Extra opening lap only change from inaugural year and Arenberg still absent
Women's peloton on wet and muddy cobbles in 2021(Image credit: Getty Images)
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 only change from the 2021 edition, which took place in October, is the inclusion of an additional opening lap in Denain. The peloton will now complete four laps of the 8km circuit, taking the total length of the route from 116.5km to 124.7km.
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.
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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.
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Route map for 2022 Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift(Image credit: ASO)
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Matilda Price is a freelance cycling journalist and digital producer based in the UK. She is a graduate of modern languages, and recently completed an MA in sports journalism, during which she wrote her dissertation on the lives of young cyclists. Matilda began covering cycling in 2016 whilst still at university, working mainly in the British domestic scene at first. Since then, she has covered everything from the Tour Series to the Tour de France. These days, Matilda focuses most of her attention on the women’s sport, writing for Cyclingnews and working on women’s cycling show The Bunnyhop. As well as the Women’s WorldTour, Matilda loves following cyclo-cross and is a recent convert to downhill mountain biking.
