And so the best races of the season come to pass for another year. Paris-Roubaix 2026 was one to remember, for the good reasons of two incredible races with dramatic finishes won by Wout van Aert and Franzi Koch, and for the less good of the women’s race being tagged onto the end of the men’s coverage for only 50km of racing broadcast.
So what outside of those two very popular winners, what can we learn from Sunday’s races? We’ve distilled the headlines into seven key takeaways going in to the rest of the season as well as future Paris-Roubaix editions.
Wout van Aert is back
Wout van Aert hasn’t been operating at his highest level since his crash at the Vuelta a España in 2024. The Belgian’s last Classics win came back in that same year at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and, prior to this weekend, he had never won a cobbled Monument despite his skillset, obvious strengths and past close-shaves.
Although his 2026 started on the wrong foot, finishing the cyclocross season with a fractured ankle, he began to pick up some steam as the Classics entered full swing, podiuming at both Milan-San Remo and Dwars door Vlaanderen then finishing fourth at the Tour of Flanders, all while noticeably looking like a better version of himself than last season.
And so in Paris-Roubaix, Van Aert led the bunch on a record-breakingly quick Trouée d’Arenberg, and when Tadej Pogačar kicked away on Mons-en-Pévèle, the Visma-Lease a Bike man was the only one able to follow.
It was a perfect situation. Van Aert did come through and pull on occasion, but Pogačar was often the one with his head in the wind spurred on in his quest to complete his set of five Monuments. He knew Pogačar wouldn’t risk a game of chicken, so why not rest up on his wheel?
As the cobblestone sectors ticked by, the final obstacle loomed, and the longer the two stuck together, the more things tipped in Van Aert’s favour. Pogačar has a strong sprint – we saw that at Milan-San Remo – but when up against the raw power of Van Aert, even the world’s best pure sprinters would get nervous. The two entered the velodrome. The bell rang. Van Aert kicked away with half a lap to go and never looked back, raising his finger in the air in celebration after reigning victorious in the fastest ever edition of the race.
Van Aert dedicated his win to Michael Goolaerts, his former teammate at Vérandas Willems–Crelan, who tragically died at Paris-Roubaix 2018 after suffering a cardiac arrest. This was more than just one man’s victory.
Tadej Pogačar still on the hunt for history
It turns out Tadej Pogačar can be defeated. Paris-Roubaix is the last Monument to fall for the Slovenian, whose impressive run of form this season resulted in wins in Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, but he fell just short of setting himself up for a perfect year. The World Champion was eyeing history in potentially becoming only the fourth man to win all the Monuments and the first to win them all consecutively, yet despite his efforts – including a stint on a Shimano neutral service bike and fighting back to the front of the race before the Arenberg following a bike change – he just didn’t have enough left in the tank and was defeated by Van Aert in the sprint.
If Milan-San Remo was a hard ask, winning Paris-Roubaix is even harder. He has to fight against cobble specialists, diesel engines and Tour de France green jersey winning sprinters with no hills to use his own speciality. He’ll be back though. After the race, Pogačar admitted he might skip next season’s edition, but with only one victory to complete the set and etch his name further in the history books, expect him to keep trying until he finally crosses this one off.
Arenberg agony ends Mathieu van der Poel’s chances
Three-time defending champion Mathieu van der Poel was looking mightily strong in his chances of making it a record-tying fourth win. But such is the luck of Paris-Roubaix and its cobbles, punctures and mechanicals, the big favourite was all but ruled out of contention on one stretch of pavé.
The Trouée d’Arenberg is one of the three five-star sectors, and is certainly the most feared. Van der Poel was second wheel behind Van Aert as the peloton hit the cobbles, but soon pulled to the side after puncturing. Teammate and twice runner-up in this race, Japser Philipsen, quickly handed his own bike over, but as he began to pedal it became evident Van der Poel couldn’t clip in to the pedals with Philipsen’s bike fitted with new Shimano prototype pedals that Van der Poel wasn’t using. That mean he to return to his previous bike, which had promptly had the front wheel swapped by teammate Tibor Del Grosso, but he punctured again before he could even emerge from the forest.
Paris-Roubaix is no stranger to new and experimental bike tech, and Alpecin-Premier Tech admitted to trialling these pedals in other races without incident, but when bike changes and mechanicals are so commonplace and your team leader has a strong shot at victory, it seems crazy to not all be using the same equipment.
Van der Poel tried his hardest to come back, slashing a two-and-a-half-minute deficit to just under 20 seconds with only leaders Van Aert and Pogačar left at the front, but that chase cost him too much effort and he crossed the line in fourth.
Will Mads Pedersen ever win a Monument?
Mads Pedersen did not enjoy an ideal run-up to the Classics after shattering his wrist and collarbone at his first race on the season in Valenciana. The former World Champion is yet to win a Monument and finished third at Roubaix in both 2024 and 2025. It’s not easy when up against the might of riders like Pogačar and Van der Poel, but a rider of his stature, strength and talent should be able to win one before he hangs up his cleats.
Franzi Koch embraces leadership role
From domestique to teammate MVP to the top step of the Paris-Roubaix podium, it’s been one hell of a ride for Franzi Koch this year on new team FDJ United-Suez. In support of Demi Vollering at Omloop Nieuwsblad and the Tour of Flanders and Elise Chabbey at Strade Bianche, Koch was invaluable to their successes while still able to finish strongly, ending up fifth, tenth and third respectively in those races.
Koch stepped into the leadership role at Paris-Roubaix, the biggest opportunity of her career. It couldn’t have gone any better. In an initial leading quartet alongside SD Worx-Protime’s Blanka Vas and the two Visma-Lease a Bike GOATs Marianne Vos and defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Koch made a move to increase the pace with 24km to go. That dropped Vas but left her racing towards the velodrome with two of the biggest hitters in the peloton.
Ferrand-Prévot led out proceedings, having put her all into delivering Vos. The sprinting battle commenced and looked like it could go either way from start to finish, but in the end, it was Koch who had prevailed for the biggest victory of her career.
Marianne Vos second on return to peloton
Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot made the decisive move once again on an ever-so-slight hill to form the leading quartet and was determined to help teammate Vos, who had made her return to the peloton at Paris-Roubaix having taken time away to mourn the loss of her father.
Vos has won most races in her lengthy career, but Paris-Roubaix is not yet on her extensive palmarès. She enjoys it here though, and has come close almost every year, finishing second in 2021 and 2026 and fourth in 2024 and 2025. It was nice to see her back.
Coverage of Paris-Roubaix Femmes is diabolical
I knew the announcement of Paris-Roubaix moving from a weekend to a day would only impact the women’s race. And so it would be that we only received coverage from the 58km to go mark. Forty per cent of the 143km race.
So much unfolds on the roads of Paris-Roubaix that we witnessed only a fraction of the day’s entertainment while the men enjoyed full flag-to-finish coverage. Given eventual live images historically missed Lizzie Deignan’s attack for victory in the inaugural edition and coverage has now somehow gone even backwards from this terrible starting point, it’s time to give the women the coverage that they’re long overdue and return to a weekend format.
The more cycling we see, the better.
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