Paris-Roubaix 2024: How to watch on Eurosport and discovery+

It’s back. The most chaotic events on the cycling calendar returns this weekend with Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Roubaix Femmes, where France’s most ominous sections of cobblestones stand between the peloton and glory.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) are back to defend their titles in 2024, although you have to go back 15 years and to Belgian legend Tom Boonen to find a successful title defence in the Roubaix Velodrome.

The men’s Paris-Roubaix takes place on Sunday, April 7…

…while the women’s Paris Roubaix Femmes kicks off a bumper weekend of cobbles a day earlier on Saturday, April 6.

Coverage of the women’s race starts at 14:00 UK time on Saturday, April 6.

The men’s race gets underway at 09:30 UK time on Sunday, April 7.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is the King of the Cobbles right now after his third success at the Tour of Flanders.

With Wout van Aert out after suffering multiple fractures in a serious crash last week, and Tadej Pogacar reluctant to add Roubaix to his programme given the risks involved, Van der Poel is the outstanding candidate to lift the most coveted cobble in cycling.

In fact, his biggest competition might come from within his own team as Jasper Philipsen will also ride. With Van der Poel set to be heavily marked as the team’s obvious leader, could Alpecin-Deceuninck be tempted to play their second ace?

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was lively before eventually fading in Flanders and will be hoping to end his wait for a Monument crown after finishing fourth last year, while in-form man Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) will be back to take the fight to Van der Poel.

After looking out-of-sorts in Flanders as she chased a historic hat-trick, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) will be hoping it was just a blip.

There is only one former champion in the field in last year’s winner Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale), with previous victors Lizzie Deignan (injured) and Elisa Longo Borghini (different race schedule) missing. Elisa Balsamo and Ellen van Dijk will spearhead Lidl-Trek’s hopes in their absence.

Starting in Compiegne, some 80km north of central Paris, the men’s route is 257km long and features 54.5km of cobbles over 29 sectors of varying difficulty. After the usual calm on the flat roads over the opening two hours or so, things kick off with the first cobblestone sector at Troisvilles-Inchy. From then on, it’s carnage.

Almost 3km long and hemmed in by barriers and dense forest, the Arenberg is arguably the most significant test of the day and always plays a pivotal role as the riders jostle for positions and the peloton ramps up to breakneck speed on the downhill approach ahead of the dangerous bottleneck entry into a sector which has claimed numerous victims over the years.

The two remaining five-star sectors of pavé are Mons-en-Pevele (with 48.6km to go) and the Carrefour de l’Arbre (17.2km from the finish). The former is almost 3km long and features some of the most brutal cobbles of the race, while the latter is 2km long and presents the last chance for riders to strike out ahead of the finish – since the last three sectors won’t cause anyone to soil their bibs.

As usual, the riders will enter the velodrome at Roubaix for one and a half laps before a finish which has witnessed some tight sprints in recent years involving the likes of Sonny Colbrelli and Peter Sagan.

Meanwhile, the fourth Paris-Roubaix Femmes starts in Denain, initially heading away from the cobbles for a quick spin on comfortable tarmac, before the first of 17 sections of cobbles kicks off at Hornaing a Wandignies. As in previous editions, there is still no Arenberg Forest for the women, but the five-star sections of Mons-en-Pevele and Carrefour de l’Arbre are included on an identical run into Roubaix as the men’s race.