Paris-Roubaix 2025: favorites, schedules and how to watch

For some time now, Tadej Pogacar has not been competing with the logic of a Tour de France winner whose season is usually aimed at further expanding his palmarès in that race. Tadej Pogacar is fully aware of his level as a cyclist and knows that he is facing the possibility, if he is not already, of enduring in the legend of cycling. Next Sunday, April 13, he has the option of taking a giant step to enter that Olympus where the gods of this sport reside if he manages to become the first winner of the Tour de France to win the Paris-Roubaix since Bernard Hinault did it in 1981.

Everyone against Tadej Pogacar. Favorites for the Paris-Roubaix 2025

After the display of strength shown a few days ago in the Tour of Flanders, where he imposed himself with total determination through attack after attack until he managed to break the resistance of his rivals, and with the extra morale that victory gives, we must place Tadej Pogacar as the top favorite for victory in the Paris-Roubaix 2025. All this despite the fact that it is a race totally atypical for a cyclist of his physique and that many other factors come into play on the cobbles of the Hell of the North.

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However, although the route of the Paris-Roubaix is completely flat, let's not forget that what makes Tadej Pogacar stand out is the toughness, and in Roubaix there is plenty of it. Besides, the Slovenian has shown with his performance in the Milan-San Remo that he can be as good a rouleur as the most classic riders, and let's not forget, Tadej has already shown, when the Tour de France has covered these same sections, that he handles this surface without any complexes.

Obviously, Mathieu van der Poel will be sharpening his knives to put things in their place in a Paris-Roubaix that he has turned into his private domain in the last two years. A race that he has perfectly measured, knows every trick, and surely has already chosen the places to hurt Tadej Pogacar.

Gaining a lot of ground in his aspirations for victory after what he showed in Flanders is Wout van Aert, who returned to being the imposing cyclist he used to be. In a form on the rise, Van Aert arrives at the Paris-Roubaix in optimal form to finally achieve that great victory in a monument of the cobbles that has eluded him year after year. Now he seems to have found the way back and, reinforced by the good performance a few days ago, we will surely see some moves from him in pursuit of victory.

And beyond a single cyclist, the disruptive element of this race will surely be the Lidl-Trek cyclists, who once again have an exceptionally powerful team for this race. In addition to the leadership of Mads Pedersen, a cyclist in a very similar situation to Van Aert, always having to prove himself after that World Championship he won in Yorkshire; we must add the emergence of a Jasper Stuyven who resembles the one who amazed us a few seasons ago. Also, on a terrain like that of the Paris-Roubaix, completely flat and for pure power cyclists, they will also have the extra bullet of Jonathan Milan.

Just like him, we cannot forget about his compatriot Filippo Ganna who in Flanders showed a fantastic race reading to anticipate the movements of the top favorites. In a terrain more suitable for him like that of the Paris-Roubaix, we have no doubt that the giant from Verbania will be in the selected group when the decisive moment of the race arrives.

Route of the Paris-Roubaix 2025

As most of you already know, despite its name of Paris-Roubaix, as it was in its beginnings, the Hell of the North does not start in the French capital but in the city of Compiègne, about 80 kilometers northeast of Paris. A city known historically for being the place where, in 1918, the armistice between France and Germany was signed, ending the First World War, and years later, in 1940, it served Hitler to stage the same situation when France signed its surrender to the advance of Nazi Germany. In the cycling aspect, it has been hosting the start of the Paris-Roubaix continuously since 1977.

Roubaix, on the other hand, is a small border city with Belgium in the suburbs of Lille, one of the great cities of France that in this 2025 will host the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. Between both cities, the peloton will have to cover 259.7 kilometers and overcome 30 cobbled sectors totaling 55.3 kilometers on this surface.

As is customary in the layout of the Hell of the North, we can divide its route into three major thirds that start with the initial section of 95 kilometers, slightly undulating and usually battered by the wind, which, far from being an inconsequential approach, usually results in a fierce struggle to be one of the members of the breakaway of the day. A breakaway that in the Paris-Roubaix usually rewards a good classification, and even on some occasions the winner of the race has come from this initial breakaway. Such is the struggle in this first part that there have even been editions where it has reached the cobbles without a breakaway.

The second part of the race consists of the first cobbled sections that bring the peloton to the mythical Arenberg forest. An area with complicated cobbled sectors, where there are still many people in the peloton, which forces the favorites to find a balance between good positioning to avoid incidents and, at the same time, to stay sufficiently protected to save all possible energy. These are sectors where it is not clear who wins, but often leave out one of the favorites. In this 2025 edition, the organization has decided to toughen up this part with the addition of a couple more sectors before the passage through Arenberg in order to make the race arrive more broken to this point and thus reduce the danger of passing through the mythical forest. In total, the cyclists will have had to overcome 11 cobbled sectors before reaching that passage. Also, in order to reduce the risk of this sector, the race will make a small loop through the streets near the entrance of the section to prevent the peloton from entering at full speed.

With 163 kilometers in the legs, 95 left for the conclusion, the passage through Arenberg marks the first turning point of the race. A sector that usually does not decide who wins, but often leaves a favorite without options and also defines the group of favorites who, from here on, have to show their faces in person and start playing their cards. From here to the end, the battle is relentless. From this moment on, there are several hot spots in the race, such as the Pont Gibus section, the one following Arenberg, the tough Orchies sector, and, of course, the linking of the sections from Orchies to Bersée and another 5-star sector, the brutal Mons en Pévèle.

If the race has not definitively broken after this sector, something that has not happened for many editions, the race usually remains in a kind of stand-by with the favorites saving all the strength they can and focusing on the final decisive section: the famous Carrefour de l'Arbre, a sector where we usually see the definitive offensive from which the winner of the race emerges and which leaves in the last 15 kilometers that separate them from the Roubaix velodrome some exciting pursuits.

How to watch the Paris-Roubaix 2025

Both Eurosport and through the Max platform where this channel is integrated will offer the Paris-Roubaix in its entirety from 10:30 in the morning until 17:15 when the end is scheduled. On the other hand, RTVE joins the broadcast of the Hell of the North both through the Teledeporte channel and the online platform RTVE Play. In their case, the connection will be made at 13:05, coinciding with the approach to the first cobbled sectors.