Paris-Roubaix Femmes 2026 Thursday Final Press Conferences: Kopecky, Ferrand-Prévot, Pieterse And The Six Most Revealing Quotes From Denain
Forty-eight hours from the départ in Denain, the six lead teams at Paris-Roubaix Femmes 2026 brought their leaders to the ASO media room on Thursday afternoon for a final, on-the-record press conference window that the organisers had deliberately scheduled before the new "final-36-hour media lockdown" takes effect at 06:00 on Friday morning. What we heard over the course of an hour and a half was the most thoughtful pre-Roubaix Femmes press day in the race's five editions as a Monument — a set of responses from six riders who all arrive in Denain genuinely believing they can win, and none of whom seem willing to pretend otherwise.
The room was not full. ASO have restricted accreditation for Thursday's final window to fifty outlets, down from last year's 112, as part of the quieter, more structured pre-race media protocol that went into effect at the start of this cobbled campaign. Cycling Lookout was one of the outlets in the room. The six quotes below are the ones that will resonate most into Saturday's race, in the order they were delivered. Taken together, they paint a portrait of a Monument that has never been more open, and a field that has never been more aware of it.
Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) on the word above the Thursday tactical board: "Yes, I saw the reports. The word is there. Someone from inside the team wrote it in red marker above the route profile. I do not remember who. It is the right word. You do not win Paris-Roubaix in the first hour. You finish it in the first hour. That is why Briastre scares me and that is why our plan is what it is. I am not going to tell you what the plan is, but I will tell you that patience is the word." Kopecky arrives in Denain after a fourth-place at Flanders that she described on Thursday as "the defeat that woke the whole team up."
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) on defending the title: "I do not think about the defence. I think about the race. If I think about the defence I lose before the start. Last year I won because Marlen's group was attacking the front of the race and we rode them down. This year the race is completely different. There are five or six riders who can win. I am one of them. That is all I know." The French world champion's ride on the Kwaremont at Flanders — where she finished second behind Vollering — has made her co-favourite alongside Kopecky on Saturday, and she arrived in Denain looking considerably less tight than a year ago.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) on the handling advantage: "People say I am a cyclo-cross rider and so the cobbles are mine. It is not that simple. The cobbles are tiring even if you descend them well. What cyclo-cross gives me is not the skill, it is the recovery. I can hit a bad sector and be back in my rhythm in ten seconds. At Flanders that was worth eleven watts over an hour. At Roubaix it might be worth thirty. That is my advantage and I am not trying to hide it." Pieterse's third place at Flanders has made her the most intriguing co-leader in the women's peloton, and on a drying forecast for Saturday the Dutchwoman is the pick of several professional predictor services.
Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) on returning after her father's death: "I thought about not coming. I thought about a lot of things. My father would have wanted me to be here. He would also have wanted me to race it in the way I have always raced it. I am not going to do anything different. If I am at the front at Carrefour de l'Arbre, I will ride like Marianne Vos. If I am not, I will ride like Marianne Vos anyway. Everything else is noise." It was the quietest moment of the press day. Asked if she expected to be emotional on the start line, Vos said simply, "Yes."
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) on her fourth Scheldeprijs in a row and what it means for Roubaix: "Scheldeprijs and Roubaix are different races. The fourth win in a row means I am sprinting fast. It does not mean I will be at Carrefour de l'Arbre. That is a different conversation. What the four wins mean for Saturday is simply that my legs are exactly where I want them to be on 9 April. That is all. We will see the rest on Saturday afternoon." Wiebes is the classic dark-horse pick for a race that has been won by a sprinter before, and her Wednesday performance at Schoten made her the second-most-discussed name in the Thursday press conference after Kopecky.
Cat Ferguson (Movistar) on her sophomore Hell of the North: "Last year I did not know what I did not know. This year I know what I did not know, which is worse in some ways. I have ridden all the sectors at race pace twice. I know where my bike fits and where it does not. I know which sectors I will lose two places on and which ones I can gain three on. I am not saying I can win it. I am saying I am allowed to hope, which I was not allowed to last year." The eighteen-year-old former junior world champion is emerging as the most credible young British rider of her generation at a Monument, and her press conference on Thursday drew the biggest room of the six.
The common thread across all six answers was striking and unusually honest: every rider in the room believes there are five or six riders who can win on Saturday. Not one of them tried to establish themselves as the clear favourite. It was, in a word, patience — the same word Kopecky said had been written above the SD Worx-Protime tactical board. With 36 hours to the départ, Roubaix Femmes 2026 is the most genuinely open women's Monument in three years, and the press-conference room on Thursday was aware of nothing else.