It’s called the Queen of the Classics and subjects the riders to more than five hours of chaos on the men’s route and almost four hours for the women.
Over that time, the men take in 30 secteurs of pavé and the women 20, with the accompanying stories of mechanicals, crashes, heroics, and final elation and exhaustion on the track of the Roubaix velodrome.
Here’s a breakdown of what the 2026 edition of Paris-Roubaix has in store, along with the stats that define the race and its history.
54.8km
The number of kilometres of pavé spread along the 258.3km of the men’s route. There's around 100km on tarmac before the cobbles start and still some 160km to ride, with the cobbles scattered throughout, before the race reaches the Roubaix velodrome.
Although the women’s race is shorter at 144km, it still packs in 33.7km of cobbles, including the same final 17 sectors as the men’s race.
3.7km
The length of the longest cobbled sector. It’s a number that’s shared by sector 28, Quiévy to Saint-Python and sector 17, Hornaing to Wandignies, both four stars. Sector 17 is also ridden by the women.
1.4km
The distance from Sector 1, Roubaix, to the finish in the Roubaix velodrome. It’s a bit of a cheat, because it’s rated only one star and sits on the median between the two tarmac carriageways of Avenue Alfred Motte and Avenue Roger Salengro, which lead to the velodrome entrance.
47.70km/h
Mathieu van der Poel’s average speed in the 2024 race, the fastest ever. In fact, van der Poel holds the record for the three fastest winning average speeds, because he won the 2025 edition at 46.92km/h and the 2023 edition at 46.84km/h.
Contrast van der Poel’s 5 hour, 25 minutes and 58 seconds winning time in 2024 with the 12 hours, 15 minutes of Henri Pélissier in 1919 over roads still bearing damage from the First World War. The race was longer then, starting in Suresnes to the west of Paris, moving via successive start points to its current start in Compiègne, some 80km north of Paris, in 1997.
3
The number of five-star cobbled secteurs scattered among the 30 cobbled sections of the route of the men’s race. These start with secteur 19, the infamous 2.3km Trouée d’Arenberg, followed by secteur 11, Mons-en-Pévèle at 3km long and finally the Carrefour de l’Arbre, 2.1km long and only 17.1km from the finish line.
Paris-Roubaix Femmes misses out on the Trouée d’Arenberg, but still takes in the other two five-star secteurs as it traverses its total of 20 cobbled sections.
130
The number of years since the first Paris-Roubaix, back in 1896, making this the 123rd edition of the race, which wasn’t run for four years during the First World War and a further three during the second.
2026 will see the sixth edition of the women’s race.
21
The number of teams competing in Paris-Roubaix Femmes – the 14 WorldTour teams, plus seven invited Women’s ProTeams. In 2025, 96 riders finished, 2 did not start, 11 did not finish and 28 were outside the time limit.
The corresponding number for the men is 25 teams of seven, all 18 WorldTour teams plus another seven invitees. In 2025, 117 riders out of 175 finished, and there were 53 withdrawals and 5 outside the time limit.
€15,000
The amount of money estimated to be spent each year by the unpaid Amis de Paris-Roubaix on maintaining and refurbishing the famed cobbles. The organisation also runs a museum and sells its own beer to help support the cost. You can become a member for between €20 and €30, dependent on where you live.
Thefts by fans are a major contributor, but entire sections of cobbles sometimes need to be replaced. Because the cobbles sit on farm roads, they’re subject to wear and tear from heavy machinery. The area is also prone to subsidence from its history of coal mining.
In 2023, a herd of goats was used to remove grass from between the cobbles of the Trouée d’Arenberg and in 2005 subsidence on the sector cost €250,000 to repair, a tab picked up by the French region.
1911
The year that Octave Lapize won his third Paris-Roubaix in a row. Since then, Francesco Moser has achieved a hat-trick of wins between 1978 and 1980 and Mathieu van der Poel from 2023 to 2025.
Can van der Poel do it again and equal the four (non-consecutive) wins of Roger de Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen?
7 million
The number of views of the 2025 video of Tadej Pogačar in the showers at the Roubaix velodrome, the most-viewed video from the race organisers. There were 3.4 million views of the video of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s emotion at the finish of the women’s race.
