Human Powered Health takes to the pavé of Northern France for the high point of the cobble Classic season, the Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France on April 12. Now, raced on the same Sunday as the men's event, it will truly be a day of thrills and spills as the athletes attempt to write themselves into cycling immortality. 

Leading the charge for the team will be 2023 runner-up Katia Ragusa, Lily Williams, Kathrin Schweinberger, Maggie Coles-Lyster and debutants Wiktoria Pikulik and Jente Koops.

The riders will race atop the Factor MONZA road bike. For Paris–Roubaix, where surface unpredictability presents the ultimate challenge for all equipment, the MONZA’s finely balanced carbon lay-up delivers the stiffness required for power transfer alongside the control and composure essential across cobbled sectors. Keep your eyes on the site for more details of our special race setup, coming tomorrow. 

The Monument, both affectionately and disparagingly known as ‘Hell of the North’, is the world’s toughest one-day bike race. 143.1km from Denain to the iconic Vélodrome André-Pétrieux, the peloton takes on 20 sectors (three more than in 2025) totalling 33.7 km of bike – and athlete – rattling cobbles. 

A race unlike any other; to do well at Paris-Roubaix, you need to have both strength of body and mind, a strong team and staff around you, ironclad tactics, and a whole heap of luck.

Where the race is won

It’s important to be well-positioned across every pavé sector in Paris-Roubaix. Any sector could be the difference maker. Counting down from twenty to one as the race gets closer to the finish, each sector has a star rating that corresponds to its difficulty, judged on the length and condition of the cobbled stretches. There are two, brutish, five-star sections on Sunday, and five four-star sections. Below are a handful of the 20 that could have a serious effect on the race.

17 – Hornaing à Wandignies, 82.4 km to go, 3.7 km, ****
Hornaing is the longest sector of the race and had previously been the first. Now, it comes after three new sectors, totalling 4.5 km of cobbles. A four-star sector with rough cobbles, an early corner will ask the question of the riders. After the end, it really does become one brutal sector after another, but the attritional war begins here. 

12 – Auchy-lez Orchies à Bersée, 54 km to go, 2.7 km, ****
Auchy-lez-Orchies to Bersée is a stretch of varied cobbles. Starting relatively smooth, it deteriorates into uneven, punishing stones before the long, brutal Nouveau Monde section, where fatigue, vibration, and positioning test riders’ strength, bike handling, and resilience. It comes just before the first five-sector section and is the last of a succession of three sectors intersecting the town of Orchies. 

11 – Mons-en-Pévèle, 48.6 km to go, 3 km, *****
At three kilometers, Mons-en-Pévèle is the second longest of the sectors and can make or break the race. With a large camber, rough cobbles, corners, and potholes throughout, it’s more of an obstacle course than a road. 48.6 km from the velodrome, as the adage goes, you might not win the race here, but you can certainly lose it. 

5 – Camphin-en-Pévèle, 19.9 km to go, 1.8 km, ****
Just before one of the biggest moments of the race at Carrefour comes the fiendish Camphin-en-Pévèle. The two sectors are so close that they almost morph into one, and if it were perhaps 200 meters longer, this sector would be five stars, as the cobbles are rough enough to merit the categorization. It has so often been a trigger point in this race, as it’s important to note, that by this point, the knowledge of the sectors for most of the riders is now more instinctive than absolutely knowing the name and star rating of the sector they are on. 

4 – Carrefour de l’Arbre, 17.1 km to go, 2.1 km, *****
A name sure to strike fear or excitement in the peloton, Carrefour de l’Arbre is a famed sector that often creates the selection that will take it to the line. For the majority of the race, to do well, riders will need to be in the front 10-15 from the first sector of pavé at Hornaing à Wandignies (sector 17), all the way to the finale. This makes the race into the sectors as big a battle as the cobbles themselves. Carrefour is no different, and with a tight corner on its entry, a charging attack can do just that. 

How to watch

USA
NBC Sports / Peacock from 11 am EDT / 10 am CDT / 9 am MDT / 8 am PDT 

Canada
FloBikes

Greater Europe
Eurosport from 17:00 CET

UK
HBO Max / TNT Sports from 16:00 BST 

What our athletes think

Lily Williams

I'm feeling super good ahead of Sunday. I am prepared, and the form has been building the whole classics. After four Roubaix's, this is the first time I've felt something other than pure fear this week. I feel relaxed, experienced, and ready to go. We have such a nice setup at the race hotel in France, possibly my favorite hotel of the year, Pablo cooking delicious meals, and fortunately, good weather. Having Magnus in the team has been huge for race knowledge and technical advice, and gives me so much confidence.

Maggie Coles-Lyster

I’m feeling a lot of excitement ahead of Sunday. The past couple of editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes that I’ve raced have been marred by illness and iliac artery endofibrosis, so I’m eager to get out there and actually race my bike at the front of this iconic race. Racing Paris-Roubaix is one of the hardest bike races you can put your mind and body through. It’s a race where you have to keep fighting all day, no matter how much your hands are bleeding or how dead your legs feel. It also feels full of magic with the number of spectators out, the opportunities that unfold on the road and the emotion you feel when you finally reach that velodrome.