Route and team selection
February 12 th 2026 - 11:00
- The 123rd edition of the Queen of the Classics, which will start from Compiègne on Sunday 12 April, will cover a total distance of 258.3 km (vs. 259.2 km in 2025). The 30 cobbled sectors account for 54.8 km, but the changes made to the route could accelerate the racing.
- The 6th edition of the women’s race will also be the first to be held on the same day as Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France. The women’s peloton will once again start from Denain and will discover the Haveluy sector, one of three additional cobbled sections on the programme this year. This time, it will be the women riders who will have the honour of closing the day at the Roubaix velodrome.
- In total, five events are scheduled for cobblestone lovers over the weekend, which will begin on Saturday with the participation of several thousand amateur cyclists, invited to take on one of three distances as part of the Paris-Roubaix Challenge. As an opening act to the men’s race, the juniors will head to the velodrome from Avesnes, covering 105 km and 17 cobbled sectors, while the U23 riders will battle over 155 km and 23 cobbled sectors between Le Cateau-Cambrésis and Roubaix.
- Twenty-five teams have been invited to take part in Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France, and 21 teams in Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France.
It may seem like an exact science, but in cycling not all kilometres are created equal. More precisely, they do not all carry the same weight in shaping a race scenario. And when it comes to Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France, it is of course when the cobbles appear that the “perceived distance” tends to fluctuate. This crucial moment will come, as it does every year, in Troisvilles after around one hundred kilometres, but the sequence of the opening sectors has been modified to return to a layout already tested in 2024… one that had blown the race apart, as explained by Thierry Gouvenou: “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.”
All the ingredients will therefore be in place for an early pre-selection likely to trap outsiders, and above all to harden the race ahead of the decisive moments to come. On the five-star sectors, the number of title contenders drops at lightning speed. There is always a before and an after Arenberg, with the Trouée appearing at km 163 (2,300 m). The five-star rating is then applied to the particularly irregular cobbles of Mons-en-Pévèle (km 209.7 / 3,000 m), followed by the Carrefour de l’Arbre (km 241.2 / 2,100 m). By then, only a handful of riders, sometimes just one, remain with a genuine chance of victory at the velodrome.
PARIS-ROUBAIX FEMMES HAUTS-DE-FRANCE 2026
The theory of the relativity of kilometres also applies to the Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France route. The five kilometres less than last year represent little more than the nominal value of the course. In reality, the riders will have three additional sectors to contend with, amounting to 33.7 kilometres of bone-rattling cobbles (+4.5 km), including the introduction of the four-star Haveluy sector (km 52.4 / 2,500 m). “We have removed the loops around Denain,” explains T. Gouvenou, “to take the peloton a little further south and add more cobbles, and Haveluy is one of the sectors that could prove decisive.”
This evolution of the women’s route, which once again converges with the men’s course for the final seventeen sectors, is accompanied by another major decision. The queens of the cobbles will also take centre stage on Sunday, and will even benefit from a prime television slot, with the finish at the velodrome expected at around 6.20 pm. One of them will be destined to light up the screen.
PARIS-ROUBAIX CHALLENGE
Saturday, April 11th 2026 - 24 hours before Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France and Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France, a peloton of 6 500 amateur riders will measure themselves on the Queen of the Classics and its fabled cobblestone sectors. Three distances are on offer to cyclists, to suit every taste: 70, 145 and 170 kms. Every rider will find an appropriate legend.
Last bibs available for the 170 km distance.
More information on parisroubaixchallenge.com