PARIS- ROUBAIX
How to win ParisRoubaix, the toughest race in the WorldTour? The simplest answer would be: be the strongest, least unlucky rider in the bunch, and make good decisions. But on top of that, there’s a trend in recent years of long-range attacks rewarding the bold, a refreshing antidote to some of the more defensive tactics that now define the grand tours. When Fabian Cancellara attacked with 50km to go in 2010 and won alone, it was seen as one of the bravest rides in years. But since then, Tom Boonen (2012), Mat Hayman (2016), Peter Sagan (2018) and Philippe Gilbert (2019) have won the race from early attacks. It’s not been as simple as all that - Hayman joined the early break the year he won, then managed to hang around when the favourites bridged up and won in a sprint, while Gilbert’s win last year was built on the alliances he forged along the way as well as the initial move he made with 67km to go. But if there’s one race to watch from start to finish in the entire year, it’s this one - you never know when the action is going to start, and it doesn’t end until there is a winner.
In some ways, Paris-Roubaix is a straightforward race. It’s largely flat, notwithstanding the endless short ups and downs of northern France, and it doesn’t twist and turn so much that the wind is unpredictable - it heads north-ish from Compiègne to Roubaix, with a few zigs and zags to incorporate the cobbled sectors. However, the cobbles are quite unlike anything else in cycling and are very taxing to ride on. The riders that thrive tend to be strong and heavy - able to sustain high power into and over the cobbles, in repeated fiveminute redline efforts, though Gilbert at 69kg bucked that trend last year. But while the Tour of Flanders is diluted slightly by the other cobbled races on exactly the same terrain, there is only one race which uses these cobbles, which is why Paris-Roubaix remains a unique spectacle in cycling.