Paris‑Roubaix weekend showdown
Paris‑Roubaix — the cobbled ‘Hell of the North’ — runs Sunday in its 123rd edition, and 2026 is notable because the men’s and women’s races are staged on the same weekend for the first time. (france3-regions.franceinfo.fr) The pre‑race focus is on Tadej Pogacar versus Mathieu van der Poel — Van der Poel is chasing a fourth straight Paris‑Roubaix while Pogacar chases a fifth Monument — and the start list notably misses Remco Evenepoel. ( )
Mathieu van der Poel arrives in Roubaix chasing a fourth straight win, and only two men in race history — Roger De Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen — have ever reached four victories total. Tadej Pogačar arrives trying to add Paris-Roubaix to a Monument collection that already includes Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia. (cyclingstage.com, idlprocycling.com) This year’s twist is logistical as much as sporting: both elite races are set for Sunday, April 12, 2026, instead of the women racing on Saturday and the men on Sunday. French regional coverage says that is the first time the two editions have been staged on the same day, turning Roubaix into one long double-header. (france3-regions.franceinfo.fr, cyclingnews.com) The men’s race is 258.3 kilometers with 54.8 kilometers of cobblestones spread across 30 sectors, which is why riders treat it less like a normal one-day race and more like a bike handling exam run at highway speed. The women’s race is 144 kilometers with 33.7 kilometers of cobbles, and its 2026 route adds three more sectors, including the four-star Haveluy to Wallers section. (paris-roubaix.fr, cyclingnews.com, paris-roubaix-femmes.fr) Those stars matter because Roubaix grades its cobbled sectors by difficulty, and the five-star names are the ones that can rip a race apart in minutes. The official race site still centers everything on the same three landmarks that usually decide the day: the Trouée d’Arenberg, Mons-en-Pévèle, and Carrefour de l’Arbre. (paris-roubaix.fr) Van der Poel has the most obvious blueprint because he already won the last three editions and returns with Alpecin-Premier Tech support from Jasper Philipsen, Silvan Dillier, and Florian Sénéchal. Pogačar’s United Arab Emirates team brings Nils Politt and Florian Vermeersch, two riders who matter here because Roubaix is often won by the strongest leader with the last helper still attached deep into the cobbles. (paris-roubaix.fr, procyclingstats.com, cyclingnews.com) The missing name is Remco Evenepoel. The confirmed start lists published on Friday, April 10, do not include him, which leaves the men’s race looking more like a five-star cage match among Van der Poel, Pogačar, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen, and Filippo Ganna. (idlprocycling.com, cyclingnews.com) That changes the tactics for Soudal Quick-Step too, because its Roubaix card is now Jasper Stuyven, Dylan van Baarle, Tim Merlier, and Yves Lampaert rather than a team built around one explosive favorite. In a race where punctures and crashes can erase the strongest legs in one bad second, depth often counts for almost as much as star power. (cyclingnews.com) The women’s race has its own heavyweight clash, with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot back to defend the 2025 win she took on her first appearance, and Lotte Kopecky trying to become the first repeat winner of Paris-Roubaix Femmes. The preliminary start list also includes Marianne Vos, Lorena Wiebes, Elisa Balsamo, and Zoë Bäckstedt, which gives the race a mix of sprint power, cobble technique, and pure chaos. (paris-roubaix-femmes.fr, procyclingstats.com, cyclingnews.com) Roubaix finishes inside a velodrome, which is one of the sport’s strangest sights: after six hours of farm roads, mud, dust, and broken pavement, the final meters happen on a smooth oval track. If Van der Poel wins again, he moves from a three-year streak to a place beside the race’s all-time record holders; if Pogačar wins, he checks off the one Monument that has kept his set incomplete. (paris-roubaix.fr, cyclingstage.com)
