The chicane added to the entrance of Paris-Roubaix’s Trouée d’Arenberg last year will not return this April, and will instead be replaced by a “small detour”, it was confirmed on Wednesday.
The peloton-slowing measure was introduced in 2024 in response to concerns about the bunch’s speed into the forested sector, which previously exceeded 60km/h. The chicane stopped riders from barrelling straight onto the cobbles, forcing them to brake and follow a large bend in the road beforehand.
“This year, we have found an alternative that allows us to slow down the riders in a more fluid manner,” said race director Thierry Gouvenou in a statement. This alternative will now go “via a small detour that runs alongside the mining site in Arenberg,” he added.
“With this introduction, there will be four right angle corners in the kilometre before the Trouée d’Arenberg”.
Opinions were divided on the chicane’s introduction ahead of last year’s edition. Adam Hansen, the president of the rider’s union, the CPA, hailed it as a solution to the “death trap” run-in to the Arenberg trench, often a site of heavy crashes. Meanwhile, the eventual winner, Mathieu van der Poel, called the measure “a joke”.
The Trouée d’Arenberg is one of 30 cobbled sectors included in the race for 2025, an increase from 29 in 2024. The famous forest comes with around 100km to go in the 259.2km-long Monument, and is one of the event's most feared passages, the first of three five-star sectors.
The organisers have also modified this year’s course with two new sectors, both just over a kilometre in length, and positioned 30km before the Arenberg.
“They are not especially difficult portions,” said Gouvenou, “but by introducing them here, it provides us with a sequence of five sectors without virtually any tarmac.”
One of the early sectors around 100km into the event has been removed.
The women’s event, Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, is unchanged for 2025, counting 148.5km, of which 29.2km of cobbles. The Arenberg is not part of the women’s route, and has never been included since the race began in 2021.
Paris-Roubaix Femmes will take place on 12 April, and will be followed by the men’s race on 13 April. Last year’s editions were won by Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx-Protime, and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Van der Poel.
