Paris-Roubaix is the Queen of the Classics for a reason. While it’s only a single day race for both the men and the women, the fact that the women's race on Saturday means both genders do their recon rides at the tail end of the week before the racing. This gives us ample time to see what they’re up to but also extends what for fans at home may be an 8-hour affair into nigh on a week for us journalists.
This morning (Friday, if you’re reading this later on) we got a tip-off that Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates were going to do a final recon of the cobbles, from the Arenberg Forest onwards, so, with barely five minutes to brush our teeth, wolf down a chocolate-filled brioche, and slap on some créme du soleil, we leapt out the door and hightailed it over to the forest ourselves.
