Paris-Roubaix 2024: Date, location, history, how to watch and odds

Paris-Roubaix is a UCI World Tour one-day professional road race which is steeped in history and takes place in April each year.

Paris-Roubaix is one of the five ‘monuments’ that are raced throughout the year, along with Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro di Lombardia.

The race is famous for its rough terrain and cobblestone sections, which has led to it being nicknamed ‘The Hell of the North’ and a ‘Sunday in Hell’.

Paris-Roubaix is one of the famous cobbled classics, which also includes Tour of Flanders, and it takes a special kind of rider to triumph over the 253 kilometres.

Paris-Roubaix was first raced in 1896 and was won by a German rider named Josef Fischer.

Mathieu van der Poel took out the 2023 edition of the race and will be among the hot fancies to win it again in 2024.

Here is all you need to know about Paris-Roubaix.

Paris-Roubaix date

The 2024 edition of Paris-Roubaix will take place on Sunday 7th April.

Paris-Roubaix route

There have been several tweaks to the route over the years, but up until 1967 the race, as the name would suggest, it started in Paris and finished in Roubaix, which sits on the border with Belgium.

Nowadays the race begins in Compiegne, which is north east of Paris and finishes 253 kilometres away in Roubaix.

What makes the race and route even more special, is the fact the riders must travel over a total of 27 cobbled sections.

The longest of those sections is just 3.7 kilometres, but they are fraught with danger, particularly when the weather is unkind, which it usually is.

Paris-Roubaix how to watch

Paris-Roubaix will be shown on SBS and SBS on demand.

Paris-Roubaix most wins

Belgian legends Roger de Vlaeminck and Tom Boonen have both won Paris-Roubaix a record four times.

De Vlaeminck, who was a true classics rider, dominated Paris-Roubaix in the 1970s, while Boonen starred more recently, winning in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2012.

The greatest of all time, Eddie Merckx, won Paris-Roubaix on three occasions, as did Francesco Moser and Johan Museeuw.

Fabian Cancellara won it two times, but since 2014 there has been a different winner each year.

Paris-Roubaix favourites

A certain amount of luck is needed to win Paris-Roubaix, which does leave the door open for less fancied riders to take the win.

However, if they can avoid crashes and punctures, then Belgian Wout van Aert and Dutchman Van der Poel are the two standout riders heading into Paris-Roubaix.

Van der Poel won it in 2023 and can be backed at 4.50 to win it again this year, while arch-rival Van Aert is priced at 4.00.

Another Dutchman, Dylan Van Baarle, who took the honours in 2022, is available at 15.00.