Roubaix Week Begins: How the Big Five Are Preparing for the Hell of the North
The week between the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix is the most compressed, most intense, and most strategically fascinating seven days in the professional cycling calendar. Every meal, every training ride, every hour of sleep matters. For the five men who have defined the 2026 Spring Classics — Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen and Remco Evenepoel — the six days separating Oudenaarde from Compiègne are a delicate balancing act between recovery and sharpening.
Pogačar arrived at his team hotel in northern France on Sunday evening, having travelled directly from Belgium rather than returning to Monaco. UAE Team Emirates-XRG have set up a dedicated Roubaix camp near the race route, allowing Pogačar to ride selected cobbled sectors during the week without accumulating unnecessary travel fatigue. The Slovenian's 210-kilometre reconnaissance ride earlier in the spring covered the major five-star sectors, but the team has planned shorter targeted sessions on Tuesday and Thursday to fine-tune his Colnago Y1Rs setup and confirm tyre pressures for the forecast conditions. The overriding priority is recovery — Sunday's Flanders effort was immense, and the performance staff are monitoring his fatigue markers closely after rival observers noted he looked visibly exhausted at the finish.
Van der Poel has revealed that his Roubaix preparation follows an almost identical template to his three previous winning campaigns — a revelation he described with characteristic understatement as "copy-paste." The Alpecin-Premier Tech leader will spend Monday and Tuesday at home in Belgium with light recovery rides, before travelling to northern France on Wednesday for two days of targeted cobble reconnaissance. Van der Poel's advantage in this compressed week is experience — he knows exactly how his body responds to the Flanders-Roubaix double, having navigated it successfully three times. His third-place finish at Flanders, while disappointing, was achieved with notably less expenditure than Pogačar's solo victory, potentially leaving more in the tank for Sunday.
Van Aert faces a different challenge. The Visma-Lease a Bike leader finished fourth at Flanders — a result that continued a frustrating pattern of near-misses at the Ronde — but his attention has already pivoted entirely to Roubaix. Van Aert's spring has been a slow build: inconsistent early results at Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico gave way to increasingly sharp performances at Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, where his raw power on the cobbles was evident even if the victories eluded him. The Belgian is leaner than in previous seasons, a deliberate physical transformation designed to maximise his watts-per-kilogram on the flat cobbled sectors where Roubaix is won. Visma's plan for the week centres on two reconnaissance rides focusing on the final 80 kilometres of the race route, including the decisive Carrefour de l'Arbre sector.
Pedersen may be the most dangerous outsider in the field. The Dane's second-place finish at Flanders — outsprinting Van der Poel for the runner-up spot behind Pogačar — demonstrated that his form is peaking at precisely the right moment. Lidl-Trek directeur sportif Kim Andersen declared Pedersen "the main favourite" for Roubaix after Flanders, a bold claim that reflects the team's confidence in their leader's combination of power, tactical intelligence and cobble craft. Pedersen's week will be less structured than his rivals' — the 29-year-old prefers intuitive preparation, training by feel rather than rigid plans, with a single reconnaissance ride on Wednesday targeting the Mons-en-Pévèle sector where he believes the 2026 race could be decided.
Evenepoel is the wild card. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe leader's extraordinary Flanders debut — a podium finish achieved through a long solo chase across the Flemish Ardennes — has transformed the Roubaix conversation. Before Flanders, Evenepoel's inclusion in the Roubaix startlist was a curiosity; after it, he is a genuine contender. The Belgian has left the door open to racing Roubaix, though his team have been careful to manage expectations. Evenepoel's Roubaix preparation has been less extensive than his rivals' — he did not complete a full reconnaissance ride during the spring — but his raw engine, evidenced by the sustained power output during his Flanders chase, could prove equally effective on the long flat cobbled sectors of northern France.
Beyond the Big Five, the wider peloton is also sharpening for Sunday. Filippo Ganna (INEOS Grenadiers) deliberately skipped Flanders entirely to arrive at Roubaix with fresh legs — a gamble that could prove inspired if his time-trial power translates to the pavé. The weather forecast continues to suggest rain, which would transform the race into the kind of mud-soaked epic that rewards experience, nerve and a tolerance for suffering above all else. For six days, the cycling world holds its breath. On Sunday, the cobbles will deliver their verdict.