Paris-Roubaix Femmes

Paris-Roubaix Femmes is a one-day bike race, the women's edition of the cobbled Monument, first held in 2021. The race runs from Denain to the Roubaix velodrome across northern France, using the same late-race pavé sectors that define the men's classic. It was run as Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift from 2022 to 2025 and as Paris-Roubaix Femmes Hauts-de-France in 2026.

Paris-Roubaix Femmes takes the women’s peloton from Denain over the cobbled farm roads of northern France to the velodrome in Roubaix. First raced in October 2021, it shares its last 17 cobbled sectors with the men’s race. Its first six editions had six different winners.

Lizzie Deignan wins the first edition in 2021

The first race had 129 starters and covered 116.4 kilometers, 29.2 of them on cobbles left muddy by the previous day’s rain. Lizzie Deignan was not her team’s leader. She accelerated to lead into the first sector, from Hornaing to Wandignies, looked back and saw a gap, with 82.5 kilometers still to race. “This was really not the plan,” she said afterward.

Her lead grew to 2 minutes 40 seconds while the peloton broke up behind her in crashes and punctures. Marianne Vos left the chasers on the Camphin-en-Pévèle sector and rode after her alone, but could not get closer than 1 minute 14 seconds. Deignan won by 1 minute 17 seconds, and her Trek-Segafredo teammate Elisa Longo Borghini finished third.

The route from Denain to Mons-en-Pévèle and the Carrefour de l’Arbre

Every edition has started in Denain and finished with the 17 sectors that end the men’s race, 29.2 kilometers of cobbles in all. Two of them carry the organizer’s top rating of five stars: Mons-en-Pévèle, 3 kilometers long, and the Carrefour de l’Arbre, 17 kilometers from the velodrome.

The roads before those sectors have changed several times. The race grew from 124.7 kilometers in 2022 to 145.4 in 2023, when two loops near Denain were added, and to 148.5 in 2024 and 2025. In 2026 the loops were removed and the race went south from Denain to reach the cobbles earlier. Three sectors were added, among them the four-star Haveluy, which made 20 sectors and 33.7 kilometers of cobbles in a race of 143.1. That edition was also the first held on the same day as the men’s race, and the women’s finish came after the men’s.

Elisa Longo Borghini’s solo in 2022

In the second edition Lotte Kopecky, Marta Bastianelli and Lucinda Brand were clear for a long time and were caught with 34 kilometers to go. Longo Borghini attacked as soon as they were brought back and got away on the Templeuve sector. She had spent a month of that spring with sinusitis. A group of eight came within 11 seconds of her and then stopped working together. She won by 23 seconds, and Kopecky beat Brand in the sprint for second.

Alison Jackson and the breakaway of 2023

The longer run-in of 2023 gave an early break room to form. Eighteen riders from 18 teams went clear after about 20 kilometers and reached the first cobbles more than five minutes ahead. Alison Jackson was one of them. A crash on the Pont-Thibault sector held up almost all of the chasing favorites. The gap still fell to 36 seconds with 12.5 kilometers left and to 10 seconds on the last cobbles.

Seven of the break reached the velodrome 12 seconds ahead. Femke Markus crashed on the track, so six sprinted, and Jackson came past Marion Borras in the last 100 meters to win ahead of Katia Ragusa and Marthe Truyen. No Canadian had won one of cycling’s Monuments before her.

Lotte Kopecky wins a six-rider sprint in 2024

Kopecky won the fourth edition in the world champion’s jersey. She forced the first selection with 70 kilometers to go, fixed her handlebar on the move with an Allen key, which the team car handed up, and attacked again with 53 left. Six riders came out of the Carrefour de l’Arbre together: Kopecky, Vos, Elisa Balsamo, Pfeiffer Georgi, Ellen van Dijk and Amber Kraak. Van Dijk led them into the velodrome 20 seconds ahead of the chasers. Balsamo and Vos opened the sprint, and Kopecky beat Balsamo and Georgi.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot wins on her debut in 2025

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rode the race for the first time in 2025 and became its first French winner. She crashed on the Auchy sector before Mons-en-Pévèle and needed a long chase to get back to the front group. With 25 kilometers to go she attacked, caught the lone leader Emma Norsgaard and dropped her on the Camphin-en-Pévèle sector. She left the Carrefour de l’Arbre 58 seconds ahead, while her teammate Vos sat on the chasers. Letizia Borghesi finished second and Lorena Wiebes third.

Franziska Koch beats Marianne Vos in 2026

Franziska Koch accelerated at the end of Mons-en-Pévèle in 2026, and only Vos, Ferrand-Prévot and Blanka Vas went with her. Koch attacked again with 24 kilometers to go, which dropped Vas and left her with the two Visma-Lease a Bike teammates. Twice more she and Vos rode away from Ferrand-Prévot, with 4.5 kilometers left and again on the track. Koch, 25, took the inside line and won the sprint, with Ferrand-Prévot third at 6 seconds.

It was Vos’s second runner-up finish, after 2021, and she had been fourth in 2024 and 2025. Koch was the sixth winner in six editions, and the six came from six countries.

This race proved the women's peloton belonged on the cobbles from the moment Lizzie Deignan soloed to the velodrome in the inaugural edition. Every year since has delivered the same volatile mix of positioning battles, mechanical attrition, and late-race attacks that define Monument racing at its most unforgiving. The shorter distance compresses the pressure, leaving less room to recover from mistakes and making every sector feel more urgent. Winners here combine technical skill with tactical clarity, and the velodrome finish rewards whoever can still accelerate after the cobbles have done their work.