{"id":198373,"date":"2025-04-11T11:25:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T11:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=198373"},"modified":"2025-04-11T11:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T11:25:53","slug":"van-der-poel-pogacar-van-aert-and-pedersen-race-in-paris-roubaix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/04\/11\/van-der-poel-pogacar-van-aert-and-pedersen-race-in-paris-roubaix\/","title":{"rendered":"Van der Poel, Poga\u010dar, Van Aert and Pedersen Race for Cobblestone Glory in Paris-Roubaix"},"content":{"rendered":"

After last Sunday\u2019s thrilling Tour of Flanders, won with a typical display of power, speed and stamina by Tadej Poga\u010dar, we can look forward to what may be an even more electrifying race this Sunday: Paris-Roubaix, also known as the Hell of the North. These past few months, much copy was devoted to speculating whether the Slovenian world champion would ride in the race this year, as it wasn\u2019t on his schedule and he had avoided it in the past. Speculation reached fever pitch after he was spotted doing a recon of the course on the sly in February.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A month later, his UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG team finally confirmed that he would skip the E3 Saxo Classic in favor of Paris-Roubaix, a race that \u2013 he freely admitted \u2013 did not suit him. The reason is that there are no hard climbs in it, as there were in the Tour of Flanders. Poga\u010dar is the best climber of all the prominent one-day riders, an advantage he will not have next Sunday. What Paris-Roubaix<\/a> has instead are cobblestones, 30 sectors of pav\u00e9 covering a total of\u00a055.3km of the 259.2km course from Compi\u00e8gne to the Roubaix Velodrome.<\/p>\n

The cobblestones are unforgiving on the best of days \u2013 dusty, uneven, hard on the body and the bike \u2013 and if there\u2019s moisture on the course, it could be a little Armageddon. And the latest weather forecast calls for occasional rain and drizzle for Sunday, so the riders could be in for a very hard day. Let\u2019s hope the forecast is wrong.<\/p>\n

The most important cobblestone sectors, based on past races, are the Trou\u00e9e d\u2019Arenberg (look for sudden gaps in the peloton, flats and other mechanicals) and the Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre, which comes 15 km from the finish and could be the scene of the decisive breakaway, as it was in 2023, when Wout van Aert (Visma\u2013Lease a Bike) punctured there and Mathieu van der Poel raced away to win the first of his two consecutive victories in the iconic race.<\/p>\n

The Alpecin-Deceuninck leader is the defending champion and will be going for his third consecutive victory in the most brutal of Monuments, a feat not accomplished since Francesco Moser did it in 1978\u201380.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Paris Roubaix (@parisroubaixcourse)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n