Organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have confirmed the route for the second edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, taking place April 16, which will be contested by 24 women's teams.
Starting in the town of Denain, the race will head north to Roubaix, taking in nearly 30km of cobbled sectors before finishing in the famous Roubaix Velodrome.
The women’s race will tackle 17 cobbled sectors for a total of 29.2km of cobbles. Two sectors are rated five star difficulty: Mons-en-Pévèle with 49km to go, and the Carrefour de l'Arbre with 17km to go.
The longest sector is the four-star Hornaing à Wandignies, 3.7km long, and is also the one the riders will meet first. The final official sector comes in Roubaix just before the entrance to the velodrome and is a 300-metre stretch of one-star cobbles, meaning the penultimate sector at Hem is more likely to be the last decisive section.
The added local lap means the peloton will have slightly more kilometres to race before the cobbles start, but still relatively little with the first sector coming just after the 40km mark.
In 2021, Roubaix winner Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) broke away on this first sector and raced the remaining 79km and all of the cobbles solo. Despite being early in the race, the Hornaing sector - long, difficult and with two sharp corners to contend with - could still prove decisive.
The Trouée d’Arenberg, an iconic sector in the men’s Paris-Roubaix, is again absent from the women’s race, despite being close to the start in Denain. Race director Franck Perque previously cited the dangers of the peloton hitting the five-star Arenberg as the first sector as a reason why it was not feasible to include it in the women’s route.
