The 2025 edition of the men's Paris-Roubaix will have two new sectors of cobbles and a different speed-slowing approach to the Forest of Arenberg, replacing the chicane from last year, that will keep the race hellish but should make it safer. Mathieu van der Poel won the 2024 Paris-Roubaix with a powerful 60km solo attack.
The 122nd edition of Paris-Roubaix will be held on Sunday, April 13 over a distance of 259.2km.
Race organisers ASO agreed with a request from the riders to add a chicane at the entrance of the Forest of Arenberg for the 2024 race. The last-minute change and a loop of a traffic island sparked huge debate but worked, slowing the pace of the peloton on the slightly descending straight road to the Forest of Arenberg. Instead of hitting the cobbles at 60km/h, riders turned onto the sector much slower, resulting in far fewer crashes.
For 2025, the speed-slowing method will head down a "small detour" instead of the chicane, which includes four right-angle corners in the final kilometre before the entrance to the cobbled miners' track that cuts straight through the thick forest.
"This year, we were able to find an alternative that allows the peloton to slow down more smoothly, a small detour that runs alongside the Arenberg mining site. With this trick, there will be four right-angle turns in the kilometre before the Trouée," race director Thierry Gouvenou explained.
ASO's press release did not name the route of the new entrance to Arenberg. However, the map makes it clear the race intends to follow the D13 from Wallers to Bellaing, turning left onto Rue Jean Jaurés with a sharp right to stay on this road before turning left on to the D313 which leads into Arenberg Forest.
The 2025 men's Paris-Roubaix will include a total of 30 cobbled sectors. The race will start in Compiègne and end in the iconic Roubaix velodrome.
The first sector comes after the village of Troisvilles after 95km of racing. The last is a symbolic sector near the entrance to the velodrome. Gouvenou has added two new sectors, 30km before the Forest of Arenberg that could shake up the tactics and see attacks go even earlier.
The new sectors are in Artres, after 130.9km of racing, lasting 1300 metres, and in Famars soon after, lasting 1200m.
"These are not particularly difficult passages but by introducing them it allows us to have a sequence of five sectors almost without riding on asphalt," Gouvenou explained.
