How to Watch 2024 Paris-Roubaix—the Ultimate Grit Test of the Spring Classics
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Every spring, the cycling world turns its attention to the rugged roads of northern France, where history, tradition, and transparent determination converge in the iconic cobbled classic of Paris-Roubaix.
With its treacherous cobblestone sectors and storied finish at the Roubaix Velodrome, this race stands as a testament to the pro peloton’s grittiest riders. From its humble beginnings over a century ago to its status today as one of cycling’s revered Monuments, Paris-Roubaix calls on riders to test their character in the ‘Hell of the North.’ As the men and women of the peloton prepare to tackle the cobbles this Saturday and Sunday, anticipation mounts for another edition in this legendary saga of endurance and grit.
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Paris-Roubaix’s History
The second-oldest of cycling’s five Monuments, Paris-Roubaix was the brainchild of two textile magnates from Roubaix, a small city near Lille in northern France. As Peter Cossins describes in his fabulous book, The Monuments, Théodore Vienne and Maurice Perez had just built a new velodrome (track racing was quite popular at the time) and decided that a road race would be a great way to raise the velodrome’s prestige in the eyes of the sporting public.
According to Cossins, the first edition of Paris-Roubaix took place on April 19, 1896, and took off at 5:30 a.m. from Roubaix’s Café Gillet. Germany’s Josef Fischer won the race over nine hours later, crossing the finish line after completing six laps of the velodrome. The next best rider, Denmark’s Charles Meyer, finished 23 minutes after the German.
Like many of cycling’s oldest one-day races, Paris-Roubaix has changed and evolved over the years: the starting place has shifted, the route has been altered, and the number of cobbled sectors has fluctuated dramatically, largely as a response to French road resurfacing projects in the early 1960s. Even the velodrome is not the same: the race currently finishes in a velodrome that was completed in 1937 and has hosted the race’s finish (with a few exceptions) every year since 1943.
As for its infamous nickname, the “Hell of the North,” Paris-Roubaix is assumed to have earned its most famous nickname from the ancient cobbled farm roads that the riders tackle as the race bounces its way across the windswept fields of northern France. But many of these areas were devastated by battles during World War I, and (as Cossins shares) it wasn’t until after the war that the race acquired its devilish moniker. A rider was asked by the event’s organizers to conduct a recon of the course in early 1919 and was appalled by what the war had left in its wake. For the first few years after the Great War, Paris-Roubaix was truly a trip through hell.
Paris-Roubaix Femmes
A women’s race called Paris-Roubaix Femmes was finally added by the organizers in 2020, but the first edition was canceled (along with that year’s men’s event) due to COVID-19. Taking place on Saturday—the day before the men’s event—the women’s race starts in Denain and then, after a quick loop around the city, heads north toward the Roubaix, covering the final 17 or so sectors of cobblestones that the men race over on Sunday.
Given the nature of the course, it makes sense that the riders who excel in Paris-Roubaix are often the same men and women who were at the front during the previous weekend’s Tour of Flanders. Belgians have won the men’s race 57 times, and ten riders have won Flanders and Roubaix in the same season, with Belgium’s Tom Boonen and Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara doing it twice.
With only three editions in the record books, it’s hard to identify any trends in the history of the Paris-Roubaix Femmes. But one team has enjoyed more success than any other: riders from Trek-Segafredo won the first two editions. Now known as Lidl-Trek, don’t be surprised if the team makes it three out of four this year.
Here’s everything else you need to know about this year’s Paris-Roubaix.
The Route
Since 1977, the men’s Paris-Roubaix has started in the town of Compiègne, about an hour northeast of the French capital. From there the race heads north through the Picardy region of northern France, an area made up of the departments of Oise, Aisne, and Somme, all areas that were heavily impacted by the horrors of World War I.
The men will cover these smooth, rolling roads during the first two hours of their 260K race, with a large breakaway likely escaping containing a mix of riders from wild card squads looking for publicity and domestiques from the contenders’ teams hoping to position themselves up the road so as to support their captains later in the race. Despite its lack of cobblestones, this early phase of the race can be dangerous, with crashes and crosswinds an ever-present threat.
First raced in 2021, the 148.5K Paris-Roubaix Femmes begins in Denain, about 90 minutes north of Compiègne by car. Saturday’s women’s race begins with a loop around the town, then joins the course that the men will cover on Sunday.
Like the men’s event, these opening stretches of asphalt roads offer an opportunity for an early breakaway to form. Last year, the winner came out of this early move, so expect the teams of race favorites to be a bit more selective as to which riders they let go up the road.
The Pavé Sectors
Paris-Roubaix is a race defined by its cobblestones, known locally as pavé. And there are lots of them: The women will race over 29.2K of the softball-sized rocks (spread over 17 sectors), and the men will cover 29 sectors on Sunday, for a total of 55.7K—the most the race has included in 30 years.
The cobbled sectors are numbered in descending order, beginning with Sector 17—Hornaing in Wandignies—for the women, and Sector 29—Troisvilles—for the men. The riders hit these first sectors about 68 and 96K into their respective races, and it’s pretty much “game on” from there as they wind their way to Roubaix along the border between France and Belgium—hitting just about every cobbled farm road the organizers could find along the way.
Each sector of pavé has its own flavor, and all of them are inspected in the days prior to the event and given a star rating to indicate their difficulty. This year’s men’s and women’s races boast six and nine 4- or 5-star sectors, respectively. But don’t let these ratings fool you: every sector offers its own set of challenges and none of them is easy. (With the exception of Sector 1, a well-manicured set of paving stones just before the entrance to the Roubaix Velodrome.)
The pavé turns Paris-Roubaix into a race of anticipation and attrition. As the kilometers tick down the speed increases, and riders are steadily dropped from the back of the peloton due to fatigue, mechanicals, or crashes. The better riders and teams fight to position themselves at the front of the group heading into each cobbled sector. This allows them to pick the best line over the stones, which is usually on top of the raised “crown” that runs down the center of the road. From this position, riders can both dictate the pace of the race and avoid crashes or other obstacles—or at least react to them more quickly than riders stuck at the back.
The men’s race comes to a head with about 95K to go as the riders hit Sector 19, the Arenberg Forest, the first 5-star sector, and perhaps the hardest and most (in)famous in the race. A long, fast sector that features some of the area’s gnarliest cobblestones, the pack usually splits into pieces here as the contenders accelerate to try and force the first major selection of the day. Riders who get dropped here might never see the front of the race again.
The route of the Paris-Roubaix Femmes doesn’t take the riders through the Forest, which—as brutal as the Arenberg sector is—we imagine the riders don’t appreciate. But they will cover the race’s other two 5-star sectors: Mons-en-Pévèle, a long, brutal sector that shapes the final hour of the race; and Carrefour de l’Arbre, a punishing sector that’s about 18K from the finish line and therefore provides the perfect opportunity for riders hoping to drop their breakaway companions and ride away to victory.
If the pavé doesn’t determine the winner, the Roubaix Velodrome awaits. There, a small group of exhausted riders will need to muster enough mental and physical energy for a sprint on the ancient concrete track.
Upsets are common in the velodrome. In 1997, France’s Frédéric Guesdon—a complete unknown at the time—shot from the back of a group of favorites to win. In 2016, Australia’s Mathew Hayman—a career domestique with few wins of his own—denied Boonen a chance to take a record-breaking fifth Roubaix victory. And, of course, who can forget last year’s women’s race, when Canada’s Alison Jackson—one of only a handful of riders to survive the day’s long breakaway—timed her sprint perfectly to take a legendary victory.
One final consideration: the weather. Cobbled roads are bad enough when it’s sunny and dry; they’re even worse in the rain. It’s been raining throughout much of the week, but it’s expected to be cloudy and dry on Saturday and Sunday. There will be lots of mud and puddles though, which means the stones will be slippery in several places.
How to Watch
If you subscribed to NBC’s Peacock Premium streaming service ($5.99/month) before last year’s Tour de France—and didn’t cancel your subscription—then you also get access to Paris-Roubaix and several other races covered by NBC and its partners. (If you’re looking for ad-free coverage, you’ll need a subscription to Peacock Premium Plus, which runs $11.99 a month.)
The Peacock app is available on Amazon Fire TV, Android and AndroidTV devices, Chromecast, Google platforms, iOS devices, PlayStation 4 and 5, Roku, Xbox devices, VIZIO SmartCast TVs, and LG Smart TVs. You can also watch online via the Peacock website.
If you’re in Canada, FloBikes ($30/month) is the best way to watch Paris-Roubaix. Both races are available live and on-demand on FloBikes.com, the FloSports iOS app, and the FloSports app for Amazon FireTV, Roku, and Apple TV.
Peacock’s coverage of Saturday’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes begins at 9:15 a.m. EDT, just as the riders are approaching the first sector of pavé. The race is expected to finish in the Roubaix Velodrome by around 11:30 a.m. EDT.
On Sunday, Peacock will be streaming the men’s Paris-Roubaix in its entirety, beginning at 4:55 a.m. EDT. We’ll be up early to watch the men hit the first sector of cobbles at about 7:30 a.m. EDT. If that’s too early for you, make sure you’re tuned in by about 9:00 a.m. EDT, when the leaders should hit the Arenberg Forest. The race is expected to finish about two hours later.
What Happened Last Year
After dominating the Tour of Flanders, Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky and her stacked SD Worx team went into Saturday’s women’s Paris-Roubaix as the top favorites. But the race ended with a big upset as Canada’s Alison Jackson (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) outsprinted what was left of the day’s big breakaway to take the biggest win of her career.
Jackson and seventeen other riders went up the road early in the 145.5km race, and no one expected any of them to feature in the finale. But Kopecky and the other pre-race favorites couldn’t bring them all back in time, and seven of them survived to fight for the win in the Roubaix Velodrome. Jackson threw up her hands in disbelief after crossing the finish line, stunned and amazed by what she had just accomplished. Italy’s Katia Ragusa (Liv Racing) finished second, and Belgium’s Marthe Truyen(Fenix-Deceuninck) was third.
But Sunday’s men’s race wasn’t settled in a sprint: the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won his second Monument of the spring (he won Milano-Sanremo in March) after attacking over the top of Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who accelerated off the front of a small leading group on the Carrefour de l’Arbre before a flat tire ruined his chance to win the race. Van der Poel’s teammate, Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen, took second, finishing off a dream day for Alpecin-Deceuninck. Van Aert ended the day in third.
Riders to Watch
Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike)
With Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) skipping the race to focus on the upcoming Ardennes Classics, Vos is the top favorite for Saturday’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes. A legend of the sport, the 36-year-old Dutchwoman won the 250th race of her career at last Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, then took fourth at Sunday’s Tour of Flanders.
Now she gets another shot at the biggest race still missing from her already impressive resume: the Hell of the North. And she’ll be tough to beat. A former cyclocross World Champion, she’ll have no issues on Roubaix’s muddy cobblestones, and she’s arguably one of the best sprinters in the bunch, so a sprint on the velodrome won’t bother her either. In the end, her chances might depend on whether or not her team can keep her at the front of the race and out of harm’s way; she often finds herself isolated deep in the finale of longer classics, and that could hurt her Saturday.
Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime)
Kopecky was unable to win a third consecutive Tour of Flanders on Sunday. She and her teammates rode a strong race, they just didn’t have that little bit extra a rider often needs in races as long and as hard as a cobbled classic. But the Belgian gets another chance in Paris-Roubaix, one of the only races her SD Worx team has yet to win. Her team is depleted due to injuries and the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering—who’s been Kopecky’s best teammate—is skipping the race to prepare for the Ardennes. But Roubaix is a tricky, often unpredictable event, and a rider of Kopecky’s caliber can never be counted out.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
After winning last Sunday’s Tour of Flanders for the third time in his career, Van der Poel—who just so happens to be the defending Paris-Roubaix champion—looks poised to become the first rider since Cancellara (in 2013) to win Flanders and the Hell of the North in the same season. A win would cap off an incredible cobbled run for the Dutchman, who also won the E3 Saxo Classic and finished second in Ghent-Wevelgem. As we said heading into Flanders, this is his race to lose.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek)
Van der Poel looked pretty unbeatable in Flanders this past Sunday, but he might have found his third victory in the Flemish Monument a bit harder to come by had Pedersen not crashed in last Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen. Battered and bruised, the Dane started Sunday’s race anyway, but then—by his own admission—he raced a bit stupidly, attacking far out from the finish instead of saving his reserves for the finale. With another week of recovery—and a course that suits him better than the Tour of Flanders does—he should be even better at Roubaix this coming Sunday.
Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
Last year’s Roubaix result mirrored that of the season’s first Monument, with Van der Poel on the top step of the podium in both. Don’t be surprised if that happens this year as well, only with Van der Poel’s teammate, Philipsen, winning both races. In Milano-Sanremo, once his own attack (with Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar) was caught, van der Poel devoted himself to Philipsen—who’s one of the fastest sprinters in the world—and the Belgian delivered.
The same could happen Sunday if Van der Poel proves unable to escape on his own and instead decides to set up Philipsen—who was second in Roubaix last year—for a small group sprint in the Roubaix Velodrome. Before the season, Alpecin-Deceuninck said its dream scenario would be Van der Poel winning Flanders and Philipsen winning Roubaix. So far, they’re halfway toward making that dream a reality.
Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates)
If you’re looking for a dark horse, keep an eye on Politt. Second in 2019, the German has raced well all spring. He was second in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, seventh in the E3 Saxo Classic, twelfth in Dwars door Vlaanderen, and most importantly, third at the Tour of Flanders. Roubaix suits him best of all, and he’s definitely one to watch this Sunday.
Other Riders to Watch
Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek), Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek), Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-Quick Step), Yves Lampaert (Soudal-Quick Step), Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious), and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost).
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