Paris-Roubaix 2026, one day monument, April 12

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Feb 7, 2026
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Paris Roubaix has the single biggest problem of all the monuments, but the one that is easiest to fix:

It is too short (Monuments should be 6 hours at least).

I am not saying this only out of principal, but in this specific case it could also improve the racing. The last 160k are great, but the 100k of tarmac before are too short. This screws the break and makes the whole race less interesting.

If break formation takes 30-40k and then the fight for position starts 20-30k before the first cobble sector. Then a single rider like Dillier only needs to control for 30-50k and can easily hold any break at 2 minutes, making it pretty irrelevant.


So I would suggest adding 30-40k of distance (pure tarmac). They could also start in the north of Paris again by doing this, making the name more accurate. Then the break would have more distance to gain significant time before the cobbles. This would make the break relevant (again) and also weaken the favourite's team more by having to control a longer distance.
 
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Apr 7, 2026
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I completely agree. It's about time Paris-Roubaix adapted to modern cycling and increased its mileage.

San Remo, Liège, and Lombardy are fine. This year San Remo was a bit longer, and Flanders is tough enough with its distance. Even so, I wouldn't mind adding a few more kilometers to Flanders, Liège, and Lombardy. Monuments are agonizing races, and Paris-Roubaix is too short for the current ciclying.

I would also increase the mileage of the mountain stages in the GT races, as they used to be, but that's not a topic for this thread.
 
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