grenadiers, similarly, albeit a bit more tidily, appeared to use black electrical tape to cover the brand of their aftermarket chainrings, which allow gearings combos their specific sponsors couldn’t deliver.

Grip tape galore

Elsewhere, hacks were more practical than political. Grip tape, the kind more commonly found on skateboards, once again found its way inside bottle cages to keep bidons in place over the cobbles.

There were also some cool new contact points; Prologo’s new OctoTouch 3D bar tape made a pretty widespread appearance, and is pictured below on XDS Astana's bikes.

Also from Prologo came Van Aert's new saddle, so-called 'Choice', which is described as an ‘integrated’ saddle. We didn't manage to photograph it at the start in Compiègne, but the best way to describe it is in it having a side skirt, or apron, made in carbon fibre, which extends down from the saddle to encase the rails, out of the wind. It’s got the look of a high-tech Selle Italia Turbo, with extra depth delivered by the carbon apron. We’re told it retails at around £500, so it’s another popular dentist’s saddle in the making, for sure.

Once again, taken in the round, these little hacks, workarounds and clear evidence of some very considered equipment choices prove that Roubaix rewards pragmatism, ingenuity and a willingness to bend both equipment and expectations as far as possible.

The bikes surely do resemble their road-going counterparts at a glance, but as you look a little closer, the truth is clearer. Wider tyres, mixed drivetrains, improvised hacks, and tweaks all point to the same conclusion: a ‘normal’ road bike isn't enough, at least not for this one day in April.

Tadej Pogačar has been in this situation before. Sitting cross-armed in front of the media, his bottom lip is lined with dry mud, his eyebrows bushy with dust. The first question in the press conference comes, and the world champion replies with eight words: “I feel good. I was happy with today.” The reporter, stumped by the brevity, follows up with another. “Are you not tired?” he asks. This time, Pogačar just shrugs and smiles – his weary eyes give as clear an answer as any words could.

The prophecy told that Tadej Pogačar would win Paris-Roubaix. For months, he was touted as the chosen one: the boy from Klanec – a leafy Slovenian village with one restaurant and a population fewer than 350 – who was destined to become the first rider since Roger De Vlaeminck in 1977 to win all five Monuments. He might still, but for now at least, his shot at history has been deferred.

Just half a second separated Pogačar from Monument immortality inside the Roubaix velodrome on Sunday. There was a roar from the crowd when he led Visma-Lease a Bike’s Wout van Aert into the concrete bowl, and another, louder roar when Van Aert kicked away from him round the final bend, to win by the length of his shadow.

Humble in defeat, Pogačar is quick to praise the rider he spent the last 50km alongside. “He [Van Aert] deserves the victory,” Pogačar says, and his brief, downbeat figure gives way to thoughtful reflection. “Every time I tried [to get rid of him], my legs were not the greatest anymore. I always saw him really riding on my wheel. He was so strong that I could feel it was just not meant to be today to drop him.”

Pogačar’s race truly began with 120km remaining. Victim of a puncture before the Arenberg Forest, he scrambled onto a Shimano neutral service bike, lost almost a minute to his rivals, but chased back to the front, swapping for a spare bike he took from the roof of his team car.

“Today was a lot of flat tyres,” he says bluntly. “First I was riding with a front tyre half flat, and then I broke the wheel on the back and I couldn’t ride anymore. I got the Shimano bike and it was big gaps across the groups.”

By the time Pogačar reached the Arenberg, he was feeling, in his words, “a little bit bananas”. He passed through the race’s most daunting sector unscathed, but his misfortune didn’t end there; a second puncture, and a third bike change, came with 72km to go, and he found himself in a dash to hold off his Classics rival Mathieu van der Poel, who ultimately wouldn’t claw back his own flat-tyred woes.

The stress of the efforts, it’s clear, took it out of the world champion. “Always when you have problems you waste a little bit of energy and it’s like this,” he says. “I don’t regret anything. It’s how this race goes.”

Was there anything he feels could have done differently? “There’s always something that you could do differently. Right now, so close after the race, I think I did all my best, but maybe tomorrow, after the dust settles, we will maybe analyse and see what I could have done better. I think in such a chaotic race, I did pretty good. I gave my best. No regrets, for sure.”

An hour after his press conference, Pogačar reemerged under the sun in the Roubaix velodrome to a ripple of applause. His face was now clean, thanks to a visit to the famous showers, and his clothes fresh from the team bus. He then sat down on the grassy infield, laughing with his family and friends, as he waited for the podium ceremony to begin.

The bitter aftermath of the result had vanished. No, it wasn’t meant to be this time, but there will be another chance, and another, for as long as his will allows.

“I think I will be back, maybe not next year, but I still have a few years of my career I hope,” he reassured the press. “I will try to come back and give it a go again.”

Already a winner of Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia, Pogačar's date with Roubaix destiny remains academic. His face may not appear on the Mount Rushmore of Monument winners just yet, but, after a second, closer runner-up place, there's a feeling his portrait in the granite is waiting.

There were times when it felt like Wout van Aert would never win another Monument, especially not Paris-Roubaix, the one-day race which suits him the most.

Even as he approached the Roubaix Velodrome on Sunday, at the end of his seventh 'Hell of the North', together with Tadej Pogačar, who he would surely beat in a sprint, the doubts were still there; it would be very Van Aert to be presented this golden opportunity, only to be denied.

Luck never seemed on the Belgian's side. It was part of what made him charming. Just at Roubaix, there was second in 2022, winning the sprint after Dylan van Baarle escaped to victory, after he recovered from Covid; the puncture which took him out of contention in 2023, which stopped him from racing with Mathieu van der Poel to the end; in 2024 it was the turn of a crash at Dwaars door Vlaanderen to take him out of contention; last year he was on the comeback from another serious crash, this time at the Vuelta a España.

On Sunday, for once, luck was just about with him. There was the almost compulsory puncture, but it did not take him out of the race, while his rivals, especially Van der Poel, were beset by issues. Pogačar changed his bike twice, and was forced to chase on before the Arenberg, while Van der Poel's whole race went up in smoke in the trench, after two punctures. Van Aert was able to take the lead into the crucial sectors, including the Trouée d'Arenberg, and dictate the race. He won in the end, out-sprinting Pogačar in the velodrome to win.

"I’ve been pretty unlucky sometimes in this race, so it will be a nice story to say that I was feeling so much better in this edition, but the truth is other years I felt really good but circumstances were not on my side," he explained in his winner's press conference.

"In this race I had my own story, and my own bad luck at points, but I could fight back. All the experience from the other editions gave me the knowledge to pull it off today."

The crowd were also with the Belgian; rarely can there have ever been a non-French winner who received as much acclaim as Van Aert. Coming into the velodrome, it was clear who the fans wanted to win, despite the possibility of history being made.

No-one would ever choose to go into the final 500m of a race against the rider many consider to be the best ever, just one win away from completing a historic set of Monuments, but Pogačar was there to be beaten, and Van Aert took the opportunity with both hands.

"I’m obviously super proud," he said. "Winning this race means basically everything to me. We make so many sacrifices to get to this level, to always fight back, and every year our target is this race and Flanders. To finish it off in this way in a sprint with Tadej in his jersey, there’s no better way to do it. It’s a dream come true."

Van Aert and Pogačar were alone from around sector 12, around 50km to go, and while it was not a done deal, the former sensed this was his moment.

"From when I was on the road with Tadej I knew I had a fair chance," he explained. "I also knew it was a long way, a lot could happen. I truly believed after Carrefour de l’Arbre that I had the same chances as him when it comes to a sprint after a race like this, anything can happen. From then I really believed. When we were two I always really believed that I had a chance."

With around 40km to go of Paris-Roubaix, Pogačar launched his final all-or-nothing move, knowing that he could not take Van Aert to the finish with him. From then on, there would be fewer pulls by the Belgian, who sensed the way to win this race was from behind.

"That was the moment I would stick on his wheel on the cobbles in order to not get attacked from behind again," Van Aert explained. "He did a very good attack after the first corner of Mons-en-Pévèle. It was a good moment of realisation that this was the strongest guy in the whole peloton. That was a very good attack that I could just answer, but from then on I knew my main goal was to stick on his wheel."

Paris-Roubaix is special to Van Aert for reasons beyond its general stature as a big race, one that suits him. In 2018, on his first appearance, Van Aert finished 13th riding for Vérandas Willems-Crelan. Tragically, that same day, his teammate Michael Goolaerts died from a heart attack during the race, on the Briastre sector of cobbles, a sector which returned to the race route this year.

"It was immediately a sad day, losing a teammate in the race, it’s something brutal," Van Aert remembered. "Ever since then, personally, I did a good race, I felt it was something that really suited me. It was my goal to win this race, and to be able to point my finger to the sky for Michael. He’s a lot on my mind but especially in this period.

"This was the first edition we did [since] where we passed his sector, where he died. When we did the recon I had goosebumps. I like to believe he gave me a bit of extra power today. It’s a good thing, and a beautiful thing that I can dedicate this victory to his family."

This win was for the Belgian, but also for Goolaerts and his family, with a dedication in the celebration. It was a promise to himself finally realised.

It seemed apposite, that in this chaotic, engrossing, monumental edition of Paris-Roubaix, it was finally Van Aert's victory. A meme for something special, beautiful, is to 'hang it in the Louvre'. It would take more than even that vast museum's floor space to tell the tale of Van Aert's trials and tribulations, and then triumph at last, but it is a compelling story. Luck finally turned, fortune's wheel spun right for the Belgian, and he finally has his cobblestone. The time was right. Everybody cheered.

Mathieu van der Poel punctured in the Trouée d'Arenberg at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, leaving him almost two minutes behind the front of the race leaving the first five-star sector of the race.

The Alpecin-Premier Tech rider briefly tried to use Jasper Philipsen's bike, before abandoning that plan, as it seemed too small, he then walked back to his original frame, which lay at the side of the road. Another Alpecin rider, Tibor del Grosso, then changed his wheel with an Allen key, before the Dutchman punctured again before the end of the sector.

The incident came with 94km to go after Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) had put the power down heading into the Arenberg, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) among the riders able to follow.

The lead group consisted of that pair, along with Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike), Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon CMA CGM), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step) and Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe). A bigger group Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was around 20 seconds behind at this point in the race.

The drama came a few dozen kilometres after Pogačar was briefly forced to use a neutral service bike after puncturing on the Quérénaing à Maing sector, away from a team car. The Slovenian world champion was on the blue Shimano model for around 4km before he was able to change onto his preferred Colnago Y1RS, complete with mismatched tyres front and back.

The gap was briefly around 30 seconds, before Pogačar used his UAE teammates to close the gap before the peloton hit the Arenberg sector.

The opening 170km of the race were completed at over 50km/h, with a 20km/h tailwind helping push the riders along.

More to follow...

Paris-Roubaix, the 'Hell of the North', is back for its 123rd edition this Sunday, and it's set to be a history-making occasion.

Once again this Classics campaign, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) will start as the two outright favourites, continuing a rivalry that has ignited one-day racing in recent years.

This season, the score reads Pogačar 2-0 Van der Poel on the Monument tally, thanks to the Slovenian's victories at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but Van der Poel has won the last three Paris-Roubaixs in a row. If he wins a fourth, he'll be the first to do so in consecutive years. Likewise, a Pogačar victory would complete his Monument set.

The men's race will start in Compiègne, covering 258.3km and 30 cobbled sectors – including the famous Trouée d'Arenberg, Mons-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l'Arbre – en route to the outdoor velodrome in Roubaix.

The women's race, now in its sixth edition, will cover 143.1km and 20 cobbled sectors between Denain and Roubaix. The women's route does not include the Trouée d'Arenberg.

Alongside the return of the defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), 2024's winner Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) is likely to be one of the favourites on Sunday, and either rider could become the first woman to win the event twice. They’ll face competition for that claim from Alison Jackson, now of St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93, another former champion.

Men's race start: 10:05 BST
Men's race expected finish: 15:50 BST

Women's race start: 13:45 BST
Women's race expected finish: 17:20 BST

Below, Cycling Weekly has compiled everything you need to know about broadcasters and live streams for the race. You can watch Paris-Roubaix wherever you are in the world with a VPN.

Quick guide to watching Paris-Roubaix

Can I watch Paris-Roubaix for free?

Fans in Australia, the Netherlands, France and Belgium can watch Paris-Roubaix for free thanks to broadcasters in their regions.

Fans in the host country of France can watch both the men's and women's races free of charge via the country's public broadcaster France Télévisions.

In Australia, viewers can watch for free with English commentary on SBS on Demand. Fans in the Netherlands can watch at no cost on NOS, while in Belgium, the races will be shown free on VRT and RTBF.

Coverage is geo-restricted, so if you're away from home at the time of the race, you'll need a VPN to get your typical coverage while abroad – more on that below.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix while abroad

Most streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.

A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad.

Want to know more? We have an explainer on the benefits, costs, and considerations...
– Should I use a VPN to watch cycling?

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in the UK

In the UK, the men's Paris-Roubaix will be broadcast on TV on TNT Sports 1 and online on HBO Max from 09:30 UK time. The women's race will be shown on TNT Sports 1 after the finish of the men's race, from 16:00, as well as on HBO Max.

Both platforms are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and require a subscription.

Packages for HBO Max begin at £36.98 with TNT Sports and standard ads, with a premium package costing £45.98 per month. TNT Sports is also available as a standalone subscription for £25.99 a month on a 12-month contract.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in the US and Canada

NBC Sports has the rights to broadcast Paris-Roubaix in the US, with live streaming available on Peacock, which costs $10.99 a month, or $109.99 for 12 months.

In Canada, fans can watch both races on Flobikes. Access to the platform costs CA$39.99 a month, with big savings for long-term plans.

How to watch Paris-Roubaix in Australia

In Australia, Paris-Roubaix will be available to watch for free on SBS.

The platform offers free coverage of cycling events and will also be showing the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France at no cost as well.

Outside Australia today? Use a VPN to access the free coverage of Paris-Roubaix on SBS.

What time is Paris-Roubaix on?

UK coverage of the men's race begins at 09:30 BST on TNT Sports, with the women's race shown afterwards from 16:00 BST.

In the US, the live broadcast of the men's race starts at 04:30 EST. Coverage of the women's race will begin at 11:00 EST.

► Cycling TV and streaming guide

What to expect at Paris-Roubaix

Known as the 'Queen of the Classics', Paris-Roubaix is the final instalment of spring's major cobbled one-day races.

The men's and women's races both take place in the north-east of France, and are held partly on jagged cobblestone farm tracks which, although mostly flat, can suck the speed out from beneath the riders.

Given the roughness of the terrain, the racing tends to be perilous and unpredictable. Previous editions have been won with solo attacks as far out as 60km, like Mathieu van der Poel did in 2024, or in close-fought velodrome sprints, like Alison Jackson in 2023 and Lotte Kopecky in 2024.

This year's men's race will be the second that Tadej Pogačar has contested, having finished runner-up on debut in 2025. If the world champion wins, he will complete the set of all five Monuments – a feat that hasn't been achieved since 1977, when Roger De Vlaeminck was the last to do it.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Stupidity or sabotage? That is the question Guy Mathon, the vice president of the Amis de Paris-Roubaix, is asking himself after a slew of cobbles disappeared from the sectors of Paris-Roubaix.

In recent days, reports have emerged of thieves stealing the cobbles, particularly on the Arenberg sector, where La Voix du Nord estimates around 60 are missing. Cycling Weekly, too, carried out a recon of the sector on Friday, and found deep holes in the road, one of which had been filled with a concrete block, and another with a handful of charcoal.

Mathon, who works for the association responsible for the cobbles’ upkeep, said he first noticed gaps appearing four years ago. He’s now worried that ill-intended foul play is behind the thefts.

“I have two theories; the first is that it's a theft by someone who is a little bit unaware and is taking a souvenir for home, like a collector's item,” Mathon told Cycling Weekly and The Athletic. “Or maybe, and I hope it's not this, a kind of sabotage.

“Why am I saying this? I find it unusual and really very strange that on the Arenberg sector, which is 2.4km long, the cobbles are stolen from the middle of the road, the crown, where the riders ride.

“If it’s a simple theft, then surely they’d take a little bit from the right, a little bit from the left, a little bit in the middle, a little bit from everywhere. But no, it's really in a straight line, and that catches my attention. Why do they do it like that?”

The Amis de Paris Roubaix work throughout the year to repair and replace the cobbles, ensuring they are as safe as possible for race day. Mathon, now in his early sixties, has followed the race since he was a child, and has seen how one protruding stone – or indeed a deep hole – can prove disastrous for riders.

“People don’t realise that when the riders’ carbon wheels hit a hole at 50kph, the wheel can explode or dismantle and cause a serious crash, or maybe even, given the impact, ruin a career, just because someone took a cobble,” he said. “It scares me for the riders and I hope it's more stupidity than deliberate vandalism.”

In light of the spate of thefts, the Amis were out on Friday morning making last-minute repairs to the sectors. Mathon’s colleagues, for lack of time to do a more thorough job, filled gaps with a mixture of cement and sand that will harden by race day.

“Of course even if we do the repairs now, there might be more thefts before Sunday,” he said. “The Arenberg is a forest, where there's no surveillance at night, so [the thieves] can go and look.”

The men’s and women’s Paris-Roubaix races will both take place this Sunday. Only the men’s peloton will visit the Arenberg sector, although cobbles have been reported missing from across the course.

After launching in 2021, Paris-Roubaix Femmes is back for its sixth edition, and will take place this year on Sunday, in tandem with the men's race for the first time.

Four days before the race, last year's winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) announced that she will go against her earlier schedule, and return to defend her title across the cobbles.

No rider has won the women's race twice, and while the Frenchwoman may hope to be the first to do so, she will face competition from Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) and Alison Jackson (St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93), two other former winners on the start list.

There will be 123 riders at the start of the race in Denain. Teams are allowed to field a maximum of six riders, however two teams will compete with fewer: UAE Team ADQ, down to four after Sofie van Rooijnen suffered a training crash, and Ma Petite Entreprise, who will ride with five.

Paris-Roubaix Femmes 2026 start list

Visma-Lease a Bike

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot
Marianne Vos
Daniek Hengeveld
Nienke Veenhoven
Lieke Nooijen
Margaux Vigié

SD Worx-Protime

Lotte Kopecky
Barbara Guarischi
Lorena Wiebes
Julia Kopecký
Blanka Vas
Femke Markus

AG Insurance-Soudal

Letizia Borghesi
Shari Bossuyt
Gladys Verhulst-Wild
Marthe Goossens
Ilse Pluimers
Alana Castrique

FDJ United-SUEZ

Elise Chabbey
Franziska Koch
Célia Géry
Vittoria Guazzini
Amber Kraak
Jade Wiel

St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93

Alison Jackson
Clémence Chéreau
Alicia González
Karolina Kumięga
Elyne Roussel
Caroline Wreszin

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto

Zoë Bäckstedt
Chiara Consonni
Tiffany Cromwell
Chloé Dygert
Rosa Maria Klöser
Maria Martins

UAE Team ADQ

Megan Jastrab
Febe Jooris
Lara Gillespie
Alena Ivanchenko

Lidl-Trek

Elisa Balsamo
Emma Norsgaard Bjerg
Clara Copponi
Shirin van Anrooij
Lucinda Brand
Lauretta Hanson

Fenix-Premier Tech

Charlotte Kool
Millie Couzens
Mylène de Zoete
Evy Kuijpers
Flora Perkins
Marthe Truyen

Movistar

Cat Ferguson
Carys Lloyd
Floortje Mackaij
Arlenis Sierra
Aude Biannic
Laura Ruiz Pérez

Team Picnic PostNL

Pfeiffer Georgi
Rachele Barbieri
Robyn Clay
Mia Griffin
Lucie Fityus
Josie Nelson

Liv AlUla Jayco

Jeanne Korevaar
Noä Jansen
Quinty Ton
Georgia Baker
Ruby Roseman-Gannon
Mackenzie Coupland

EF Education-Oatly

Nina Berton
Auke De Buysscher
Mirre Knaven
Alexis Magner
Caoimhe O'Brien
Alexandra Volstad

Cofidis

Amalie Dideriksen
Martina Alzini
Marion Borras
Kristýna Burlová
Valentine Fortin
Nadia Quagliotto

Human Powered Health

Maggie Coles-Lyster
Jente Koops
Wiktoria Pikulík
Katia Ragusa
Kathrin Schweinberger
Lily Williams

Uno-X Mobility

Linda Zanetti
Laura Tomasi
Kamilla Aasebø
Anniina Ahtosalo
Susanne Andersen
Teuntje Beekhuis

Lotto Intermarché

Julie Brouwers
Ilken Seynave
Sterre Vervloet
Katrijn De Clercq
Lea Lin Teutenberg
Linda Riedmann

VolkerWessels

Sophie von Berswordt
Meis Poland
Scarlett Souren
Vera Tieleman
Lonneke Uneken
Amber van der Hulst

Ma Petite Entreprise

Alison Avoine
Noémie Abgrall
Margot Marasco
Ilona Rouat
Léa Stern

Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi

Irati Aranguren
Idoia Eraso
Arianna Fidanza
Sara Fiorin
Cristina Tonetti
Marjolein van 't Geloof

Mayenne Monbana My Pie

Justine Gegu
Fiona Mangan
Jenaya Francis
Allison Mrugal
Natalie Quinn
Constance Valentin

There's history to be made in northern France this Sunday, as Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar set themselves for a tilt at Paris-Roubaix immortality.

Should the defending champion Van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) win again, he'll become the first person to claim four titles in a row. Conversely, if the cobbles play in Pogačar's (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) favour, the world champion could tick off the only remaining Monument he needs to complete the set of five – a feat that hasn't been seen in cycling since Roger De Vlaeminck in 1977.

Runner-up on debut last year, Pogačar could also become the first rider ever to hold all five Monument titles at the same time.

The pair are among 175 riders who will compete in the 123rd edition of Paris-Roubaix this Sunday. Alongside Van der Poel, there are two other former champions on the start list: Dylan van Baarle (2022, now of Soudal Quick-Step) and John Degenkolb (2015, Picnic PostNL).

Paris-Roubaix 2026 start list

Alpecin-Premier Tech

Mathieu van der Poel
Tibor Del Grosso
Silvan Dillier
Jasper Philipsen
Edward Planckaert
Jonas Rickaert
Florian Sénéchal

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

Tadej Pogačar
Rui Oliveira
Florian Vermeersch
António Morgado
Nils Politt
Mikkel Bjerg
Juan Sebastián Molano

Lidl-Trek

Mads Pedersen
Mathias Vacek
Jonathan Milan
Jakob Söderqvist
Mathias Norsgaard
Max Walscheid
Edward Theuns

Visma-Lease a Bike

Wout van Aert
Matthew Brennan
Christophe Laporte
Edoardo Affini
Pietro Mattio
Per Strand Hagenes
Owain Doull

Decathlon CMA CGM

Stefan Bissegger
Cees Bol
Sander De Pestel
Stan Dewulf
Daan Hoole
Oliver Naesen
Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen

Lotto Intermarché

Arnaud De Lie
Toon Aerts
Cedric Beullens
Matys Grisel
Jonas Rutsch
Huub Artz
Joshua Giddings

INEOS Grenadiers

Filippo Ganna
Joshua Tarling
Kim Heiduk
Artem Shmidt
Connor Swift
Ben Turner
Sam Welsford

Soudal Quick-Step

Jasper Stuyven
Dylan van Baarle
Tim Merlier
Yves Lampaert
Dries Van Gestel
Bert Van Lerberghe
Jonathan Vervenne

Team Picnic PostNL

Pavel Bittner
John Degenkolb
Julius van den Berg
Frits Biesterbos
Dillon Corkery
Henri-François Renard-Haquin
Niklas Märkl

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe

Jordi Meeus
Mick van Dijke
Tim van Dijke
Gianni Vermeersch
Laurence Pithie
Arne Marit
Callum Thornley

Bahrain-Victorious

Alec Segaert
Matej Mohorič
Matevž Govekar
Phil Bauhaus
Kamil Gradek
Alessandro Borgo
Žak Eržen

Groupama-FDJ United

Cyril Barthe
Titouan Fontaine
Thibaud Gruel
Axel Huens
Johan Jacobs
Clément Russo
Bastien Tronchon

Uno-X Mobility

Søren Wærenskjold
Jonas Abrahamsen
Sven Erik Bystrøm
Erik Nordsæter Resell
Rasmus Tiller
Storm Ingebrigtsen
William Blume Levy

Cofidis

Alexis Renard
Benjamin Thomas
Hugo Page
Stanisław Aniołkowski
Camille Charret
Dylan Teuns
Clément Izquierdo

XDS Astana

Davide Ballerini
Mike Teunissen
Alessandro Romele
Yevgeniy Fedorov
Aaron Gate
Arjen Livyns
Gleb Syritsa

EF Education-EasyPost

Kasper Asgreen
Luke Lamperti
Alastair Mackellar
Madis Mihkels
Matthias Schwarzbacher
Colby Simmons
Max Walker

NSN Cycling Team

Matis Louvel
Lewis Askey
Riley Sheehan
Guillaume Boivin
Biniam Girmay
Ryan Mullen
Tom Van Asbroeck

TotalEnergies

Samuel Leroux
Rayan Boulahoite
Alexys Brunel
Florian Dauphin
Sandy Dujardin
Thomas Gachignard
Anthony Turgis

Jayco AlUla

Dries De Bondt
Luke Durbridge
Dries De Pooter
Robert Donaldson
Hamish McKenzie
Kelland O'Brien
Jasha Sütterlin

Movistar

Iván García Cortina
Jon Barrenetxea
Lorenzo Milesi
Pavel Novák
Gonzalo Serrano
Filip Maciejuk
Albert Torres

Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling

Fred Wright
Aimé De Gendt
Frederik Frison
Emīls Liepiņš
Kamil Małecki
Brent Van Moer
Nickolas Zukowsky

Tudor Pro Cycling

Marco Haller
Marius Mayrhofer
Luca Mozzato
Petr Kelemen
Fabian Lienhard
Aivaras Mikutis
Sebastian Kolze Changizi

Unibet Rose Rockets

Lukáš Kubiš
Matyáš Kopecký
Martijn Rasenberg
Tomáš Kopecký
Joren Bloem
Niklas Larsen
Ronan Augé

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling

Sean Christian
Robin Carpenter
Ezra Caudell
Cole Kessler
Ben Oliver
Riley Pickrell
Mark Stewart

Team Flanders - Baloise

Brem Deman
Ferre Geeraerts
Jules Hesters
Michiel Lambrecht
Noah Vandenbranden
Leander Van Hautegem
Victor Vercouillie

"The cobbles, the stress on the body, it’s definitely one of the roughest, toughest, hardest races I’ve done. I think I gained some experience that maybe next time that I come here it will not be so extremely hard as it was today."

Almost 365 days ago, that was Tadej Pogačar's verdict after his debut Paris-Roubaix, where he finished second, looking as exhausted as I have ever seen him after a race. It wasn't the buoyant, jokey man we have all become used to, but someone who had been put through the wringer.

He finished second that day, behind Mathieu van der Poel, after a performance which belied any kind of conception of what we thought about the 'Hell of the North'. We might have expected the supreme race-craft, the positioning and the power, but this was a Tour de France winner, a climber, going toe-to-toe with Van der Poel, without any experience of the race. He did crash, possibly showing his naivety, but he still finished second, beating Classics specialists like Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert.

Last year it felt like an adventure, almost a free hit – we didn't know what to expect, so second place was huge, a confirmation that yes, the Slovenian could do something not seen since 1981, and win both the Tour and Roubaix.

This year is different. There is pressure on the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider, because we all know he could win. Forget question marks over his knowledge of the race, over whether he's heavy enough to perform on the pavé or whether a general classification rider could look at home in the biggest Classic of them all.

It is now a serious possibility, maybe even 50:50, that Pogačar will win Paris-Roubaix. He is no longer a wildcard, an outsider, and could become the first person since Roger De Vlaeminck in 1977 to win all five Monuments, and become the first person ever to be the champion of all five at the same time. Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia last year, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders in 2026. There is only one left. I will not be surprised if he wins. That would have once sounded ridiculous, but no more.

The 27-year-old goes into almost every race as the favourite, so this is nothing new for him, but it will change the perception of the race. His rivals can look to him and his team to pull, to chase every move, to be in charge of the race, essentially. A moment of inattention could result in an incident like last year's minor crash, or something altogether more serious. The stress will be real.

It is not a done deal, however, no fait accompli. This isn't Flanders, Strade Bianche, or Lombardia, races that suit Pogačar to an overwhelming extent. There is the chaos of the cobbles, and also the 170 riders in the race to contend with. Van der Poel of Alpecin-Premier Tech is top of the pile of these, with three wins in a row; he appears to be able to power through the race unlike anyone else, and has sprinter Jasper Philipsen as a teammate to muddy the waters in any chase. The Dutchman is chasing legendary status himself, with the opportunity to be the first person to win four in a row.

The race itself is incredibly flat, for a WorldTour event anyway. There isn't a clear route to victory for Pogačar, no Oude Kwaremont or Le Tolfe to climb away on.

"Maybe the best [thing] would be to attack with surprise, but I don’t think I can do that anymore. Everybody’s looking at me," Pogačar told Cycling Weekly earlier this year. "I’ll just go with the flow, see where the race takes me, and try to gamble for the final maybe, with a small group sprint. I know after such a tough race I can do, for me, a solid sprint. There’s always a chance."

Beyond Van der Poel and Philipsen, Lidl-Trek's Pedersen has finished on the podium of the last two editions, and is coming back into top form, while Van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike is surely due another shot at victory at the race which probably suits him more than any other.

There's Ineos Grenadiers' Filippo Ganna, former world time trial champion, and winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen this year, and strong sprinters like Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) and late addition Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step). There is also a sense that the race is due a surprise winner, something not unusual at the mayhem in Northern France. It's 10 years since Mat Hayman won, after all.

However, there is something inevitable about Pogačar, something that just feels right. If he wins – if – it might not be a surprise, it would not scramble our brains, but perhaps it should. Riders in 2026 aren't supposed to be able to win it all, but somehow the Slovenian can and is. All we have to do now is sit back and watch history happen.

Special edition paint jobs usually appear at the end of the season when brands have a load of soon-to-be-obsolete frames to move on. But we also see them on the eve of a big race, and it doesn't get much bigger than Paris-Roubaix.

First blood in the art-inspired-bikes stakes goes to Factor and Modern Adventure, with a spectacular artist collaboration, painstakingly applied to the already-very-cool Factor Monza, which I rode last year and absolutely loved.

The artwork on the bike is by Belgian artist, Vexx. Born in 1998, Vexx has become globally recognised for what Factor describes as his "intricate, highly expressive doodle-driven visual language," which is characterised as having "energy, density and controlled chaos." Which isn't a bad metaphor for a race that takes place over rough cobbles the size of house bricks.

A new and still developing team, Modern Adventure probably won't spend much time at the front of Roubaix this weekend, so Magnus Bäckstedt is part of the deal as a DS for Human Powered Health who will be riding Paris Roubaix Femmes on the same day. Bäckstedt didn't just ride Roubaix, he won it back in 2004.

He knows better than most that this race has little interest in superficial paint jobs, once the drama gets underway. Not least a paint scheme as detailed as this, which is going to be too out of focus, vibrating over the surface like a road drill, over the worst of the cobbled sections of the race.

Which puts the choice of bike into a little better context. Yes, it looks the part—arguably one of the stand-out bikes from the weekend already. But the Monza is also a decent choice for a race that's this ultra-hard on both rider and kit.

The Monza is a relatively comfy and very fast bike for its genre. It's not a 'steel-is-real' ride feel, of course; it still chatters in the way carbon can, but the burly layup and work done to ensure a little compliance where it's needed is pretty successful in this case, definitely better than many lining up at the start in Compiegne and Denain.

Of course, it's still a race bike, so they'll try and cram in as much tyre as possible. There's barely a hair's width between the top of the tyre and the aero-cut seat post hugging the wheel. The tyre in question – shown in our lead image fitted to Lily Williams' bike of Human Powered Health – is a Vittoria Corsa Pro Control in size 34mm.

From an Instagram reel posted by @_fenomeno_ml, you can clearly see the Paris-Roubaix bikes of Ineos Grenadiers riders Joshua Tarling, Artem Shmidt, and Ben Turner all fitted with Shimano XTR Di2 M9250 rear derailleurs.

As a fully wireless operation, with the BT-DN320 battery housed inside its parallelogram, this model requires no wired battery, so there are fewer moving parts and no chance of anything coming loose over the cobbles or getting snagged during a crash.

Like SRAM, Shimano's ecosystem is cross-compatible, so XTR Di2 plays nicely with the current 12-speed Dura-Ace R9200 shifters and cassette. The longer derailleur cage also means the option to eschew the regular 11-30T for a larger 11-34T cassette, as well as a bigger chainring, too - presumably a 56 or 58T.

Shimano doesn't make a narrow-wide chainring, so it would have to be an aftermarket affair - from the photo, it looks to be a chainring from Drag2Zero. Shimano-sponsored UAE Team Emirates-XRG uses Carbon-Ti components to counter this issue and also employs its two-by chainrings for better shifting performance. Team rider Tim Wellens has been known to employ a one-by Shimano arrangement on his Classics setup - something we saw at this year's Omloop Nieuwsblad.

The new Shimano XTR Di2 M9250 rear derailleur - unlike the mechanically-actuated previous-gen M9000 series that utilised a friction clutch - uses a double-spring design for improved chain retention over rough terrain. The system is claimed to offer roughly 70% better chain tension than before, although it is non-adjustable. It also requires no maintenance and is a more durable option in the event of crashes, which makes sense for a race such as Paris-Roubaix.

One-by road groupsets are nothing new and have been widely used for the past few years. SRAM-sponsored teams have the option to use X-Sync E1 Aero Direct Mount chainrings paired to either an XPLR Red AXS rear assembly (offering a massive range of 10-46T) or a Red AXS derailleur with a regular 10-33 or 10-36T cassette.

We'll update this article with more information as we receive it.

Reckless souvenir snafflers are making the notoriously tricky and technical course of the Paris-Roubaix even more perilous than it always is, by collecting cobblestones from some of the Monument's most iconic sections in the days leading up to the event, race organisers have revealed this week.

With the Hell of the North taking place this Sunday, frustrated course designer Thierry Gouvenou spoke out to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf after another cobblestone went missing from the infamous section of the race route that rattles through the Forest of Wallers, leaving a lethal-looking gap just waiting to embrace a rider's wheel.

"On this section, and also on the 'Carrefour de l'Arbre' sector, we have a lot of extra work. These are legendary stretches, and people steal the cobbles as souvenirs. They don’t realise that they cause large and deep holes in the road," said Gouvenou.

Unbeknown to many fans and spectators, throughout the year the famous cobbles are checked, repaired and, when necessary, replaced by a group called Amis de Paris-Roubaix, who spend between €10,000 and €15,000 per annum performing such upkeep. For the last few years, they have had some assistance in keeping the cobbles in good shape from goats. (Yes, really.)

Fortunately, the course is inspected extensively during build up to the race. "We regularly repeat our checks in the lead-up," Gouvenou confirmed. "At the end of the week, we go over everything one more time." But, increasingly, they are having to deal with damage done in the immediate pre-race period.

"We are encountering this more and more," reveals Gouvenou. "It’s incomprehensible that they don’t consider the consequences this can have on the race. It will inevitably lead to crashes in both the women’s and men’s races on Sunday. What those people are doing can be life-threatening. Just imagine what happens if they ride into such a hole… They’re going at speeds of 50 kilometers per hour on these sections."

"Apart from the fact that deep holes are very dangerous, they can also have a major impact on how the race unfolds," cautioned Gouvenou. "We’re all looking forward to a fantastic battle between Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel… It would be deeply tragic if one of these stars crashed because someone thought a cobblestone from Paris-Roubaix looked nice on their mantelpiece."

"We want to see this incredible fight," he continued, imploring people to: "Leave those cobblestones where they belong. This race is ruthless enough as it is."

Visma-Lease a Bike have angrily lashed out at the UCI, after the governing body suddenly banned the use of a game-changing gadget produced by GRAVAA and developed in conjunction with the Dutch team, which allowed riders to adjust the pressure in their tyres on the move.

The system provides a significant – potentially title-deciding – marginal gain during races with cobble sections… like the Paris-Roubaix, happening this Sunday. Visma's head of performance, Mathieu Heijboer, was incandescent about the communication of the ban, as much as the “vague story” used to justify it, let alone the impact it will have on his top riders’ performance in this weekend’s cobbled Monument.

“Does this reduce Wout van Aert's chances? Yes!” Heijboer fumed during a Flemish podcast, In de Waaier, with his comments later reported in the newspaper Nieuwsblad. “This is no coincidence,” he said. “We received no announcement that this was coming; there was simply that letter. In fact, we even rode the GP Denain with it.”

“The surprise is going to be that we won’t be applying an innovation [in this year’s Paris-Roubaix],” Heijboer said during the podcast. “As you know, we have worked with the GRAVAA system for the past two years,” he continued. “We further developed it and tested it extensively during the winter. However, two weeks ago we received a letter stating that it is banned by the UCI. Then it stops all at once.”

The ingenious system makes it possible for riders to soften their tyres just before contending with cobbled sections, and then repressurise them afterwards for maximum performance. However, the price of the tech (around €4,000 for a complete system) seemed to make it commercially unviable and GRAVAA, the company behind it, was declared bankrupt earlier this year, leading the UCI to ban it for the rest of the season.

Heijboer, however, questions this, arguing that the system is commercially available. “You can order one if you want,” he said. “Moreover, there is no rule stating that a tape must be available two weeks or two months in advance. The moment of recording is the competition, and if a tape is commercially available at that time, then you comply with the rules.”

Tour de France Femmes winner and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot took victory in last year's Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and the Frenchwoman later said the innovative GRAVAA gadget “Made a huge difference and it is fantastic to have this system ahead of the competition.” Last year Wout van Aert finished fourth in the Hell of the North, but he won the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris in spectacular fashion, attacking solo on the wet cobbles during on the final climb of Montmartre to emerge victorious on the Champs-Élysées.

The timing of the ban, almost on the eve of this year's Paris-Roubaix, has really drawn Heijboer’s ire. “I can’t read the minds of the UCI, but it is just a little too coincidental. Especially since the GP Denain is the biggest cobblestone race after Roubaix. It is also our final competitive test, and at that time there was nothing going on. But now, suddenly, right before Roubaix... That is no coincidence. Is there nothing we can do about it? Yes, the penalty ranges from a warning to disqualification. You’re not going to take that risk.

“Moreover, it does take quite a bit of preparation time. Over the past two weeks, our mechanics have been preparing hundreds of sets of wheels. So you can’t postpone that until the Saturday before Roubaix. Quite soon after that letter, we decided to cut our losses; we are not going to ride with them. We are going to challenge this, but for now, it is too late.

“Does this reduce Wout van Aert's chances? Yes. We have a lot of faith in the system and have tested it extensively. It is a real shame that it is now suddenly no longer allowed for very unclear reasons...”

The news this week - beyond Tadej Pogačar and Demi Vollering's Tour of Flanders victories - has been dominated with small c crime. 54 riders are being investigated for crossing train tracks while a red light was showing during the Flemish race, and people have been stealing cobbles from the Paris-Roubaix course. Both offences could put riders in real, serious danger. Fortunately for those set to compete at Paris-Roubaix, Jonas Abrahamsen and his team Uno-X Mobility have been out on the cobbles with their magnifying glasses making sure everything is ship shape for Sunday.

The third Monument of the season is set to start at 9:30 UK time for the men's and 16:00 for the women's on Sunday 12th April. Could Tadej Pogačar equal Mathieu van der Poel's three-time title? Might Demi Vollering continue her Flanders form and bag another cobbled monument? Either way, the cobbles will be pristine - all thanks to a bunch of goats.

1. It’s news to me, but some of the core workmen gruelling over the Paris-Roubaix cobbles are actually goats. The herd - around 40 strong - take to the cobbles every year as a form of 'eco-grazing', removing the need for chemical weed killers.

2. Buona Pasqua! Cyclist and social media influencer Elisa Scarlatta took to the Italian streets to spread some Easter joy last weekend - featuring the cutest crochet (?) bike/egg bag.

3. Scarlatta wasn’t the only one delivering chocolate to her fellow cyclists this weekend. SD Worx-Protime’s limited edition easter bunny mascot was doing the rounds this year at the Tour of Flanders.

4. For what Zoe Bäckstedt lacks in general knowledge she makes up in race results: after the interview, she blasted into fifth place at the Tour of Flanders, just behind last year’s winner, Lotte Kopecky.

5. One of the most scandalous things to have happened at the Tour of Flanders this year was a surprisingly common cycling phenomenon: a jumped red light. The peloton was divided after a train passed over a level crossing, splitting Tadej Pogačar and 54 others from a pack that included Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert. Now those 50-plus riders could face fines by the Belgian public prosecutor’s office for the traffic offence.

6. Featuring in both Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Ronde, the Muur van Geraardsbergen is not for the faint of heart: 910 metres of climbing at an average incline of 9%, maxing out at 20%. It’s even harder if you’ve got a dog strapped to your back.

7. Ahead of the last cobbled Classic of the season this weekend, here’s a reminder of what not to do from the side lines. (This is a wince-inducing watch.)

8. Jonas Abrahamsen and Uno-X Mobility are taking no risks this weekend as he prepares to race Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.

9. Mathew Hayman: everyone’s favourite Paris-Roubaix winner. In 2016, the Aussie took victory in France after breaking his arm just six weeks earlier.

10. A bonus pic for my fellow goat fans. Unfortunately, they won’t be featuring on race day.

Tadej Pogačar's announcement last year that he had his sights on winning Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix this season was met with a certain amount of scepticism. 'Optimistic scepticism' even, in some quarters: not everybody was entirely enamoured with the two-wheeled Terminator bulldozing his way through 2026.

But here we are, four months into the season, and whether you're a fan of the Slovenian's dominance or not, dominant he is. There aren't many riders who, after just three race days in four months, could command the awe that Pogačar is doing right now. But the panache and the emphatic manner of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider's wins in what are arguably the three biggest races of the men's season so far leave room for nothing, and nobody, else.

So far, Pogačar has wrapped up Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche and, just this weekend, the Tour of Flanders. His 17km solo escape saw him become the eighth rider to have won the race a record three times and, along with Milan-San Remo, tick off his second Monument win of the season.

As has already been pointed out, a Pogačar on this kind of form could well see him become the first rider in history to win all five Monuments in a single season. Paris-Roubaix, just days away, represents the obvious stumbling block: with no hills and riders at the mercy of a choice of slippery dust or slippery mud on the choppy pavé, Pogačar won't be in his most natural terroir and, like all the riders, will face a heightened risk of punctures and crashes. But if he does manage to cross the line first in the fabled Roubaix velodrome, only Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia remain – and, with the Slovenian having taken eight wins across the pair, they have Tadej Pogačar written all over them.

What, then, could stop Pogačar from making history by swiping the full set in one season. Well, there are a few things.

His rivals

Pogačar may be dominant, but he does get beaten, even on days when he really, really wants to win. It has happened at the Tour de France, and in Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders too. If the Slovenian finds himself on an off-day, or a little bit out of position, there are a number of rivals who could step in and take advantage.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling) may be recovering from his fall into a ravine at the Volta a Catalunya, but he'll be back and he has a great record in hilly one-day races, having won Strade Bianche and Amstel Gold.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) can go one better – he has won Liège-Bastogne-Liège on two occasions and, as a card-carrying Belgian hero, is fully invested. He'll be there at Ardennes Week too, which is more than we can currently say with confidence about Pidcock.

Other riders who, on a good day, could be capable of besting Pogačar on a bad day in the hilly Classics include former LBL runner-up Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Pogačar's own team-mate Isaac del Toro (fifth at Lombardia last year) and, possibly, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM). The French rider still has much to prove but, at the rate he is progressing, could soon become Pogačar's nemesis.

Burnout

Towards the end of last year's Tour de France, an uncharacteristically gloomy Pogačar told the world that he was looking forward to the race being over. Although we now know he had a potentially race-ending knee injury, it was also revealed after the Tour that the Slovenian was mentally exhausted. His mother even talked about the vague possibility of him retiring early.

Some R&R post-Tour clearly did the trick, because he came back to win the Euros, the Worlds and Lombardia, but we had seen a vulnerable side to him that had not been on display before.

He is now experiencing the double-edged sword of success, honed to its finest edge: the more you win, the more pressure there is. So far this season he will have experienced more of that than ever before as his highly publicised desire to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix are pored over. It's likely at this point that joy takes a back seat to relief each time he wins a major race. Can he keep that up all season long?

'Acts of God'

Otherwise known as crashes, illness, mechanicals and punctures. It sometimes appears that the most successful riders have better luck than their rivals. But they are, of course, subject to the same rules of the universe as the rest – with a few caveats. They might be slightly less likely to crash because more and more meticulous planning has gone into ensuring that doesn't happen. Riders around them might take a little more care too – after all, who wants to be responsible for bringing Tadej Pogačar down in a season-ending crash.

But the top riders often end up racing harder, and as the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Itzulia Basque Country 2024), Wout van Aert (Dwars door Vlaanderen 2024) and Remco Evenepoel (training crash, Dec 2024) have all demonstrated, bad luck happens to the best riders. Even Pogačar has had his fair share of crashes, including a wrist fracture in Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2023 and an unpleasant fall in the recent Milan-San Remo that left him bruised and his bike damaged.

The playing field is level too when it comes to punctures and mechnicals. Pogi's bike might get an extra look over before a big day, but then so will those of his big rivals. It's the same for illness, although given how many hands the Slovenian is forced to shake on account of his fame he might experience more viral exposure than most.

And so it's far from impossible that Pogačar's assault on the big five one-day races could be ended by a boring, run-of-the-mill piece of a bad luck. A random touch of wheels or an unfortunately placed flint. But let's hope not – not even his biggest rivals would want that.

There are probably a hundred other random occurrences that might mean Pogačar cannot win or even start one of the remaining Monuments. But those above are the corner marked 'most likely'. On the other side of the ring, in the white, blue and red corner stands Tadej Pogačar, with his immense wattages, on-bike technical ability and drive to succeed. It's going to be – literally – a Monumental battle. So far the Slovenian has given no indication that he might lose.

Mathew Hayman had just finished giving a TV interview, his skin dry with dirt, when he saw his team-mate Luke Durbridge marching towards him across the grass in the centre of the Roubaix Velodrome. Having reached the line almost five minutes down, Durbridge didn’t know who had won. But he could see it in Hayman’s eyes – a cocktail of shock, disbelief and joy.

Hayman, joints stiffening, pushed himself up out of a folding wooden chair. “This doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen,” he muttered, as Durbridge pulled him in for a back-slapping hug. Durbridge then grabbed Hayman two-handed by the cheeks, and inches from his face, shouted back: “It does to you!”

Mathew Hayman was never meant to win Paris-Roubaix in 2016. The Australian had started the race 14 times previously, and never finished near the podium. What's more, an arm break at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, suffered six weeks before, was supposed to have laid waste to his Classics campaign – he was confined to training on a turbo in his garage twice a day. Orica-BikeExchange had chosen Jens Keukeleire as their leader for the testing, cobbled Monument. Then, 10 days shy of his 38th birthday, and on the 15th time of trying, Hayman shocked the cycling world, and himself.

“[Paris-Roubaix] rewards guys that don’t normally, you know…” Hayman begins. Win? “I think the podiums at [the Tour of] Flanders are a bit more consistent, or Milan-San Remo, but when you go and look through Roubaix, I’m not going to say it’s a lottery, but there are guys that get their day that otherwise wouldn’t. There’s a whole bunch of riders that live off that little bit of hope that it could be them.”

Now a sports director at Jayco AlUla, Hayman’s name holds special status in Roubaix legend. His victory in 2016, the 10th anniversary of which is celebrated this year, is often touted as the most unlikely in the race’s 130-year history. It came as the fruit of a career’s worth of experience and persistence, having been struck down so many times by twists of ill fate. Hayman and Roubaix was the love story that seemed destined against a fairytale ending. So he had to go and write it himself.

“Early on in my career, I remember some of the mechanics and soigneurs at Rabobank saying, ‘Oh this race will suit you’,” the now 47-year-old remembers. “But I can tell you, the first couple of years, I wasn’t sure. I copped a few hidings. And I was really scratching my head saying, ‘Is this even a race for me?’”

Sixty-fifth on debut in 2000, 49th the following year, and outside the time limit in 2002, Hayman and the cobbles of northern France got off to a rocky start. Come 2008, and things still weren’t much better; on his seventh attempt, Hayman finished alone at the back of the race, 10 minutes behind the next best rider.

“The only thing I remember is, by 10 minutes after the last group, people are starting to walk across the road – they’re all going home,” he says.

“A lady stepped out in front of me and I cleaned her up. She went flying, I went flying. I was rather annoyed. I was pretty frustrated at this point, I was just wanting to get to the finish line and was just riding out the frustration that I didn’t even get a chance to race really. Yeah, I think I gave her a bit of a dressing down.”

Familiarity with Roubaix’s cruel sectors, however, tots up, and Hayman’s fortunes soon began to change. Top 10s in 2011 and 2012 cemented him as a seasoned Roubaix veteran, but left him wondering: what would it take to race for the win? His teams, first Rabobank and then Sky, didn’t see him as an outright leader. And he wasn’t getting any younger. He knew he would have to do it himself, and so, in 2016, then in his third season with Orica and into the twilight of his career, he got in the breakaway.

“I guess that’s what went right,” he says. “And having those years of experience. I was looking the other day, and when you look at the oldest winners of Monuments, I think the top 10 or 15 oldest winners are all Roubaix winners. It is a race that suits the older, hardened guy with a bit of experience.”

Spotting a promising move, Hayman slipped away with the escapees after only a few hours of racing that mid-April morning. His arm was sore, his broken radius barely mended, so he tried to hold back his energy in the group. “I felt like the wheels could fall off at any point, so I raced pretty conservatively all the way to the line,” he says, “whereas a couple of other times I felt like I had to pre-empt or force a move.”

The 2016 edition counted 27 cobbled sectors between Compiègne and Roubaix. Hayman’s past wisdom carried him through each of them unscathed. “It’s just knowing what’s coming up,” he says, but he was careful to avoid complacency, too. “There’s sometimes an element of having too much knowledge,” he continues. “I go into some sectors and I’m like, ‘You can crash on this corner. Guys puncture over there.’ You can also be a little too hesitant.”

By the time the race reached the outskirts of Roubaix, the front group had whittled down to five riders. Hayman, keen to rid himself of four-time winner Tom Boonen, made his first dig inside 5km to go, among a slew of punchy attacks exchanged between the leaders. Boonen then gained a gap, which Hayman bridged, before attacking himself over the top with 2km remaining.

For the first time in 15 editions, Hayman entered the velodrome riding for the win. The mood suddenly felt different. “Well,” he says, “I wasn’t exactly just soaking up the atmosphere.”

The Belgian faithful had made the short journey across the border to cheer for Boonen. If the Etixx-Quick Step rider won, he would break the record for victories in the Monument, surpassing Roger De Vlaeminck. The finale looked to be heading in his favour, too, when Hayman opened up his sprint round the final bend, towing Boonen in his slipstream. But neither he, nor the three chasers, came past. Hayman stretched his tall frame up in the saddle, and, mouth agape, drew his almost two-metre wingspan out wide.

Later, he would apologise to the Belgian press for spoiling their Boonen headlines. “I hope you guys are happy with me winning and that Tom didn’t,” Hayman told the media. “I’m sorry about that. I’m sure that Tom’s going to have some sleepless nights about it and I’m sorry, but I won.” The last two are words he had only said before in his dreams.

Today, the Australian is part of an exclusive group of riders who have placed at either extreme of Paris-Roubaix, finishing both first and last. (The 2022 champion, Dylan van Baarle, also lays claim to the same feat). Hayman's record, from 113th in 2008 to 1st in 2016, seems testament to the unpredictability of cycling’s most feared Monument. “You say unpredictable,” he chimes in, “but go and click on Tom Boonen’s results – I think he was either on the podium or top 10 every single time. It’s not a pure lottery. It might be more so for myself and some others.

“People often ask me how hard Roubaix is. And look, Roubaix is a really hard race, it’s physically and mentally demanding, but it’s what you’re expecting going in there. Everything is leading to that. You’ve spent the last three days getting into that mindset, ready to hurt yourself, which is often a lot easier than some other race where you go in expecting it to be pretty straightforward.”

Every time Hayman lined up for Roubaix, he did so with one line of advice in mind. It came courtesy of his Rabobank team-mate Marc Wauters: always keep riding – you never know what’s going to happen.

“I started 17 Roubaixs and I finished all of them,” Hayman says. There were times when the finish line couldn’t come sooner, and others when he wanted to savour every second. But that victory in 2016, a result as much surprising as deserved, will always be his fondest memory.

The quotes in this article are from an interview that took place in 2023, when Mathew Hayman contributed to a Cycling Weekly magazine feature about riders who had finished last at Paris-Roubaix.

Often described as Merckxian in his achievements and the way he races, Tadej Pogačar made yet another bit of history on Sunday as he won the Tour of Flanders for a third time. It marked the twelfth Monument victory of his career and moved him ahead of Roger De Vlaeminck in the all-time list, meaning that he is now second only to Merckx himself.

The World Champion has been unstoppable so far this season, winning all three races that he has ridden, with victories at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo preceding his Flandrian triumph. He has now won four consecutive Monuments and is one win away from completing the full set.

With multiple victories at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia to his name, a Paris-Roubaix cobble is the only omission from Pogačar’s Monument trophy cabinet. Having impressed on debut at last year’s race, he is set to return to the Hell of the North this weekend in the hopes of becoming only the fourth rider in history to win all of the Monuments.

If he were to win Roubaix, then he would be the only rider to ever hold all five race wins at the same time, and given his incredible record at Liège and Lombardia over the last few years, he could go on to become the first rider to win all five Monuments in a single season.

Speaking to Eurosport after his victory at Flanders, Pogačar was asked if he thought such a feat was possible, to which he replied, “In one year, I don’t know. Next week is the really tough one. I will give it a go, but it’s going to be difficult. I don’t want to think about it, but I’ll just go from race to race and enjoy Roubaix next.”

“Just to win one race, not even a Monument, is hard in cycling,” he continued. “Even if you have the best legs, everything needs to click together. Even after San Remo or today, I’m not thinking that I can win all five this year.”

Perhaps afraid of his words coming back to haunt him, or simply of jinxing it, the Slovenian rider’s objectives for the season are evident from his schedule alone, as he looks to win wherever he races.

Whatever happens, one thing seems certain: Tadej Pogačar will create yet more cycling history this season.

Everything hinges on Paris-Roubaix

If Tadej Pogačar is to win all five Monuments this season, then Paris-Roubaix will be his toughest challenge, as he has effectively shown that he can win Liège and Lombardia with his eyes closed at this point.

Of the five major one-day races, Pogačar’s characteristics are probably least suited to the Hell of the North, with his weight and size counting against him, as he is more susceptible to bouncing over the uneven cobbled roads.

The rigorous terrain did not seem to phase him too much on debut at last year’s race though, with only Mathieu van der Poel able to follow him over the pavé. It was ultimately a crash on a cobbled sector and a poorly timed puncture that put him out of contention, as he was forced to settle for second place whilst his Dutch rival soloed to victory.

Van der Poel will be his main adversary once again at this year’s race, with the likes of Mads Pedersen, Wout van Aert and Filippo Ganna also among the contenders. He will certainly have the power to match them over the cobbles, but the issue will be dropping them from his wheel if he hopes to avoid the uncertainty of a sprint in the Roubaix velodrome.

If Pogačar is able to get a gap, then it will be difficult to bring him back, as even Van der Poel struggled to make any inroads into his advantage once he went clear at the Tour of Flanders.

However, Roubaix is a different race and not always won by the strongest rider, as punctures and mechanicals are a constant. Luck will therefore be a major factor once again during this year’s race, and the Slovenian rider will need some on his side if he is to win.

One aspect that will play in Pogačar’s favour will be his team support, as UAE Team Emirates-XRG will bring a strong lineup to support the World Champion. Among their number will be former Paris-Roubaix runner-up Florian Vermeersch, who finished fifth at last year’s race and has been in tremendous form throughout the Spring Classics so far this season.

The Belgian rider will hope to be towards the front to support his leader as late into the race as possible, but it will ultimately be Pogačar’s own legs that decide the outcome of the race and whether or not history is made.

Everything glitters inside the hall of Vienna’s Hotel Sacher – chandeliers overhead, polished marble underfoot, and bouquets festooning every corner. Rooms here start at £550 a night. It is, by any measure, a grand setting – which makes it feel faintly absurd to be discussing the rough, muddy farm tracks of northern France. But that’s exactly what I’m doing, because opposite me is Tadej Pogačar, and I’m asking him about one of the few big races he is yet to win: Paris-Roubaix.

We have slipped into a quiet sideroom, off the main hall, and settled into armchairs. “The biggest point is,” says Pogačar, leaning forwards, “the faster you go on the cobbles, the easier they are.” Moments earlier he was on stage announcing his new ambassadorship with crypto exchange KuCoin, but it’s clear he’s more comfortable talking about bike racing. Dressed in a white shirt and navy check jacket, his hair freshly clipped into a neat short-back-and-sides, he looks disarmingly young, almost like a school-leaver eager to make a good impression at his first job interview. Yet, at 27, there is only one position he is still seeking: that of the greatest cyclist of all time.

In fact, Pogačar’s CV is now so comprehensive that it’s easier to list the races he hasn’t won – the ones that now most motivate him. Already a four-time Tour de France winner and double world champion, the glaring omissions are Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo, the two remaining Monuments missing from his palmarès. Only three riders in history have collected the full set of five – Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia – and they’re all Belgian: Eddy Merckx, Rik van Looy and Roger De Vlaeminck. Could Pogačar become the first rider in nearly half a century to join them? And if so, would it confirm his status as the best cyclist there has ever been?

For Pogačar, racking up all five Monuments is a “challenge” that keeps his career fresh. “I won some races, and it doesn’t feel the same [to win them again] because you’ve already put a tick on them,” he tells me. Of the other three Monuments, he’s won Liège three times, Flanders twice, and Il Lombardia a record five times in a row. When a journalist asked him last year to choose between a hypothetical fifth Tour title or a first Paris-Roubaix, the Slovenian opted for the latter. Now he’s trying to make it a reality. “Well, at least this year I’ve had it in mind since last year,” he smiles.

Pogačar’s Roubaix debut last spring, announced just two weeks before the race, was one of the sport’s most talked-about topics in years. Roubaix director Thierry Gouvenou called it “a huge moment for cycling”. In fact, the world champion’s presence alone made history, when he became the first reigning Tour champion since Greg LeMond in 1991 to start the race. But while LeMond finished a lowly 55th, Pogačar placed second. What did he learn from it? “It’s a f***ing hard race,” Pogačar laughs. “When I did it as a junior [finishing 30th in 2015 and 13th in 2016], I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to do this ever again because it’s just so hard’… If I compare my Roubaix power file [from 2025] – I know I changed the bike in the last hour, but still, up to that point, my power numbers were more impressive than in any other race.”

His attacks in last April’s race began with over 100km remaining. By 50km to go, it had come down to a duel between Pogačar and the defending champion Mathieu van der Poel, the script seemingly written for a velodrome shoot-out. The Slovenian appeared to be as assured on the jagged cobbles as he was in the mountains of France. Then came an error – small but decisive. Tracking a camera motorbike into a sharp right-hander, Pogačar misjudged his line, braked too hard too late, and tipped off into the dirt, scrambling as Van der Poel rode away. It was precisely the scenario his team had feared.

Speaking ahead of the race, his UAE boss Mauro Gianetti told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he didn’t want his leader to compete, for fear a crash would “jeopardise” the Tour. Looking back now, Pogačar understands the concern. “Obviously, if I’m the manager of the team, I also don’t want to risk everything in the pre-Tour, because in 2023, I was not ready because of a crash [at Liège-Bastogne-Liège]. As we know, touch wood” – he taps his knuckles against his forehead – “it can happen so quickly in Roubaix, or any other race. The stress is always there, [the risk of being] out for the main goal of the season, but you need to accept it.” That second place, he says, shifted the mood. “When I came second, they saw maybe we have a chance to win another Monument.”

As such, preparations for this spring have been more focused. Rather than tagging on a first recon to his Flanders prep in February as he did in 2025, Pogačar began his visits to northern France two months earlier, riding 160km across the cobbles in December. He plans to go back at least once more before the mid-April race weekend. Course familiarity helps – Magnus Bäckstedt said he did “three, if not four” recons the year he won, 2004 – but Pogačar knows power and tactics will unlock the title.

“For me, it’s really tough to make the difference,” he says. Without any climbs on which to launch one of his trademark attacks, how does he plan to win? “Maybe the best [thing] would be to attack with surprise, but I don’t think I can do that anymore. Everybody’s looking at me,” he says. “I’ll just go with the flow, see where the race takes me, and try to gamble for the final maybe, with a small group sprint. I know after such a tough race I can do, for me, a solid sprint. There’s always a chance.”

It’s hard to believe that, for a rider who has won his last five races with solo attacks averaging 55km, Pogačar’s plan is to rely on his sprint. But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. After all, he’ll likely have tested his dash three weeks earlier at Milan-San Remo, the race familiarly known as the ‘sprinters’ classic’. If it can work there, why not double down; refine the kick for both? Whatever Van der Poel can do, Pogačar can at least attempt to do better.

At over 300km long, and mostly as flat as a carpenter’s workbench, San Remo is widely regarded as the easiest Monument to finish but the hardest to win. Pogačar has previously said it’s the race that will “send me to the grave”; in five participations, he’s finished 12th, fifth, fourth, and twice third. The trend shows he’s getting closer, but still, he says, finding the podium’s top step is “really tricky – these days, the climbs, I would not call them climbs anymore, because we go so fast on the Cipressa [at 22km to go] and Poggio [at 6km to go] that the draft there is so important.” As at Roubaix, there is no dependable launchpad. There’s a reason why nobody has won from a Cipressa attack since Gabriele Colombo in 1996.

Even when UAE Team Emirates-XRG ramped up the pace on the climb last year, Van der Poel and Ineos Grenadiers’ Filippo Ganna managed to hang on, and both beat Pogačar in the sprint.

“For me, it’s hard to make a difference,” the world champion says, returning to a refrain he used for Roubaix. “But I will keep trying. It’s one challenge that keeps me going. I haven’t succeeded in winning yet, and I’m getting closer. I still have a few years left to try it out.”

Let’s imagine that Pogačar does win both races – picture him sprinting to victory on San Remo’s Via Roma and in Roubaix’s outdoor velodrome. What will it mean for his legacy? He’s the greatest rider of his generation, the Giro-Tour-Worlds treble in 2024 proved as much, but also the greatest of all time? He’ll have won all of cycling’s major crowns (bar the Vuelta a España and Olympics) and in a more competitive, professionalised era than that dominated by Eddy Merckx.

I remind Pogačar of what he said in an interview with L’Équipe two years ago – that he wanted to be “the best in history”. He scrunches his face slightly and claims he never said the line – “maybe they twisted the words a little bit” – but the point seems to stand nonetheless. “I wouldn’t mind going for it,” he says, and pre-empts a Merckx parallel. “There is so much talk about me and comparing [me] to Eddy etc. For me, it’s complete nonsense,” he says. “I like to live in the moment, in the present, not thinking too much about records.” He steers the legacy theme towards his youth team, Pogi Team, and charity, the Tadej Pogačar Foundation. “Maybe the results are not everything that I want people [to remember me for],” he says.

From many riders, a claim they are not hung up on results can sound like protective deflection. From Pogačar, it feels credible. He is driven, and hungry for new titles, intent on improving year after year, but, as he puts it, “will not lose any sleep over it”. At a press day in December he told reporters that, contrary to the narrative they were eager to build, he’s “not obsessed” with winning Roubaix or San Remo. And when a reporter asked when he would win them, he firmly corrected them: “If I win these races…”

What if both races continue to elude him – does it really matter? “I came close, but I’m yet so far,” he says. “If it happens, it happens. If not, I will live my life the same as I do now.” This laconic acceptance may be Pogačar’s greatest advantage. It is what allows him to chase races that do not naturally suit him – Paris-Roubaix chief among them – with curiosity rather than desperation, ambition unclouded by anxiety. As our allotted interview time runs out, he stands up, wanders over to a nearby marble-topped table and helps himself to three unhurried forkfuls of chocolate cake. Five Monuments or not, he seems entirely at ease with the uncertainty. Greatness, for him, is something to be savoured.

This feature first appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 12 March 2026. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling will race Paris-Roubaix in their debut season, which team boss George Hincapie has described as "unique and hugely exciting".

The news was announced by race organisers ASO on Thursday morning, as the routes and teams for Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes were revealed. It will be the first year the two races will happen on the same day, Sunday 12 April. The women's race will finish after the men's.

All 18 WorldTour teams will be present in the men's race, along with seven ProTeams: Cofidis, Modern Adventure, Pinarello-Q36.5, Flanders Baloise, TotalEnergies, Tudor and Unibet Rose Rockets.

"Having the opportunity to race Paris-Roubaix in our first season as a professional team is both unique and hugely exciting. It's a race that's close to my heart, one I have great memories of as a rider and now, together, we get to experience this from a whole new angle," explained Hincapie.

“It'll also be a great opportunity to showcase the strength of our equipment partners on the biggest stage. It'll be a big test for all the team, but we'll continue to approach it with diligent preparation and as a collective unit. Once again, we thank the ASO for their belief in our mission as a team and for giving us this opportunity."

American outfit Modern Adventure's first WorldTour race, the UAE Tour, begins on Monday 16 February.

The women's race has all 14 Women's WorldTour teams, plus seven Women's ProTeams: Cofidis, Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi, Lotto Intermarché, Ma Petite Enterprise, Mayenne Monbana My Pie, VolkerWessels and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. The presence of St Michel will allow former champion Alison Jackson to ride.

Men's route tweaked

The 123rd edition of Paris-Roubaix will look mainly the same as recent editions, with 258.3km that includes 30 cobbled sectors between Compiègne and Roubaix's outdoor velodrome. However, a "rare" sector, sector 26, has been added early on, featuring an 800m climb.

Race director Thierry Gouvenous said: "By veering slightly east towards the village of Briastre, we arrive at a situation where the first four sectors follow one another in quick succession, with almost no asphalt in between, creating an unmatched density of cobbles.

"Two years ago, Alpecin-Deceuninck had already begun to scatter the peloton at this stage. And at the end of this sequence, we are adding sector #26, even more rarely used and featuring an 800-metre climb."

More cobbles for women

The first Sunday edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes will look a bit different, with no laps around Denain to start and extra sectors put in.

The 2026 race will still run from Denain to Roubaix, with 148.5km of racing, but there are new cobbled sectors at Haussy and Saulzoir, and sector 18 at Haveluy à Wallers, a four-star test

"We have removed the loops around Denain," Gouvenou said, "to take the peloton a little further south and add more cobbles, and Haveluy is one of the sectors that could prove decisive."

The women's race is expected to finish around 6:20pm CET.

Don’t expect to see Quinn Simmons return to Paris-Roubaix soon, after the Lidl-Trek rider said he doesn’t want “anything to do” with the cobbled Monument.

The US road champion made his only career appearance at the ‘Hell of the North’ in 2021, then 20 years old and in his second year as a pro, in what was a wet and muddy edition. He did not finish the race.

Speaking as a guest this week on Watts Occuring, the podcast hosted by Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas, Simmons explained why he will not race Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders this spring, and will instead target Strade Bianche and the Amstel Gold Race.

“I don’t want anything to do with Roubaix,” the 24-year-old said. “The risks to the reward, I don’t know, for me it’s such a dangerous race and it’s so scary. Realistically, I’m not going to win it, and I don’t have the balls to go 80kph towards Arenberg to maybe be top 10.

“It was one of the races that made me want to be a pro, but I think if I were to target one of the two, I think Flanders would be a better race for me. For sure, that’s down the line, but not this year.”

Simmons also has one career appearance at the Tour of Flanders, made too in 2021. He said he asked his team about returning to the Belgian Monument this season, and spoke to Classics leader Mads Pedersen about it, but it was decided he would not race.

“I think the way [Pedersen] looks at it is, on his day, he can beat those two [Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel], and he wants the team fully for him there,” Simmons said. “I’m not going to sacrifice a perfect preparation for Amstel to go and do a drag race the last time into the Kwaremont.

“I stay away from Belgium this year. Like you say, the team is so good, and with Mads as such a big leader, and so many guys to support him, there’s not really a spot for me.

“I can go to Strade as leader, and then I can also target Amstel, so for me those will be the two biggest one-day goals. To be honest, like you said, in Flanders, we already have the team that’s going to 100% nail the positioning. They don’t need me there. When you go with a guy like Mads as the leader, he deserves to have seven guys there for him.”

Simmons’s career best result at Strade Bianche came in 2022 when he finished seventh. He has started Amstel Gold twice – in 2023 and 2025 – but failed to finish both times.

Following his spring campaign, the US champion will head to the Tour de France, a race where he was a key animator last year, finishing second on stage six.

“Obviously, it’s the goal to step up,” he said of the year ahead, “but, I think also if I’m reasonable, if I just match last season, it’s already a success.”

You could hear Wout van Aert coming before you saw him at Visma-Lease a Bike’s team presentation on Tuesday afternoon. He clomped around in a grey protective boot, resting his fractured right ankle on a cushion during the ceremony.

Here we go again, he must have thought after his 2 January crash in Zilvermeercross. It was the latest setback in a misfortune-strewn two years, following a fractured collarbone, rib and sternum at the 2024 Dwars door Vlaanderen and a 2024 Vuelta knee injury which still bears a gruesome scar.

Having been ready and raring to go for the forthcoming season, the shoe is literally on the other foot for Van Aert. It would be understandable for him to be frustrated.

“Sometimes you get really tired of it and it’s also okay to be done with it for a few days,” Van Aert told the media in a round-table chat on Tuesday in La Nucia, Spain. “But there’s still a lot to win and there’s also even moments, just a few weeks [ago], riding between amazing crowds and meeting a lot of your fans: it still motivates you. It’s more natural to look ahead of me and what’s still possible than to get down.”

While Van Aert remarked that he was “not as consistent as he wanted” in 2025, he has had thrills to go with the spills. Last year, he showed his quality and sense of occasion with a barnstorming ride to Giro d’Italia stage victory in Siena and success through the Montmartre fever pitch in the Tour de France's swan song.

“Those wins really helped me to believe, even when not everything is going well. For example, now I’m still one of the best bike riders in the world and there will be moments where I can show it,” he said.

Van Aert’s race against time 

Although the ankle fracture is locked with a screw, Van Aert can ride his bike. However, he cannot build intensity in training until he is pain-free. It leaves him in a race against time to be fully fit and on-form for a busy spring calendar, culminating in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. His debut is expected to be at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28. 

“I’m not fully confident [the ankle won’t be a problem], of course not,” he said. “It’s a complicated injury, a fracture and also ripped-off ligaments. If I was a runner or anything else, I would be out for months. Hopefully as a cyclist, it will still be good enough.”

Calling the injury blow that forced him to curtail his cyclo-cross season “mentally quite significant”, Van Aert was comforted by how quickly he could get back on the bike without losing fitness. The 31-year-old went for a gentle road ride on Monday, a mere ten days after his crash.

2026 brings his eye-catching return to Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo for the first time in five and three years, respectively. “These are really beautiful races that I don’t want to miss for the rest of my career,” the 2020 winner of ‘La Primavera’ said. “Always in my head, even the moment when I was choosing to do differently, I knew it would raise my inspiration again.”

A return to the spring’s Monuments will also bring him head-to-head again with his long-time sparring partner, Mathieu van der Poel. “There’s still a rivalry between us, but the rivalry has always been bigger for you guys, for the outside than for us, for the outside,” Van Aert said, adding moments later: “It’s still there but of course Mathieu’s palmarès is a bit bigger than mine.”

He has won three successive editions of Paris-Roubaix. The race still casts a magic spell on Van Aert, even if he has suffered misfortune there, perhaps no more so than a heartbreaking puncture on the Carrefour de l’Arbre sector in 2023, which saw his Dutch adversary ride away to his first victory there. 

“It’s probably the only race where you wake up the next day feeling completely broken and get up on Tuesday still feeling the same,” Van Aert says. “There’s so much impact on your body going over these cobbles. The last hour of this race is more like survival than a real race. So much can happen, bad luck and stuff like that, it’s a race where you really have your head full. Arguably, it’s the best race in the calendar.”

A Swiss army knife of a rider, comfortable on cobbles and hors catégorie climbs, Van Aert is not short of goals. The Tour de France’s opening 19.7 km team time trial around Barcelona is another big objective for the Belgian and the squad. “In my head, I’m also dreaming of wearing yellow,” he says.

He is also set to go line up at August’s Vuelta a España as part of a stage-hunting Visma-Lease a Bike line-up, with British super-talent Matthew Brennan expected to make his grand tour debut alongside him. 

Van Aert had kind words for the 20-year-old super-talent while discussing how they will divide their ambitions: “Matthew is for sure faster in the other completely flat sprints. Even when the stage is hard, the sprint is probably more suitable for him. And there is the fact it will be his first grand tour so nobody knows how he will go after ten days. So we should not put pressure on him and let him experience it.”

“The most important thing is we go really well together and we understand each other. I’m even proud that he’s showing that he learns from me, that’s pretty cool.”

Matthew Brennan will take aim at the “big Classics” and make his Grand Tour debut in 2026, he and his Visma-Lease a Bike team have announced.

The 20-year-old, who won a staggering 14 times in his first pro season last year, is down to ride three Monuments this year – Milan San-Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – before starting the Vuelta a España in August.

Brennan was one of the standout talents of 2025, and earned Cycling Weekly’s Male Rider of the Year award. His win tally was bettered by just four other male pros: Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step), and the world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

“I hope to reach the same level as last season, and ideally push even higher,” Brennan said in a Visma-Lease a Bike press release announcing his race calendar. “From there, I hope to make my mark more and more in the bigger races, where I can hopefully play a meaningful role.

“This year I’m focusing on the big classics, such as Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders. I hope to play a significant role in these races and gain experience in such big events.”

Brennan made his WorldTour Classics debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last year, a race that is once again on his calendar in 2026. He was also called up late to ride Paris-Roubaix in his first pro season, and impressed on the cobbles, riding in the company of Mathieu van der Poel and Pogačar at the front of the race.

“It would be nice to go a little bit further than last year, hopefully into the velodrome with the front group,” he said.

The Brit will have to wait until August for his Grand Tour debut, planned for the Vuelta a España. “I’m really looking forward to it and curious to see how I’ll handle it,” he said.

“It’s amazing to start in several major classics, but I’m especially looking forward to La Vuelta. Riding three weeks of stages will be tough, and I don’t yet know how my body will respond, but with good preparation and a strong team, I hope to achieve a lot.”

Visma-Lease a Bike won the Vuelta through Jonas Vingegaard last year. The Dane will not defend his title in 2026, and will turn his attention instead to the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.

Brennan will open his season next week at the Tour Down Under in Australia, the first WorldTour event of the calendar.

Gather round and gaze into our crystal ball – that's right, we've gone a bit Nostradamus for the New Year and tried to work out what's coming down the tracks this year.

I think you'd be a bit disappointed to open your fortune cookie and get 'bikes might be more affordable', but hey, that's what you're getting in our restaurant. Just know that we will not be held liable should these predictions not pay off...

This is the final piece in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, after our riders of the year, moments of the year, our alternative riders of the year, our bike rides of the year, our races of the year, and our favourite places to ride full stop. Please let us know your thoughts!

Pogačar will win Roubaix – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

Standing on the artificial grass in the middle of the Roubaix Velodrome this April, there was a feeling that cycling fans had been starved of an all-time finale. Inside 40km, Tadej Pogačar had misjudged a corner on a cobbled sector, and toppled into the dirt at the side of the road. The time it took him to change his bike and remount cost him his shot at a showdown with Mathieu van der Poel, the eventual winner. Who knows what might have happened?

As those of us who watch a lot of bike racing know, Pogačar is a rider who rarely makes mistakes; only his crashes at Roubaix and Strade Bianche this year spring to mind, and he still won the latter. I can’t see him slipping up next spring.

Roubaix is a race he’s so determined to win that he’s spent his off-season in northern France testing the cobbles. How do I think he’ll do it? The same way he always does – riding away from everyone from range. The last Tour champion to win Roubaix was Bernard Hinault in 1981 (Pauline Ferrand-Prévot had not won the Tour when she won Roubaix). Forty five years on, I think that statistic will be reset.

Demi Vollering will win the Tour and return to her unstoppable best – Adam Becket, news editor

Demi Vollering finished top of the Women's WorldTour rankings at the end of 2025, which feels a bit odd, even though the Dutchwoman was clearly the most consistent rider over the season. The second-place at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for a second year in a row dampened the whole year, even though it shouldn't have.

Vollering had a great 2025 at her new team, FDJ-SUEZ, and I back her and them to deliver even more in 2026. This is the rider who won the Ardennes triple in 2023, and surely has a Tour of Flanders in her, and the Giro d'Italia Women route suits her too. I think there could be a special Vuelta Femenina, Giro and Tour triple up her sleeve...

Phat tyres – Hannah Bussey, tech writer

Tyre sizes on gravel bikes have become a hot topic in the tech team of late. We've been watching the cycling community, in general, becoming more curious about all-terrain Frankenstein bikes that incorporate dropped bars, front suspension, and dropper posts, and wonder if there really is any space for them in an already pretty crowded bike market.

Adding 50mm tyre options (for the bikes that can take them) to the mix has challenged the naysayers even more, with many "just get a hardtail mountain bike" retorts. But given that every bicycle innovation received a similar 'what's the point?' response, it could be a sign that this is one trend that sticks in 2026.

Bold colours – Aaron Borrill, tech writer

Bolder colourways. There was a time when inconspicuous, stealthy paint was de rigueur, but my prediction for 2026 is the rise of bolder colours and brazen graphics. While we’ve seen a few brands trial this in 2025, I foresee more bikes outfitted in wilder graphics and colours come the new year.

More gravel and more bikepacking – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

With British Cycling having taken over the British Gravel Championships for next year, I can see gravel racing and riding – and its cousin bikepacking racing – taking another step towards the mainstream. Bikepacking racing in particular is more accessible than many realise, and riders just need to have that demonstrated to them. Oh, and Tadej Pogačar to win a fifth Tour de France.

Tech changes – Andy Carr, tech editor

E-pumps will get less boxy. Tyres will get greener, and browner. Saddle set-back and stem length will be back on the performance handling agenda. And we will lament the loss of the steel spoke in performance cycling. Hell, I might even stop talking about it.

The return of affordable cycling, and someone beating Tadej - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

All the ingredients are in place for more affordable cycling: alloy and steel frames are surging, more affordable groupsets from the likes of Microshift are on the rise, the cost-of-living crisis and tariffs are weighing in, and Chinese bicycle manufacturers are entering the mainstream. I dearly hope that affordable cycling is once again on the horizon.

Finally, just for fun, to counter James: 26 is the year someone figures out how to beat Tadej, I can’t say who, but someone.

As the final Classic of the season, Il Lombardia has often flown a little south of the radar, despite its Monument status and stunning setting in the foothills of the Italian Alps. This year, that changed – all eyes were on the race as fans contemplated a fifth consecutive victory from Tadej Pogačar. He did not disappoint. As if by action-replay, he tore away on yet another long-distance breakaway and took the win, matching the record of Fausto Coppi, five-time winner of the race between 1946 and 1954.

Not everybody was delighted. Amid the cheering Pogi fans, there were dissenting voices – voices that had begun to gain a critical mass over the previous few weeks. “It’s the same thing again and again,” one fan wrote on CW’s Facebook page. Another said the dominance was lessening their interest in the sport. For some, yet another barely contested Pogačar victory was too much to bear. The great entertainer was starting to become boring.

Of course, the 27-year-old is only doing what he is paid to do, or even what he was born to do, if you want to be romantic about it. There is no question that Pogačar tends to win in dramatic, fan-pleasing fashion. But the same story repeated time and again becomes tiresome, and it has started to feel like 'Pogačar fatigue' is setting in.

Questions have already been raised over how long the world champion can continue to tick off prestigious race wins with apparent ease. Many have speculated on when he might retire – even his mother said she would understand if he left the sport in the near future, having seen how tired he was after the Tour de France – when he admitted that he couldn’t wait “for it to be over”. He remains under contract with UAE Team Emirates-XRG until 2031.

Entertaining dominance

To assess the scale of Pogačar’s dominance, former pro and TNT cycling commentator Brian Smith suggests stepping back from his latest Il Lombardia victory and taking in the broader landscape. “There are 36 WorldTour events in the year, he's won eight of them,” Smith tells Cycling Weekly. “I covered a lot of these races, and I can totally understand that nobody likes dominance. Nobody likes what Team Sky did to the Tour de France in the overall – people weren't entertained. But [with Pogačar] I think they have been entertained.”

For Smith, Il Lombardia was the only race that was too predictable. "You could argue that all the other races have been pretty competitive," he says, pointing out that the Slovenian races "with flair" and "in an entertaining way". Pogačar remains a supremely popular rider, of course, and while his team is the strongest in the peloton, it doesn't seem to snuff out competition in the way that, say, Team Sky or US Postal Service did in their heyday.

Those teams would routinely suffocate their rivals on key Tour de France stages before unleashing their leader to seal the GC. It was brutally effective but drained the drama from what should have been the race’s most thrilling moments, leaving neutral fans disillusioned. Under UAE-Pogačar, the dynamic is different: the dominance is no less real, but it’s far more individual than systematised. Even if you can safely bet that the eventual winner of any given race will be a Slovenian with the initials “TP”, it usually comes after an exciting turn of events – even if it is a carbon-copy audacious long-range attack. Not so long ago, such attacks would have had us rapt.

Still, for fans – and certainly for his rivals – there is an appetite for closer-run battles, says Andy McGrath, author of the new biography Tadej Pogačar: Unstoppable. It’s how the Slovenian reacts to defeat that reveals his true greatness, reckons McGrath. “You need lows to have highs,” he says. “It wouldn’t be very interesting if he just won everything for the last five or six years. Probably, my favourite defeat was the Tour of Flanders in 2022, when he somehow finished fourth, and he was swearing at everyone else. You saw he had that edge – that’s easy to forget… That moment said more than a thousand words could. He’s an inveterate winner, that’s how you win these races, you have to be wired slightly differently.”

Cast your mind back to the late Sixties and early Seventies, the era of Eddy Merckx – now remembered as a “golden age”. At the time, though, the all-conquering Cannibal wasn’t universally adored; many complained that his dominance was “boring”. Only after his retirement did the perspective on his achievements shift and consensus form that he was the sport’s greatest legend.

As McGrath puts it: “[Pogacar] shouldn’t be taken for granted. Why is excellence boring? When Pogačar goes, probably in five years’ time, we won’t see someone like that for decades, probably ever. It’s tricky.” Yet McGrath also acknowledges the tension at the heart of Pogačar’s dominance. “On one hand, I would say enjoy this, and cherish this, and on the other hand, sport requires unpredictability and rivalry, and we’re not getting much of that when he is attacking from 50km to go in every race and winning quite comfortably.”

The rivals

While Pogačar’s dominance looks set to continue for years to come, a few rivals are capable of challenging him – particularly in the one-day races he covets. At Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel has already asserted his authority. The Dutchman, winner of both those Monuments in 2025, appears to be the rider who can disrupt Pogačar’s ambitions. On the capi of Italy and the pavé of northern France, recent results have shown Pogačar meeting his match.

Smith notes that Van der Poel dominates cyclo-cross in a manner reminiscent of Pogačar on the road. “It's a bit like watching Formula One,” he says. “You watch the start and after that there are gaps everywhere – there's really no excitement.” Yet Van der Poel thrives in the unpredictability of long, one-day Classics, and has demonstrated he can match Pogačar. There’s a strong chance he will keep these races compelling next spring by preventing Pogačar from having it all his own way.

“The fire burning within Pogacar is the fact that he hasn't won Milan-San Remo yet,” says Smith. “He hasn't won the Vuelta yet. I say yet, because I believe that he can. [After that] what else has he got to prove? What else is he going to do?”

Joining the 'Club Cinque'

What about Pogačar’s other targets? Another Tour de France win would see him join the celebrated 'Club Cinque' of five-time champions, while Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a third World Championships remain tantalising opportunities. Is there any hope for his rivals?

There is, but it may require ingenuity, says Smith, who believes opposing teams need to be more collaborative and inventive. He points to Lidl–Trek’s Quinn Simmons at Il Lombardia, whose attack from the gun left Pogačar's UAE team, by their own admission, “a little afraid".

“They're not infallible, you know,” Smith adds. “Some of the teams are just riding to help them, and they shouldn't. I know it's a difficult thing to organise between the teams, because there has to be a lot of trust and friendship.”

For Smith, teams often appear to be racing for podiums rather than victories when facing Pogačar, settling for the UCI points available for second and third. But there are riders who can beat him – Jonas Vingegaard, for instance, who’s proven it twice at the Tour de France. Smith also highlights Remco Evenepoel. “[Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe] have got a really strong team for next year, and the fact that Remco thinks that he can still beat [Pogačar] is a good thing,” he says.

“You have to believe that.” Whether Pogačar’s rivals can ultimately topple him or not, his status is indisputable. “He's the complete athlete at the moment,” Smith adds, “and what we are seeing, in my eyes, is the best cyclist ever.”

There were 63 men's and Women's WorldTour events in 2025, a whole range of races for exciting things to happen in. The truth is, I'm sure just like me, you don't remember most of them. If I concentrate hard enough, I can remember the Tours de France, and the ones I was at, but there are whole stage races which are a bit of a blur.

Do not worry then, for we're going to talk you through our favourite races of year, from the spectacular to the unexpected – hopefully some of these should jog your memory.

This is the penultimate piece in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, after our riders of the year, moments of the year, our alternative riders of the year, our bike rides of the year and our favourite places to ride full stop. Please let us know your thoughts!

Women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

Will they, won’t they? My jaw hit the floor a number of times while watching cycling this year, but none harder than when I realised Lotte Claes and Aurela Nero were going to stay away at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Neither rider had won a professional race before that March afternoon. Suddenly, each of them had a one-in-two chance of a WorldTour victory, and a key Classic at that.

Yes, the peloton probably miscalculated the chase; yes, there were some frustrated riders at the finish; but let that take nothing away from Arkéa B&B Hotels’ Claes, who wrote her name into legend at the line in Ninove. It would take another three and a half minutes until the group of favourites rolled in. It doesn’t happen often, but I love it when a doomed move pays off.

That race reminded me that, just when you think cycling might be getting predictable, the most dramatic, incredible things can happen.

Men's Dwars door Vlaanderen – Adam Becket, news editor

From a final group of four at Dwars door Vlaanderen in April, three in the yellow of Visma-Lease a Bike, Neilson Powless in pink somehow won. The slumped heads of Tiesj Benoot, Matteo Jorgenson and Wout van Aert said it all as they crossed the line.

No-one could blame them, really, for not understanding what had happened. After 184.2km of hard racing, in which the race-winning move had been set up around 80km from finish by Visma-Lease a Bike, who would have bet against the men in yellow? Van Aert was there, a man who has won bunch sprints of almost every kind, as well as Classics before. However, something weird happened when the Belgian opened up his sprint in Waregem. He just couldn't get up to speed. Powless, sprinting for his life, could, coming around Van Aert and into cycling immortality.

It was a reminder of how mad cycling is sometimes. It's not always predictable.

Men's junior road race at the World Championships – Hannah Bussey, tech writer

The men's junior road race at the World Championships was the biggest standout race for me. Harry Hudson made such an audacious move— got away and then just kept going. The only way that stuck is due to his 100 percent commitment to self-belief.

There is no way you can watch the last two and a half kilometers of that race without getting chills, with tears welling up, and the thought that he might actually do it and become the first British Men's Junior World Champion.

To see the rest of the GB lads still in the mix at the end also feels like a real showcase for the future generation of cyclists coming through the ranks right now.

Despite all the turmoil in the sport and cycling industry, this race was just pure joy to watch, even if it was a little tear-jerking towards the end. It's the happily-ever-after result most cyclists dream of, and it's so amazing to see someone's fairy tale come true.

Paris-Roubaix – Jamie Williams, video manager

Few races can get the heart going like a monument and this year Paris-Roubaix had everything a classic should: early attacks, crosswinds, crashes and a nail biting finale.

I was also extremely pleased to see Mathieu van der Poel come out on top, not because I don’t like Pogacar but rather because it now means he’s going to have to return next year to do it all over again, no one should win Roubaix on their debut!

Strade Bianche – Aaron Borrill, tech writer

It’s lived in the shadows of the older monuments for nearly two decades, but Strade Bianche has become one of the most beautiful races to watch, both for the physical challenge it presents and the sheer scenes it offers viewers. It’s my favourite race on the calendar.

From the glorious Tuscan hills, the sterrato or white gravel roads and epic dust left behind by the peloton or those brave enough to float off the front, there’s never a dull moment. And then you add Tadej Pogačar. It’s pure theatre.

Tour de France – James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

This season saw me out working at Opening Weekend and at the Tour de France. As any race fan who has stood at the roadside cheering the riders on, or mingled with them around the start and finish areas knows, there's little substitute for that first person experience when it comes to connecting with a race.

Ergo, it will come as no surprise that for me the Tour was easily the most memorable race of the year for me. I wasn't in France for the entire race – only the third week, but from Mont Ventoux to Paris that week was a gift that kept on giving.

Memorable performances from double-winner Thymen Arensman, sprinter Jonathan Milan and Wout van Aert were of course underlined by a history-making GC victory from Tadej Pogacar. Once again, La Grande Boucle had delivered.

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Men – Meg Elliot, news and features writer

This was the first race I went to as a Cycling Weekly employee! It was, I was reliably informed, one of the most well attended the Tour had ever seen. Everyone was out in Geraint Thomas masks to welcome him home on his last professional race.

We watched the peloton form a guard of honour for the Welshman in rainy Newport before the race began, then hot footed it over to Cardiff to chat to people waiting to cheer Thomas across the line. One man I spoke to bought him dinner once after spotting him in a restaurant in Grangetown.

“To come from Maindy as a young lad and then win the Tour de France as well is incredible,” another guy told me, kids in tow.

Milan-San Remo - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

Despite its usual ‘predictable’ finish and pointless first 250-plus kilometres, Milan-San Remo had one of the most iconic finishes the race has ever seen. Thanks yet again to one Tadej Pogačar. His fifth swing at trying to add the monument to his ever-growing list of palmarès, however, again ended in a podium but no cigar.

There is one moment that will live with me forever in this ‘Tadej’ era, though, in which Pogačar himself, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were clear at the top of the Cipressa and racing for the win. It gives me shivers to think about it now.

Let us not forget what Van der Poel did on this day, either, for he will now be forever known in history as the one who denied Tadej again.

Tadej Pogačar has been spotted on a recon of the Paris-Roubaix cobbles, four months out from the 2026 race.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was seen by a French local on Tuesday, according to regional newspaper La Voix du Nord, seemingly training on the famous Carrefour de l'Arbre. The French paper obtained pictures of the event, showing him alongside teammates Nils Politt and Tim Wellens.

It suggests that Pogačar will take a second tilt at 'the Hell of the North' in April; the world champion finished second behind Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) at his debut in the Monument.

He crashed – without harm – in that race after misjudging a corner. With no cobbles in next year's Tour de France, Pogačar racing Roubaix again is a natural conclusion.

"I live nearby, in Sainghin-en-Mélantois, and I cycle a lot," Jean-Luc Gallus told La Voix du Nord. "When I arrived at the Arbre crossroads, I saw UAE cars in the distance and as I got closer, I recognized Tim Wellens’ Belgian champion’s jersey,. Then I saw the rainbow bike and I realized it was Pogacar.

"I asked him if I could take his picture, he said there was no problem at all, and he even posed.

"I heard them talking," Gallus continued. "They were going back down towards Cysoing to take the cobblestones of Bourghelles and return via L'Arbre." He was "quite surprised".

He added: "In the middle of winter, it's rather daring. It's been raining a lot lately. The cobblestones are wet and there are muddy sections."

Following his debut, Pogačar said: "The cobbles, the stress on the body, it’s definitely one of the roughest, toughest, hardest races I’ve done. I think I gained some experience that maybe next time that I come here it will not be so extremely hard as it was today."

It is no secret that the Slovenian would like to win Roubaix, perhaps above all else. "I want to win Paris-Roubaix in particular," he told L'Équipe in July. "This year, for my first participation, I found this race crazy, my second place was already incredible. I want to come back."

Last year, Pogačar and UAE teased his debut with a training clip posted to Instagram in February. This year, it appears harder to keep the news under wraps. Sunday 12 April is the date everyone should circle on their calendars.

As many of the world’s best pro cyclists bed in for the off-season, Wout van Aert spent Tuesday morning in northern France, riding the farm tracks of Paris-Roubaix, over and over again.

So much so, in fact, that the Belgian became the Local Legend – a Strava title given to the rider who has completed a single segment the most in a 90-day period – on one of the race’s cobbled sectors: Camphin-en-Pévèle, which he rode seven times.

The 2km-long, four-star sector typically comes fifth from last in the race, with around 20km to go, just before the famous Carrefour de l’Arbre. Its difficulty is ranked four out of five stars, making it one of the most challenging stretches in the race.

So, with four months to go until the next edition of Paris-Roubaix, what is Van Aert plotting?

According to Belgian publication Het Laatste Nieuws, the reconnaissance visit came as part of Visma-Lease a Bike’s equipment testing for next season. Van Aert was accompanied by Christope Laporte, twice a top-10 finisher in the Monument, as well as two of the team’s new recruits: Timo Kielich and Aldo Taillieu.

One of the tools Visma were said to be testing was the Gravaa adjustable tire pressure system, first seen at the race in 2023, which allows riders to inflate or deflate their tires via Bluetooth buttons while riding. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot used the technology when she won the women’s race earlier this year.

Van Aert was also likely to have been testing things like tire width, wheels, and his technique over the cobbles.

Van Aert shared his Tuesday recon to Strava under the name ‘Dokkeren’ – a Flemish term used to describe riding over cobblestones.

The 95km ride was concentrated only on a loop around the Camphin-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre sectors, the latter he appeared to ride five times. It was here, in 2023, that Van Aert suffered an untimely puncture, ruling himself out of a finale with the eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel, and finishing third.

Winning Paris-Roubaix has long been one of the Belgian’s career goals; he has twice finished on the podium (3rd, 2023; 2nd, 2022) and placed 4th this April.

Van Aert will now return to Visma-Lease a Bike’s Netherlands HQ for medical testing later this week, before heading to Spain on a team training camp next month. It is uncertain when he will begin his cyclo-cross season, although his first race is expected to be just before Christmas.

Professional cyclists and their desire for a rich and varied palmarès, eh? Only last week Jonas Vingegaard was proclaiming that he could prioritise the Giro d'Italia over the Tour de France. And now we have none other than his nemesis Tadej Pogačar announcing his intentions to win, well, just about everything – Tour de France records or no.

“I always choose as much variety as possible," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport, "even if there are seven Tours. Yes, the Tour is the biggest race, but in the other events too, you have to beat the best. Always. And so, in my eyes, they're on the same level.”

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had been asked whether, at the end of his career, he would rather have won a record six Tours de France, or all five Monuments.

So far his tally sits at four Tours and 10 victories across three of the Monuments – the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia.

However, he still has to win Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo, both of which are very much on his hitlist for 2026, he says.

“It's no secret that I'll try to be in top form for those two occasions," he said. "Those are two goals for me and the team.”

Roubaix and Milan-San Remo' fall into the rapidly dwindling category: 'major races that Tadej Pogačar has yet to win'.

He has won so much now that his rivals could reasonably start to wonder whether he might soon run out of motivation and allow them to get a look in. But judging by his comments to La Gazzetta, his rivals would be out of luck.

“Well... I can't stay home on the couch doing nothing," he said. "I love cycling and racing; I've been doing it since I was nine years old. Adrenaline is part of my lifestyle.

"But there's one thing that motivates me more than anything else… Seeing how far I can push myself to improve. Training, racing, everything. Finding new ways to progress, staying at the top. In short, continuing to be the best version of myself."

When it comes to his rapid progress over the past two seasons – progress that has seen such dominance that we are now beginning to talk about 'Pogačar-fatigue' – the Slovenian credits his coach Javier Sola and nutritionist Gorka Prieto.

"I talk to Javier every day; he's a great guide, and we connect perfectly," he said. "As for Gorka, he's one of the hardest working people I've ever seen.

"[My] nutrition is now almost perfect. Until a few years ago it was hard for me to follow it, but now I understand how important it is, how much of a difference it can make in performance.”

Elsewhere, he address what appears to be a growing phenomenon in pro cycling – nervous exhaustion and mental burnout. It was important to have a balanced programme, he said, and to be "good and giving yourself a break", adding:

"In any case, if nervous exhaustion and similar topics are discussed more in sport, it's because they're being discussed more in society as a whole.”

Away from the cut and thrust of the peloton, and the glitz of the podium presentations, Pogačar said that he and his pro cyclist partner Urška Žigart enjoyed living a very 'normal' lifestyle.

"My former coach pointed out to me how soccer players often had a private chef, someone to go grocery shopping, someone to take care of the house... Well, that's not for me and Urška," he said. "Yes, sometimes it's not easy, with the house in disarray and suitcases everywhere, but we prefer to take care of things ourselves. I like going to the supermarket and buying what I need myself. Or cleaning the room, the windows. Or even just going for a walk. I'm not a superhero, just a normal guy.”

Tadej Pogačar is not racing the Vuelta a España later this summer after completing perhaps the most challenging Tour de France of his career to date, but is still aiming for Paris-Roubaix glory.

The 26-year-old triumphed in Paris to add a fourth yellow jersey to his collection, which left him both physically and mentally exhausted.

Pogačar was initially expected to ride the Spanish Grand Tour in August but UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed on Tuesday that Juan Ayuso and João Almeida will lead the team at the Vuelta instead.

In an interview with L’Equipe, before the Tour wrapped up in Paris, Pogačar spoke in more detail regarding what the short and long term future for him looks like with another Tour title secured. He is likely to still race the World Championships in Rwanda in September, and Il Lombardia once more, but looking ahead to next year he already has an eye on one race in particular, Paris-Roubaix.

Pogačar took second on debut at the cobbled Monument in April as Mathieu van der Poel claimed a third straight victory.

"I have goals left until the end of the season, but not many races left," he said. "Then I'm going to take a break, enjoy the rest period, and think about preparing for next season. I want to win Paris-Roubaix in particular. This year, for my first participation, I found this race crazy, my second place was already incredible. I want to come back."

Speaking in his Tour winners press conference, Pogačar talked openly about the chances of his own burnout - a subject that dominated the race before it began after it was first aired by Jonas Vingegaard’s wife. He also told L’Equipe that he is not completely fixated on attempting to match the legacy set by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain by winning a fifth Tour title.

"I've reached the point where I've proven to myself that I can achieve great results," he said. "Now I'm trying to focus on other things in my life while enjoying cycling. And if I break some historical records, that would be great, but that's not my goal."

At the same time, he is unlikely to be able to leave the biggest race of the year off his calendar in the years ahead.

"The Tour is the biggest bike race in the world. But it also causes a lot of stress for the riders. I'd like to skip it for one season to try other races, but I know it will be difficult," the world champion added. "So, yes, you'll see me at the start of the Tour next year to defend my title, there's a good chance."

Pogačar is only 26 but he has little left to achieve in cycling with the spoils of a vast array of accolades and accomplishments already lining his trophy cabinet. He has won countless major races - including the road world title in Zurich last year.

"I'm not planning too much, I still have a long contract [until 2030]. I don't think I'll stop right away, but I don't see myself continuing for too long either," he said. "The Los Angeles Olympic Games [in 2028] are one of my goals, which takes me to three years from now. Then I might start thinking about retirement, we'll see."

At 4pm French time on Saturday afternoon, all eyes should have been on Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, as the race reached its crescendo point. Emma Norsgaard had just made what could have been a race-winning attack from the group of favourites, and all of the biggest riders in the world were at their limit, from Lotte Kopecky to Marianne Vos, waiting to see what would happen. Just 15 minutes later, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot would launch her victorious move, and write her name into the history books. Everyone was gripped - there was just 32km to go, one of the moments of the year was approaching.

Not all eyes were on one of the biggest women’s races of the year, however. 150km to the south, the star riders for Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix were filing off stage in Compiègne, as part of a team presentation for the men’s race. As one of the biggest events in women’s cycling was taking place - owned and operated by the same race organisers, ASO - a promotional event for the men’s race was taking away attention, distracting some. It meant the male riders couldn’t watch much of the race, but also gave an opportunity for fans, journalists, casual observers, to completely miss the women’s event. It seems ludicrous.

If you were to head to one of Europe’s biggest sports newspapers on Saturday afternoon, you would not have seen a single piece from the Roubaix Velodrome about Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Instead, there were interviews from Compiègne, where attention was directed instead. This is not to blame individuals; but why were people given a reason to miss the end of the women’s race? There might be mileage in a Tadej Pogačar interview, always, but could that not have happened at a time other than Saturday afternoon, while Paris-Roubaix Femmes was happening?

We are now in the fifth year of Paris-Roubaix Femmes, and it has quickly become one of the races of the year; it is a huge event, and genuinely a thrill to see the world’s best women tackle much of the same route as the men have for well over 100 years. The organisation is great, and it’s truly special that this race is happening at all. It is, it should be said, so much better than many other races in terms of gender parity.

However, there is still a long way to go, and moments like the team presentation don’t help the perception that the femmes are treated as secondary to the hommes. This isn’t new, obviously, professional cycling remains an incredibly patriarchal world, but it is more than a little on the nose to be confronted with it this blatantly.

Unlike almost every other one-day race where there are men’s and women’s versions, Paris-Roubaix’s two different editions happen on separate days. This is not automatically a bad thing - I love that both are allowed to exist in their own right and breathe, and it certainly makes it a lot easier to cover, trust me. However, this is where a lot of the disparity comes from.

The women’s race, on the Saturday, happens on the same day as the official sportive, the Paris-Roubaix Challenge, which you could never imagine happening for the men’s race, such is the organisation around it. It isn’t necessarily an issue, but imagine if something did happen - a medical emergency or something similar could easily delay the race.

The fact it occurs on the Saturday also means there are so many fewer fans out on the course for the race. Sure, it is a great excuse to make a weekend of it, and why wouldn’t you watch both? But people always choose the easier option, or tradition, and it means that the roadsides are so much fuller on Sunday for the men (not that that’s always a good thing) than they are on Saturday for the women, and this is a shame. At the Tour of Flanders, both events happen on the same day - the women after the men - which makes it a nightmare to cover or watch both, but does mean that many of the same fans on the road watch both.

The other crucial point of disparity between the men’s and women’s race is the distance and the sectors that the race tackles. The women don’t ride the Arenberg Trench, probably the most famous part of the race, with its tunnel of trees and brutal cobbles, but they have proved up to the rest of the course, so why not? The answer at the moment is said to be logistics, with the start in Denain deemed too close to the Arenberg, but the route or the start town could be changed. It seems odd to have Roubaix without the Arenberg; it is not too hard for the best riders in the world.

I came away from Paris-Roubaix Femmes enlivened by the brilliant action and racing, but on reflection, a little disheartened by the feeling that it was second tier compared to the men’s race the next day. Why was the press room - still male dominated, it should be said - a third emptier on Saturday compared to Sunday? Change is needed - everyone should be watching the femmes.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.

What do you get when you mix narrow, cobbled farm tracks with thinly clothed cyclists racing at full tilt? Well, you get Paris-Roubaix, one of the world's oldest, biggest, and most unique bike races. You also get a lot of painful crashes.

Every year, tales of torrid spills play out on the cobblestones on northern France. The TV cameras catch some of them, but most are only revealed afterwards, either when the wounded pedal into Roubaix Velodrome, the teams give an update online, or the official medical report is published.

Despite the dry conditions, 53 men did not finish this year's Paris-Roubaix, while 13 women abandoned Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, leaving an extensive injury list.

Among those hurt was Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was suspected to have broken his hand in a high-speed collision with another team's mechanic.

Dillier later revealed he had suffered no serious injuries, unlike his Swiss compatriot, Groupama-FDJ's Stefan Küng, who also crashed hard during the race, falling on his face on a cobbled sector and receiving stitches for the wounds.

In the women's race on Saturday, Sigrid Haugset of Coop Repsol rode through the pain of a fractured hip, finishing 71st on her race debut, 12 minutes behind the winner, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Speaking to Cyclingnews from hospital, Haugset later said: "In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to continue, but at the same time you don't know how bad the injury is. And it’s Roubaix, so I wanted to finish."

Below is the weekend's injury list, compiled by Cycling Weekly from the race's official medical reports and various team updates.

Men's race injuries

Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana): Left wrist fracture. DNF.

Ayco Bastiaens (Soudal Quick-Step): Left collarbone fracture – taken to hospital in Cambrai. DNF.

Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck): Suspected right hand fracture – later confirmed no break. DNF.

Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ): Face injury – required stitches. Finished 43rd.

Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious): Multiple bruises and grazes. DNF.

Manlio Moro (Movistar): Left collarbone fracture – taken to hospital in Cambrai. DNF.

Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): Road rash. DNF.

Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets): Right wrist fracture. Finished 77th.

Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek): Injury to the neck – taken to hospital in Valenciennes. DNF.

Albert Torres (Movistar): Trauma and bruising to left elbow. DNF.

Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek): Head injury – underwent concussion protocol. Finished 116th.

Julius van den Berg (Picnic PostNL): Right collarbone fracture – taken to hospital in Valenciennes. DNF.

Women's race injuries

Marte Berg Edseth (Uno-X): Left hip and elbow injury – taken to hospital in Denain. DNF.

Cat Ferguson (Movistar): Bruises, but no serious injury. DNF.

Sigrid Haugset (Coop Repsol): Broken hip. Finished 71st, and was later taken to hospital in Roubaix.

When I’m not out on the road covering bike races, then chances are you'll find me at a football match somewhere around the UK watching my team, Oxford United. That's exactly what I was doing on Saturday while my colleagues were out in France covering Paris-Roubaix Femmes. It was a hot afternoon, so I bought myself a bottle of water at half time and took it back out into the stand for the second half.

The second 45 minutes didn't initially go our way, it was frustrating and difficult to watch. Now, if I had allowed those feelings to boil over and opted to throw my bottle at one of the opposition players, then I am certain that I would have been collared by nearby stewards and thrown out of the match, before being handed over to the local police.

It's well documented that an action like that at a football match would probably result in a banning order and potential criminal charges. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to ban someone in a similar way from a bike race on the open road, but Mathieu van der Poel was absolutely right when he said that legal action should be pursued against the man who threw a bottle into his face at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. It was appalling to see and could have had catastrophic consequences for the eventual race winner.

It should be said that events like this are still rare, considering how big cycling is and how much un-policed roadsides professional riders pass by, but it is still notable.

Van der Poel has been the victim of behaviour like this before at races, but nothing this blatant - an aggressive and deliberate attempt to force him to lose control of his bike.

The alleged aggressor handed himself into police on Monday. But the sad reality is that this could happen again, such is the nature of the sport being open to all. That is one of the beauties and main attractions of cycling - it is easily accessible and free to watch. However, this is extremely problematic when incidents like this occur.

But what is the answer? How do we stop people from carrying out this sort of unwelcome behaviour at a bike race? A difficult question with not a lot of clear answers. Perhaps starting with serious consequences for this person, but thought needs to go into what could help, given the difficult circumstances. There are adverts on French TV, but a culture change clearly needs to occur.

Van der Poel has been the subject of abuse from crowds when competing in a variety of races in recent years, and has had beer thrown at him while competing in the E3 Saxo Classic and the Tour of Flanders.

It is hard to think of immediate solutions as it is nothing new - Eddy Merckx was once assaulted by a fan during the 1975 Tour de France on the Puy de Dôme, and Chris Froome had urine thrown over him during the Tour in 2015. However, there has to be some sort of deterrent to underline to spectators thinking of behaving similarly to what we saw on Sunday that they will be caught and tracked down by police.

Legal action from cycling's authorities, like the CPA riders' union and UCI, to ensure that these people get the message does seem to be a start, before thought about what next occurs.

This is what Alpecin-Deceuninck want. On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson said in a statement: "We are calling for dialogue and cooperation among all involved parties - riders, teams, federations, organizers, and government authorities - to implement measures that prevent individuals with bad intentions from infiltrating cycling events and to take proactive steps at known critical points."

In case it wasn't plain, then my message is this: don’t bother coming out to races if you’re going to assault or abuse riders, it is as simple as that.

A man has handed himself in to Belgian police in West Flanders after admitting throwing a full bottle of water into the face of Mathieu van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.

According to a report in Nieuwsblad, nothing is known about the man’s identity but he is said to have expressed regret for his actions.

Van der Poel was alone off the front of the race when the bottle struck him on the Templeuve-en-Pévèle cobbled sector. Fortunately for the Dutchman, he managed to stay upright and the incident did not impact the outcome of the race. But it could have been much worse.

Speaking in his post-race press conference, Van der Poel described the impact of the bottle as feeling like a stone hitting his face, such was the speed he was travelling at across the cobbles. "It doesn’t destroy the fun I had but it’s not normal, it was a full bottle, it was like a stone hitting my face," he said. "It’s not acceptable, if they spit or throw beer it’s still unacceptable but this is different. This is something we have to take legal action on."

He later said to Sporza that his team, Alpecin-Deceuninck, would be pursuing legal action against the spectator if the UCI did not get to them first and described the act as "attempted manslaughter".

It is not the first time that Van der Poel has been the victim of similar behaviour from the roadside. During last year’s Paris-Roubaix, a spectator attempted to throw a hat into his back wheel as he rode to victory in the rainbow jersey as reigning world champion. He has also been spat at by people during the E3 Saxo Classic, and he had beer thrown over him in the same race. The Belgian branch of the CPA riders union said last year that it would be pursuing legal action against fans who threw beer at the 30-year-old during the Tour of Flanders.

"We want something to be done about those who spoil the atmosphere for everyone," said Bert Scheirlincx, secretary general of the Belgian cyclists' association, BPCA, at the time. "We are prepared to go all the way with our civil action as long as certain rude fans are punished and stop spoiling the spectacle that our beautiful sport has to offer."

What's better than one Paris-Roubaix? Two Paris-Roubaixs, of course. After Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's victory on Saturday, the cobbles waited for the men on Sunday, giving us another chance to eye up all the latest tech insights.

At the start in Compiègne, the men's teams arrived to a sprinkling of rain. The mechanics lined the bikes along the road, and as the riders readied themselves, sheltered in their buses, Cycling Weekly roamed the paddocks with a camera.

Here are the most interesting set-ups we saw, including some eye-catchingly skinny 26mm tyres, a 62-tooth chainring, and unreleased 'smart wheels'.

Monster chainrings

Keeping his title from last year, Josh Tarling boasted the biggest chainring at this edition of Paris-Roubaix, running a dinnerplate-sized 62-tooth, made by Digirit.

The Brit, tall in stature and known for his time trialling prowess, prefers a 1x (single chainring) set-up for flatter races, where he can hold high power.

Tarling wasn’t the only Ineos Grenadiers rider running a custom chainring. Connor Swift, too, opted for a non-sponsor-specific single chainring, his one made by aero brand Drag2Zero.

After Tarling’s, the next biggest chainring we saw was a 58-tooth, courtesy of Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar).

Tyre inflation system

In the run-up to this year’s Paris-Roubaix, it was no secret that Visma-Lease a Bike had opted unanimously for adjustable tyre pressure systems.

The entirety of the women’s team used them on Saturday, including Pauline Ferrand-Prévot who hailed the effectiveness of the technology, managed in the wheel's hub.

Made by Netherlands-based company Gravaa, the systems allow riders to inflate and deflate their tyres with the touch of a button on their handlebars. This means they can drop pressure on the cobbled sectors, and increase it for less rolling resistance on the tarmac.

Taking no risks, Wout van Aert relied on five spare bikes, shared across two follow cars. He had the Gravaa system equipped to four of the bikes, and kept the fifth with standard valves.

The team also took extra precautions with their tubeless tyres, gluing them generously to the rims.

A range of tyre widths

Back in the 90s, it was standard to see 25mm tyres at Paris-Roubaix. Nowadays, with better technology, and more of an emphasis on absorbing the jagged terrain, 32mm tends to be the norm.

We spotted a wide range of choices outside the team buses. The narrowest tyres we saw belonged to Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe’s Ryan Mullen, who picked skinny 26mm Turbo Cottons. All of his teammates ran 32mm Mondo tyres.

Some teams went for 30mm tyres, namely Lotto, but most went for 32mm.

The biggest tyres we saw, as we did at the women’s race, were 35mm. This extra-wide choice was taken by Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Intermarché-Wanty riders Taco van der Hoorn and Laurenz Rex, and the entirety of Bahrain Victorious.

The picture below, of Rex’s bike, shows just how little clearance his 35mm tyres - a prototype made by Hutchinson - had with his frame. His mechanic told us there were some worries within the team about the tiny gap, concerned that “a small stone or even some dirt” could get lodged in between.

Aero bikes with gravel wheels

One of the most interesting things we saw at the women’s race was Uno-X’s unique pairing of an aero bike with off-road-specific wheels.

The men’s team went for the same set-up on Sunday, combining the Ridley Noah Fast 3.0 aerobike, with DT Swiss’s GRC 1100 gravel wheels.

Tudor, also supplied by DT Swiss, likewise went for the gravel wheels, which are designed to be more shock absorbent, but are still made from lightweight carbon.

Deep rims

Uno-X weren’t alone in showcasing aero tech at Paris-Roubaix. The race, after all, is a pan-flat smash across northern France, with average speeds in recent years nearing 50km/h.

With minimal wind forecast, many teams went for deep-section rims, looking for aero gains. The deepest we saw belonged to Groupama-FDJ’s Stefan Küng, who paired 62mm-deep rims, with 35mm-wide tyres. Fast, yet comfortable.

Smart wheels

As expected, the teams supplied with Zipp wheels – Q36.5 and Movistar – used the brand’s new, unreleased ‘smart wheels’.

The technology was first spotted on Tom Pidcock’s bike at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and has been used throughout the Classics, including at Paris-Roubaix Femmes on Saturday.

Although the smart wheels don’t self-inflate like Visma-Lease a Bike’s Gravaa system, patent information tells us they give feedback on points such as tyre pressure, rim health, and road surface. They are made as a mash-up of Zipp wheels and TyreWiz sensors – both brands owned by components manufacturer SRAM.

Other tidbits

Tadej Pogačar’s bike was tough to get near at the start in Compiègne, his team bus crowded by fans. Fortunately, we followed him during his recon on Friday, and spotted some interesting things in his set-up.

The first is that the world champion has small tabs of grippy padding attached under his hoods (above), stopping his fingers rubbing on the shifters across the cobbles.

Pogačar, and the rest of UAE Team Emirates, also used Colnago’s V4Rs bike, a versatile model ridden in Grand Tour mountain stages, and now the rough cobbles of Roubaix. Long gone are the days of cobble-specific bikes, like Specialized’s Roubaix, it seems.

Punctures – and therefore wheel changes – are inevitable at a race like Paris-Roubaix. To help make changes easier, Lotto left the thru axle levers on the wheels, meaning they can unscrew them quickly by hand.

And finally, this bar tape over at Intermarché-Wanty caught our attention. It’s grippy, padded, and appears somewhat shock absorbent, too. Most importantly, though, it looks very cool.

You could see Fred Wright was exhausted after Paris-Roubaix just from the way he was slumped on the astro-turf in the middle of the Roubaix Velodrome. The Londoner had good reason to be, though, after a tenacious performance a on Sunday saw him finish ninth, his fourth top-10 finish in a Monument after two at the Tour of Flanders and one at Milan-San Remo.

The Bahrain-Victorious rider recovered from mechanical issues on the Arenberg trench sector to battle through to the third chasing group on the road, finishing the first British rider.

"I avoided the big crashes and whatnot early, in the first part," the 25-year-old explained post-race, the grime of the day's effort clear on his face. "It was pretty hectic on that first sector, but I managed to survive OK. I kept believing, my bike went into crash mode on the Arenberg, which was probably the worst thing that could have happened.

"I positioned myself well, after missing the split on the sector before, and then I was in my biggest gear churning away getting passed by everyone and I thought the race was over. Thanks to the headwinds, it allowed me to come back slightly a bit more into the race. I changed bikes and then it was just about keeping believing. I'll take a top 10, that's alright in the end."

This was Wright's fifth Roubaix, his fifth in a row, and followed a 12th place last year, when he came into the velodrome in a group of nine. This year, he was determined to get a better position. His charge was aided by a bit of fortune, too.

"There was one point coming towards the end, coming into the Carrefour [de l'Arbre] where I was thinking, 'Actually, I need to go here', because I was feeling better than this group," he said. "I attacked my group in the same place Pauline attacked yesterday, and that worked alright actually.

"The two guys on the front [of his group] – two idiots – didn't realise you had to turn right into the velodrome, they just went off left and that was them out of the picture," he continued.

"Then there were five of us, and I thought it was a bit easier to get a top 10. The Intermarché guy had a gap, [Jasper] Philipsen started closing, and then I hit them with a lap to go and I thought they'd come but managed to hold on for ninth."

After a successful start to the year, with ninth at Roubaix following 10th at San Remo, the former British champion is now determined to convert one of these near-misses into a win.

"I've got to start doing a bit better," he said, "how not to be the best of the rest. I'm happy with that [result], though."

Matthew Brennan was not meant to ride Paris-Roubaix this year. According to his early season calendar, he was due to be away with Visma-Lease a Bike’s development squad, continuing to grow his skills as a bike rider. Only twice before had he raced more than 200km in a day. At 19 years old, just months into his first year as a pro, Roubaix would be a step too far, surely?

The answer, it turned out, was a resounding no. On a late call-up to his first Monument, Brennan tore up the script, riding in the company of Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar at the front of the race.

He ultimately placed 44th – less than nine minutes behind the Dutch winner – in an impressive showing for the youngest rider at the race.

“I think to be in the position I was, when you’re left with 20 guys and you look around and they’re the best guys in the peloton, maybe you’ve done something right up until that point,” Brennan said.

“After that, unfortunately the parachutes came out a little bit, and I couldn’t continue at the pace that they were going. That’s part of the game. I’m still young. To be in that position is really quite a confidence-booster for the future.”

The teenager’s instructions at the start of the day were to support his team leader, Wout van Aert, and “see how far I could get”, he explained. If everything went smoothly, Brennan would take the reins at the spiky end of the afternoon, and help set the finale for the Belgian.

“Wout maybe struggled on some of the sectors early on,” the teenager said. “I felt a little bit better, and he told me to go for my own opportunity, which was really nice.

"Unfortunately, a couple of kilometres down the road, I didn't feel great, and I just said, 'I can't go anymore' and to look after himself.

“I think this is the furthest ride I’ve actually ever done [ed - This year’s Paris-Roubaix was 259.2km]. To be able to do that and race is something different… that last hour is always a killer. Especially on a course like this, it just never ends until the finish line.”

Alone, the Brit charged into the velodrome to rapturous applause. It is a memory he will now keep for the rest of his career, which just four months in, already counts three victories, including two at WorldTour level.

“All the way in was special,” he said of the race's closing moments. Afterwards, as riders around him finished their slogs, Brennan stood on the grass of Roubaix Velodrome, taking in the day. He then staggered slowly towards the journalists.

He had raced aggressively for almost six hours. How did he feel? “The legs don’t feel too bad,” he said. “I think you just kind of run out of bullets. You run out of that explosivity. I think I’m just generally tired. If you weren’t, then you’re a weirdo.”

Still only 19 years old, there will be many more Paris-Roubaixs for Brennan.

Flocked by his entourage, Tadej Pogačar walked slowly into the press room next to the open-air Roubaix Velodrome. He took a seat beside Mads Pedersen, the day’s third-place finisher, and, as he waited for the Dane to finish his conference, looked out at the faces of the journalists in front of him.

Staring back, they saw a portrait of exhaustion. The Slovenian's cheeks were dusty with mud, his complexion drained of colour, and his eyes half-shut. Simply blinking took longer than usual.

Second on his debut at Paris-Roubaix, the world champion had just endured, in his own words, “one of the hardest races I’ve ever done in my life”. He was relieved just to be sitting down.

“The cobbles, the stress on the body, it’s definitely one of the roughest, toughest, hardest races I’ve done,” the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider began, a weary canter to his voice. “I think I gained some experience that maybe next time that I come here it will not be so extremely hard as it was today.”

In reality, he had himself to blame for the intensity of the afternoon. The attacks started with over 100km to go, first spurred by Pedersen, and then intensified by Pogačar. Eager to stay safe on the feared Arenberg trench – the race’s most unforgiving sector – the Slovenian spearheaded a group through the forest, picking off the day’s breakaway riders with ease.

He then whittled away the tag-alongs. Backwards went Pedersen and Wout van Aert, leaving only the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo of Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen.

“There was a podium set, basically. I was thinking me coming to the velodrome with two of the fastest guys in the world is not a very good idea,” he laughs. “I was trying to make something happen. Jasper was dropped, but then Mathieu was too strong.”

And yet, the decisive moment did not come from a Van der Poel attack, but rather an error from the world champion.

On an inconspicuous cobbled corner, 38km from the line, Pogačar misjudged his line, and braked to a halt in the dirt, tipping off his bike and onto the floor.

It seemed a rare lapse of judgement. Had something influenced his handling? “It’s a good thing you say this. When you go full-gas and motorbikes are in front of you, and then they don’t turn, you also don’t turn. But then suddenly they are really close to you, and you are just standing still,” he said. Nonetheless, he made clear, the responsibility landed with him. “I should know that there is a corner, so no excuses.”

A 20-second gap for Van der Poel soon unravelled to 40 seconds, and by the time Pogačar reached the velodrome, the Dutchman had already celebrated a third successive win. His rainbow jersey speckled with dust, he rode his own solo lap, and then slumped down beside his girlfriend, Urška Žigart, on the artificial grass.

“Today, not one time did I think about the Tour de France,” Pogačar said. “I was just enjoying today’s race, focusing on today. I was kind of enjoying it. You never enjoy it when you go full gas for five hours. It was really great racing.”

It was, likely, the last time fans will see the world champion lock horns with his predecessor this season, certainly in a cobbled Classic. They've shared all three of the year's Monuments so far: two for Van der Poel and one for Pogačar.

“He's a great champion and one of the best riders in the world. To race against him is a big honour. I always say, If I were a kid racing now, he would be my idol,” Pogačar said.

Is it a shame we won’t see another battle this year? “Don’t be greedy,” he grinned. He then rose carefully from his chair, and, with a team staff member holding his runner-up cobble, ambled away for a well-earned rest.

The final lap bell had departed. Sure, the time limit had come almost half an hour before, the advertising in the famous Roubaix Velodrome was being packed up, and buses were beginning to depart, but it was the fact that the bell signifying one more lap - and the man operating it - had left which seemed like the greatest signifier that Paris-Roubaix was over.

Then, out of nowhere, whistles were blown to signify that one more rider was coming through. As the crowds departed, coming the other way was Joey Pidcock of Q36.5 Pro Cycling on his senior Paris-Roubaix debut, riding a full lap and a half of the velodrome to complete his race. He finished outside of the time limit, one of the scores of riders not to officially finish the race, but he achieved his goal of completing the Hell of the North.

Asked what it was like to finish the race alone, 53:40 behind Mathieu van der Poel, the winner, the 23-year-old replied bluntly: "About as fun as that sounds."

"I didn't come with the best shape but I had to finish," he explained. "It didn't matter how long it took. I thought it would be dark by the time I got here."

Pidcock spent almost half the race riding alone, he said in an empty velodrome.

"Before the cobbles, I almost got caught in three crashes in a row," he said when asked about when his race was over. "When [Wout] van Aert crashed he was so close to me, I think he touched me, when he came down. After that I wasn't risking my life for it, I already didn't have the legs."

"I might not get to ride it again, so of course I've got to finish," Pidcock said. "So many people don't get the opportunity to ride here, to ride something like this.

"People actually want to finish this one more than most races."

Despite his brutal day out on the cobbles, he was still trying to enjoy it, despite the many factors that would make a normal person stop and climb off.

"I was really excited for it before," Pidcock said. "I'm not here because of my legs, I'm here because guys crashed and weren't able to come. I was excited, I did it last year [the U23], it was really fun. There were some mechanical problems then.

"Arenberg was still pretty cool, proper walls of noise... There were still people [out there], but everyone was going home already."

Ultimately, he just knew he wanted to enter the velodrome, whatever it took. "I don't think it was that hard mentally to finish, I just committed to doing it," he said.

There aren't many races where people push themselves to the limit just to finish, but Paris-Roubaix is one, and Pidcock can now always say that he completed the Hell of the North.

Mathieu van der Poel called for "legal action" on the spectator who threw a full bottle of water at him at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, as he charged towards a third successive victory.

The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was riding solo on the Templeuve sector of cobbles, around 35km from the end of the race, when someone in the crowd lobbed what appeared to be an old Jumbo-Visma bottle at him, striking him in the face.

He had been riding with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), until the Slovenian misjudged a corner and crashed, and therefore was alone for the finalé of the race.

In his post-race press conference, the 30-year-old described it as like a "stone hitting my face".

"It doesn’t destroy the fun I had but it’s not normal, it was a full bottle, it was like a stone hitting my face," he said. "It’s not acceptable, if they spit or throw beer it’s still unacceptable but this is different .This is something we have to take legal action on."

Earlier, Van der Poel told Sporza: "Hopefully, the police can identify the man because there has to be a trial for this. This is attempted manslaughter. If the UCI doesn't take action, then we will do it with the team."

On TNT Sports, commentator Adam Blythe describe the perpetrator as a "scumbag". "I can't believe someone is doing this. It's just beyond belief," he said. "Good news is it didn’t affect him – but yeah, disgusting. Just do one. Don’t bother coming out."

The incident is not the first to have occurred to Van der Poel, even at Paris-Roubaix. Last year, a spectator threw a cap at the Dutchman's wheel as he soloed to victory, while he has also be spat at at the E3 Saxo Classic this year, and had beer thrown at him.

His team's manager, Philip Roodhooft, would not be drawn on the incident: "They are not important. I refuse to talk about people who don't deserve deserve attention."

It had threatened to overshadow Van der Poel's hat-trick, the Roubaix in which he admitted he had suffered the most, and been forced to ride without a working radio or power meter. Thankfully for him, not these episodes nor the fact he punctured on the Carrefour de l'Arbre deprived him of his victory.

"Just winning three times is super special and it’s not something you expect," he said. :Three years in a row [at a race] where you also need some luck - it’s exceptional."

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) became only the third rider in history after Octave Lapize and Francesco Moser to take three consecutive wins in Paris-Roubaix when he finished 1:18 ahead of world champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) taking third ahead of Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease as Bike) and Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

The Dutchman’s success was anything but the cakewalk that those margins might suggest. From the moment the race reached the first of 30 sections of cobbles, van de Poel was locked in battle with Pogačar, their duel eventually becoming a gripping head-to-head as the pair dropped the other favourites.

The pair took regular turns in trying to drop each other until, on cobbled section nine with 38km remaining, Pogačar overshot a right-hand bend and tumbled into the advertising hoardings beyond it. He was quickly back under way but never managed to close the gap on his biggest Classics rival, a subsequent stop for a bike change all but finishing his hopes of catching van der Poel.

The Dutchman’s victorious progress wasn’t without his hitches, though. Not long after going clear, he was hit in the face with a waterbottle tossed at him by a fan, although that act of rank stupidity only caused him to wobble rather than crash. On the Carrefour de l’Arbre section of cobbles, the defending champion punctured, but was quickly aboard a new bike and continued towards victory.

‘I was really suffering, too bad Tadej made this mistake on a corner,’ the Dutchman said in his post-race interview. ‘But then I just had to go for it and it was still quite far from the finish. It was really hard especially with the last two sectors with the headwind. I was really struggling but I’m happy to make it to the finish line.’

Asked about Pogačar’s crash, Van der Poel said: ‘The speed was super high and I think he misjudged the turn a bit. I was just quick enough to save it, and I don’t know what happened afterwards. I had quite a big gap but I had to go for it. That’s part of racing.’

How it unfolded

A group of eight went clear after 20km of high-speed racing. Oier Lazkano (Red Bull-Hansgrohe), Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto), Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X Mobility), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema), Rory Townsend (Q36.5) and Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost) made it into the breakaway, although another 20km passed before the peloton gave up the chase and their lead began to stretch, reaching a maximum of three-and-a-half minutes.

As has been the case in recent editions, Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team set the pace in the bunch, which increased significantly approaching the first of the 30 sections of cobbles at Troisvilles. There was a series of crashes coming into this section, the most significant involving Van Aert and Matej Mohorič. In Troisvilles itself, Lidl-Trek’s Jasper Stuyven went down in a multi-rider pile-up, and moments later Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) slid off on a left-hander, underlining the treacherousness of the surface even before the cobbles.

Once on the pavé, Filippo Ganna (ineos Grenadiers) was among the first to puncture, which left the Italian chasing in a group with Philipsen for 35km. Although there were plenty of punctures and crashes in the sectors that followed, it wasn’t until the four-star section at Haveluy that the big hitters began to strike out. Mads Pedersen made a first acceleration, Pogačar made a second and Van der Poel added his weight. Coming out of the section, Pogačar surged again, the flurry of attacks reducing this group to less than 20 riders.

These attacks brought the eight-man break within sight on the approach to the Arenberg Forest, by which time the peloton had re-formed. Pogačar went quickly to the front, Van der Poel then took his place, his pace so strong that he rode through the break. Coming out of the infamous section, Van der Poel, Pogačar, Pedersen, Philipsen, Ganna and, riding out of his teenage skin, Britain’s Matthew Brennan were part of a 15-strong lead group.

Van der Poel kept attacking on the road sections, his thrust after section 16 with 87km remaining bringing five riders out of the pack, Pogačar, Pedersen, Philipsen and Stefan Bissegger making the cut with him.

On section 15, Pogačar attacked despite appearing to have been suffering physically a few moments earlier. Pedersen led the pursuit of the world champion until the Dane suffered the most untimely of front wheel punctures. As the Slovenian flew on, Van der Poel was the only one able to bridge the fast-opening gap. However, the defending champion refused to collaborate with his rival until Philipsen had joined them, while Bissegger, like Pedersen, was the victim of a puncture.

The trio stayed together until the last few hundred metres of the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle section. Pogačar pressed hard, but got no gap, then Van der Poel responded but only succeeded in dropping his teammate Philipsen.

On section nine, Pogačar accelerated hard again but couldn’t shake Van der Poel. Then, on a sharp right-hander, the world champion went through the bend and fell into the advertising banners, while the Dutchman drew on his cyclo-cross skills to skip inside his tumbling rival, who was further delayed by a dropped chain. The pursuit began with 38km remaining.

For several kilometres, there were just 15 seconds or so between the two Classics superstars. Van der Poel managed to avoid mishap when hit in the face by the bottle thrown at him, going slightly off line but staying upright. Then, with 21km left, Pogačar’s hopes of catching his rival took another blow when he stopped to switch to a spare bike, which left the Dutchman almost a minute clear.

On Carrefour de l’Arbre, the duel seemed like it might take another significant twist when Van der Poel punctured. However, with his team car right on his wheel, the Dutchman kept his cool as he stopped for a spare bike before resuming his relentless pace, his lead still a minute coming out of that key section, the last tough one of the race. After that, victory and a place in history was not too far away.

2025 Paris-Roubaix, 259.2km

1 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck, in 5:31:27
2 Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, at 1:18
3 Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, at 2:11
4 Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike
5 Florian Vermeersch (Bel) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, at s.t
6 Jonas Rutsch (Ger) Intermarché-Wanty, at 3:46
7 Stefan Bissegger (Swi) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
8 Markus Hoelgaard (Nor) Uno-X Mobility, at s.t.
9 Fred Wright (GB) Bahrain Victorious, at 4:35
10 Laurenz Rex (Bel) Intermarché-Wanty, at 4:36

For the layperson, Christmas Day falls on 25th December. But for bike nerds like us at Cycling Weekly, it comes in April, stretched over a weekend in northern France.

With its unique and unrelenting cobbled sectors, Paris-Roubaix always promises to bring a sleigh full of interesting tech. This year is proving no different.

Ahead of the fifth edition of the women's race, Cycling Weekly wandered from team bus to team bus, armed with a camera and an inquisitive mind. Here's what we found, from gravel wheels and differing tyre widths, to aero bikes and adjustable pressure systems.

Aero bikes with gravel wheels

Ridley's Noah Fast 3.0 aero bike, ridden by Uno-X this season, is one of the most aggressively designed bikes we've seen in the peloton.

Its futuristic geometry boasts longer tube shapes in the forks, dropped seat stays, and an eye-catchingly deep headtube (pictured below). According to Ridley, it's 8.5 watts faster than the previous model.

And yet, while aero is key in a flat race like Paris-Roubaix, it has to be balanced with comfort over the cobbles.

Uno-X set out to achieve this by pairing the Noah Fast with gravel wheels – DT Swiss's GRC 1100. Made from lightweight carbon, the wheels are designed to absorb shocks, and are said to be the "ultimate off-road" companion by their makers.

30-35mm tyres

Tyre width choice has long been a point of contention in the cobbled Classics, and nowhere more so than at Paris-Roubaix. Racing over fiercely jagged cobbles, riders prefer a wider surface area than they do on the road, hoping to roll safely over the more dangerous stretches.

At Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift on Saturday, Cycling Weekly saw riders choosing widths from 30mm to 35mm – compared to the more common 28mm seen on the flat.

The widest tyres we spotted belonged to SD Worx-Protime, including the defending champion Lotte Kopecky, whose front wheel is pictured above. The team ran 35mm S-Works Mondo endurance tyres.

The next widest tyres belonged to the Cofidis team, who ran the grippy Vittoria Corsa Pro Control in 34mm.

Ceratizit also ran Vittoria Corsa Pro Control tyres, but in 32mm. This was the most common width among the starters on the day.

The narrowest tyres we saw were fitted to the bikes of Human Powered Health's riders, and measured 30mm. We also saw this width on bikes from St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 and Liv AlUla Jayco, with half the Australian squad on 30mm and the other half on 32mm.

Tyre inflation system

Adjustable tyre pressure systems first surfaced at Paris-Roubaix two years ago, used by a handful of riders testing the then-new technology.

This time round, Visma-Lease a Bike's riders were unanimous in running the systems, made by Netherlands-based Gravaa.

The company's system is controlled wirelessly via Bluetooth with buttons installed on the handlebars, and allows riders to drop and increase tyre pressure as they please. Pauline Ferrand Prévot rode the technology to victory on her debut.

"I changed every sector," the Frenchwoman said afterwards. "It was super good to be able to put lower pressure on the cobbles. We were much more comfortable, less jumping."

After she dropped the pressure down, Ferrand-Prévot said the system took "some minutes" to get up to 4-bar (58psi), but gave her an advantage on the road sections.

"To be able to pump again on the tarmac was super good, because there was a lot at the end on the tarmac," she said.

Unreleased wheels

This year, riders have been using unreleased 'smart wheels' from brand Zipp. The first to be seen using them was Q36.5's Tom Pidcock at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and they were commonplace at Paris-Roubaix among Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and Movistar, two teams supplied with Zipp wheels.

Although there is no spec available at the moment, patent information suggests the wheels give live feedback to riders about tyre pressure, rim health, and road surfaces. They do not, however, allow live pressure adjustments like Gravaa's system.

The wheels come as a combination of Zipp wheels and in-sensor accessories from TyreWiz, two brands owned by components maker SRAM.

Single chainrings

Another thing that has become a more common sight at Paris-Roubaix is single chainring groupsets, also known as 1x.

Every team supplied with SRAM components – including Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Movistar, and Visma-Lease a Bike – used 1x set-ups on Saturday.

A single chainring is normally sufficient for a flat race like Roubaix, and vastly reduces the risk of the chain falling off. In the picture of Chloé Dygert's (Canyon-SRAM) bike above, you can see she used a chain guide hold it in place. This was standard across those running 1x.

Satellite shifters

Satellite shifters are nothing new at Paris-Roubaix, but it's always interesting to see how different riders choose to place them.

Above, note how Emma Norsgaard (Lidl-Trek) has one shifter under the tops of her bars, and another inside the drops. This enables her to shift while handling the bike in different places.

Norsgaard's shifters were also reinforced with extra bar tape.

The above picture is of Kopecky's handlebars. The world champion opted for single shifters, located either side of her bike's stem.

This is because Kopecky prefers grip the tops of her bars while riding over cobbles, shifting with her thumbs.

Another noticeable thing we spotted on Kopecky's bike was this rainbow-coloured metallic cassette. This bit of bling was on her spare bike, and gives no discernible advantage, other than looking cool.

We were also big fans of this special-edition cobble paint job over at Winspace Orange Seal's team bus.

The bike didn't have a number attached to it, so we're not sure if it was used in the race. Either way, it looks the part, doesn't it?

You can hear the riders coming over the pavé much earlier than you can see them, the thunder of the approaching convoy a giveaway sign that the peloton is about to pass at Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

The sound of two score bikes on cobbles, the thud of the rubber on stone, the jangle of the drive chain, the whoosh from the speed. Then there's the dust, which somehow gets everywhere, and mostly in your mouth. It's not an experience for the faint-hearted.

That's for those spectating; for those riding, it is leagues worse. All of those sounds, plus the threat of a crash or a puncture, concentration on for hours, almost always on the limit; trying to pick the right line while having a face full of dust.

You don't need to ask anyone how hard Paris-Roubaix Femmes is, you can see it at the finish, as riders cross the line with faces covered in dirt, save for the sunglass lines, and then collapse to the floor in exhaustion. Even those who have had a moment to recover are still not quite ready to talk to the waiting press.

Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx-Protime, third on Saturday, has raced all five editions so far of the women's Hell of the North. "It’s not a nice feeling to get over cobbles and it’s still hanging on and fighting for your position in every sector," she said.

"I would not say it will ever feel nice. I hope I keep improving my engine, making it bigger and bigger."

"It never gets easier," Zoe Bäckstedt of Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, 15th on Saturday, echoed. "this year I came out quite nicely with just one small blister, but it's still just as hard as ever. That's why it's called the Hell of the North."

Lidl-Trek's Emma Norsgaard, who finished one place ahead of Bäckstedt, but who animated the race with a significant attack, is not a fan of the race, despite it being one suited to her strengths. Her attack was "freestyling", she said.

"It was unbelievable," the Dane explained. "I was thinking this is my chance but I knew I was already losing energy a little bit, but I was still dreaming that when she dropped me I could still hold off the group. This is not how it went.

"It's so hard, I have pain everywhere. I just want to cry, I said in an interview the other day that I think it's absolutely disgusting this race, and I truly believe it.

"I'm not looking forward to next year at all, I need some time now I guess."

However, it is not all tales of painful suffering. Flora Perkins of Fenix-Deceuninck finished outside the time limit on her Roubaix debut in 2022, but this time finished 40th.

"It felt less like a sportive this time, but still as cool," the 21-year-old joked. "It was hard in a different way, hard because you have to keep going. I was our first finisher on our team, it didn't go the best, and so I was thinking this was riding on me now, I didn't feel amazing. You just keep going, you can't think about it in the race. Physically, I've come on a lot since three years ago, which is a good feeling to have.

"I don't think it's the hardest race. Maybe because it's more suited to me, it's the on/off effort. Put me on a really brutal long climb where you're really suffering way longer than you want to be, and I would say that's hard."

Imogen Wolff of Visma-Lease a Bike had victory to celebrate on Saturday evening, after her teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won, but the race had already "surpassed" her expectations.

"There was a moment on sector eight where I was like, I don't think bike racing can get better than this," the 18-year-old said. "It was just a wall of noise and the dust and phwoar. I feel like I definitely have unfinished business here, personally, and I want to come back."

Roubaix is a race that demands everything from its participants, which is clear at the finish, but five years on from the first edition, perhaps some are getting the hang of it.