Over the intervening 130 years, the advent of the motor car has seen tarmac increasingly replace cobbles as the road surface of choice, so the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix<\/a> and the other early Spring Classics hark back to an earlier period of cycle racing.<\/p>\n As with the more recent trend to insert gravel sections in road races, racing on cobbles tests the riders\u2019 bike-handling skills<\/a> on trickier surfaces and rings the changes over the often newly laid and pristine asphalt that is typically raced on.<\/p>\n Road cycling likes its history, so it loves a race such as Paris-Roubaix that recalls an earlier period and the heroes who raced and won<\/a> then.<\/p>\n Modern road racing is highly tactical, with teams sheltering their leaders, who often save their efforts for the final climb or sprint. But cobbled races, and Paris-Roubaix in particular, are much more anarchic and may draw out heroic solo performances from star riders.\u00a0<\/p>\n The chaos of Paris-Roubaix can result in unexpected winners and losers, adding excitement to the racing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although the most recent editions have been dominated by Mathieu van der Poel<\/a>, Tadej Poga\u010dar, previously thought of more as a grand tour racer, came close last year in his first attempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n And while the top classics riders often win, that\u2019s interspersed with wins from less fancied riders such as Dylan van Baarle in 2022, Sonny Colbrelli<\/a> the year before, and before that Matthew Hayman<\/a> in 2016 and domestique Johan Vansummeren<\/a> in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout the build-up to Paris-Roubaix 2026, we\u2019ll be answering common, quirky and unexpected questions about the Queen of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-518370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-74267324.jpg\")
When Octave Lapize won Paris-Roubaix in 1909, 1910 and 1911, many roads were still cobbled. Roger Viollet via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Crash](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1481009759.jpg\")
At Paris-Roubaix, more than most races, bad luck can scupper a rider’s chances. Getty Images<\/p>\n