![\"Why](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/VanDerPoelRoubaix.jpg\")
<\/a>Mathieu van der Poel on the startline in Compiegne in 2025. Photo: Sirotti\nNew course, earlier and \u201crare\u201d cobbles<\/p>\n
While the Paris-Roubaix course shifts slightly every year, a few sectors are certain to be decisive. Arenberg, which lands at km 163 in 2026, and five-star sectors Mons-en-P\u00e9v\u00e8le and Carrefour de l\u2019Arbre will play their usual decisive role in the Monument\u2019s unfolding.<\/p>\n
Before that, though, Organizers are eyeing up a revised series of early cobbles that helped create mayhem among the peloton back in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 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,\u201d explains\u00a0Thierry Gouvenou. \u201cAt the end of this sequence, we are adding sector #26, even more rarely used and featuring an 800-metre climb.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Mathieu van der Poel recently sharing how crucial positioning can be, relative to fitness, during the Classics, it\u2019s certain that his Alpecin-Premier Tech team is already well aware of the route\u2019s new challenges and preparing a strategy.<\/p>\n
Wildcards get opportunity at Monument<\/p>\n
The route announcement also included the wildcard teams that will get their opportunity to try make it to the Roubaix velodrome. Among the seven teams invited to the 2026 are Hincapie\u2019s new venture, Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, and internet darlings, Unibet Rose Rockets.<\/p>\n
For Modern Adventure, it\u2019s a big invite in the team\u2019s debut season. That could set up an opportunity for aspiring Canadian racer, Riley Pickrell. As one of the more experienced on the U.S.-based, squad\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>America\u2019s-heavy\u00a0<\/a>roster<\/a>, the Vancouver Island racer would be up there on the list of riders the team could send to the start line in Compi\u00e8gne. With the team still to make its WorldTour debut (that\u2019s happening soon), it\u2019s not yet clear how the team will shake out on the roads. But we\u2019d like to see Pickrell given that chance.<\/p>\n Modern Adventure will line up alongside another newcomer: Unibet Rose Racing. While A.S.O. slighted the team as faking its Frenchness and declined to invite them to the Tour de France, the organizers are inviting team to prove its worth on the roads of Roubaix. Or, er, cobbles.<\/p>\n Tudor Pro Cycling, TotalEnergies, Team Flanders Baloise, Cofidis and Tom Pidcock\u2019s Pinarello Q.36.5 Pro Cycling Team are the remaining five invitees for the men\u2019s Paris-Roubaix. It\u2019s unclear whether Pidcock has his eyes on the Monument or will leave that to teammates more suited to the parcourse.<\/p>\n Women\u2019s course loses distance, gains difficulty<\/p>\n There are some important changes to the women\u2019s Paris Roubaix (or Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France) as well. For its sixth edition, the race is slightly shorter but, according to A.S.O., more difficult.<\/p>\n For fans watching from home, the women\u2019s race moves to Sunday, the same day as the men, and gains the promise of better live coverage than year\u2019s past.<\/p>\n While the women\u2019s race drops five kilometres from the 2025 distance, the route gains three new cobbled sectors. Of these, organizers say the Haveluy sector could be a deciding factor in the race. The changes bring the total distance on cobbles up to 33.7km for the women, an increase of 4.5km for this year.<\/p>\n The women\u2019s Paris-Roubaix will still start from Denain, but will head south from there in search of cobbles instead of looping around town before heading to Roubaix.<\/p>\n From there, the women\u2019s course will converge with the men\u2019s, taking in the same final 17 cobbled sectors on its way to the iconic velodrome finish.<\/p>\n There are seven wildcard invites among the 21 Women\u2019s WorldTour teams that will be on the start line in Denain. Two of those invited teams haver rosters with significant CanCon (as do several of the WWT squads). St. Michel Preference Home \u2013 Auber93<\/a> is the new home of Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson<\/a> as well as Simone Boilard and Clara Emond. Mayenne Monbana My Pie (formerly known as Winspace Orange Seal) have Kiara Lylyk and Jenaya Francis<\/a> on the roster for 2026.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n