Paris-Roubaix Weekend 2026: Five Races, Two Days, One Crown — Your Complete Watch Guide to the Hell of the North Festival
What used to be a single Sunday has become an entire weekend. The 2026 Paris-Roubaix festival is the biggest in the race's 130-year history, with no fewer than five separate competitions packed into two days of racing across the cobbled bergs of northern France. From the toughest Paris-Roubaix Femmes route ever on Saturday to Tadej Pogačar's history-chasing Sunday, here is everything you need to know about the weekend that will define the entire 2026 spring.
Saturday, 11 April: Paris-Roubaix Femmes (1325 CET)
The fifth edition of the women's Hell of the North — and the first since the UCI elevated it to official Monument status earlier this year — sets the entire weekend in motion. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will face the most loaded field in the race's short history, with Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes, Puck Pieterse and the surprise package Cat Ferguson all confirmed on a 159km route featuring three new sectors and a record 33.7km of pavé. Notable absentees include Demi Vollering, defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini and Marlen Reusser.
Saturday, 11 April: Paris-Roubaix Espoirs U23 (Morning)
The Hell of the North's traditional development event is now run on the Saturday morning for the first time, giving the next generation of cobbled specialists a place on the same stage as the elites. Several of last year's Espoirs alumni — including Per Strand Hagenes, who is now in Visma-Lease a Bike's elite squad — have used this race as their springboard into the senior peloton.
Saturday Evening: We Ride Roubaix Sportive Welcome
Around 13,000 amateur cyclists from across Europe descend on the Roubaix velodrome on Saturday night for the official sportive welcome reception, a tradition that began in 2019. This year's event is overshadowed by the tragic death of a British rider at the We Ride Flanders sportive on Saturday last week, and ASO have promised additional medical staffing along the sportive route on Sunday morning.
Sunday, 12 April: Paris-Roubaix Sportive (Sunrise)
Some 13,000 amateurs ride versions of the same cobbles before the pros, leaving in waves from 6am from various Compiègne-area start villages. The full 170km Cyclo Pavé will see riders cross the finish line on the famous Roubaix velodrome banking before the elite race even rolls out.
Sunday, 12 April: Paris-Roubaix Elite Men (1115 CET)
The main event. The 123rd edition of the Hell of the North runs to 258.5km with 30 sectors of pavé and a forecast that has finally flipped from rain to dry — though overnight showers could still create the worst possible "damp dust" conditions on the early sectors. Tadej Pogačar's bid to complete the Monument Grand Slam is the headline storyline, but Mathieu van der Poel is chasing a record-equalling fourth win, Wout van Aert arrives in his best Classics shape since 2022, Mads Pedersen is the bookmakers' favourite after his miracle spring, and Filippo Ganna arrives off the back of his shock Dwars door Vlaanderen win.
The expected first-cobble entry time is around 1310 CET, with the decisive Carrefour de l'Arbre attack zone set for somewhere between 1640 and 1700 CET, and the velodrome finish — barring a sprint — likely between 1715 and 1735 CET.
What Else Is Happening?
With cycling's calendar now utterly congested, the Roubaix weekend overlaps with the closing stages of the Itzulia Basque Country, where 20-year-old French sensation Paul Seixas is leading the race against Primož Roglič and Isaac del Toro after a historic five-jersey lockup. Stage 5 runs Friday, the queen stage Saturday and the final stage Sunday — making the Itzulia GC battle the perfect undercard to the Roubaix main event.
Throw in the women's Scheldeprijs Women on Wednesday, the Vuelta Asturias starting Friday, the Tour of the Alps from 20 April and the looming Brabantse Pijl double-header next week, and the next ten days are arguably the busiest in the entire cycling calendar. But the Hell of the North weekend is the centrepiece — five races, two days, and a Monument that may be remembered as the moment Tadej Pogačar joined Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy as one of only four riders ever to complete the full set.