Paris-Roubaix Femmes: Franziska Koch outwits Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to claim biggest win of her career

Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez) won Paris-Roubaix Femmes, beating Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the sprint of three. Vos' teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rounded out the podium.

Ferrand-Prévot made the decisive move when she accelerated from the front group on a small rise after the Mons-en-Pévèle sector. Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), Vos, and Koch were the only riders who could follow, forming a front group of four.

Ferrand-Prévot did most of the work in this group until Koch attacked on sector 6. Vos joined her move while Ferrand-Prévot backed off, and Vas soon lost contact with the Frenchwoman as well. Eventually, Ferrand-Prévot made her way back to the two leaders.

Koch and Ferrand-Prévot traded turns with Vos saving herself for the sprint. Koch attacked with 4.5km to go, dropping Ferrand-Prévot, but Vos was glued to her wheel. Ferrand-Prévot returned on the penultimate kilometre and accelerated, now pulling Koch and Vos to the Roubaix velodrome.

In the velodrome, Koch went high on the boards with Vos on her wheel before diving down again behind Ferrand-Prévot who led out the sprint. On the back straight, Koch and Vos launched their sprint, going through the final corner side by side. Vos was in the outside lane, pulled ahead on the finishing straight, but Koch fought back and just pipped Vos to the line.

“It’s kind of hard to believe. I’ve been dreaming about it, but Roubaix is a race where anything can happen, and that it worked out in the end, it’s like a dream,” said Koch after the biggest victory of her career.

“We did a really good race with the team. We knew that positioning is key in the beginning. It’s like a war going into the cobble sections, and we were fully committed to invest already early in the race. I managed to stay out of trouble, always be in the top-ten on the cobble sections. We wanted to make the race hard, and after Mons-en-Pévèle, I ended up in the perfect move,” Koch described the race.

Racing against two Visma-Lease a Bike riders put Koch on the spot but also allowed her to save herself for the final.

“Having two riders of the same team [with you] is a challenge on the one hand, on the other hand also a bit of a benefit because the work is not necessarily on you. I tried to get rid of them a little bit, but in the end, I had to gamble on the sprint,” she said.

In the velodrome, Koch beat renowned sprinter Vos to the line after a hard race.

“I could feel her coming after the corner, and she gets more downhill than me, but I just thought, ‘no, I’m so close now, I have to win’. I just could speed up a little bit more at the end, and I knew it when I threw my bike,” Koch described the sprint.

How it unfolded

Although a bit shorter than the 2025 edition at 143.1km, the 2026 race was made harder by the addition of three pavé sectors early in the race. The 20 sectors added up to a total of 33.7km of gruelling cobblestone roads.

Gravel racer Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) went on the breakaway after 9km of racing and held a gap of up to 1:30 minutes, but she was reeled in between sectors 17 and 16. By that point, Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93), Zoe Backstedt (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto), and Lily Williams had all suffered punctures in the peloton but managed to return.

Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal) punctured on sector 15, 70km from the finish, and a crash at the end of sector 13 took out Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Laura Tomasi (Uno-X Mobility). Balsamo had another puncture with 56km to go, leaving her chasing for a long time; eventually, the Italian abandoned the race.

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Only about 40 riders were left in the peloton at the start of sector 12, Auchy-lez-Orchies à Bersée, and Visma-Lease a Bike led them over the pavé, further whittling down the group to about 25 riders at the end of the four-star sector.

When this group entered the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle sector, Koch went to the front to push the pace. Lieke Nooijen (Visma-Lease a Bike) took over halfway through, but Koch went to the front again towards the end, and the group was down to 16 riders at the end of the 3000-metre sector.

On the small rise afterwards, Ferrand-Prévot launched her attack that was followed by Vas who had Vos on her wheel. Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime) had just taken a bottle and could not react while Nooijen was happy to let the gap open up. Koch immediately jumped on the attack but had to dig deep to close the gap to the other three.

Ferrand-Prévot attacked again 43km from the line, but Koch quickly brought her back. All the while, the gap to the chase group became bigger and bigger: With 40km to go, the front quartet was 30 seconds ahead already.

On sector 9, Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) led the chase behind, splitting the group in the process, but only succeeded in briefly keeping the gap at 35 seconds, and as the pace went out of the chase after that, the front group was a minute ahead with 31km to go, all but guaranteeing that the winner would be found among them. Vas had sat on at first, but now, all four riders were taking turns, though Ferrand-Prévot was still doing more than her share of work.

Ferrand-Prévot attacked after the three-star sector 7, Cysoing à Bourghelles, 25km from the finish, but was neutralised by Vas who immediately took her wheel. The Hungarian champion paid for this on the following sector when she couldn’t follow the attack by Koch who pulled away with Vos on her wheel.

As Vas lost contact with Ferrand-Prévot, too, the Frenchwoman slowly inched her way back to Koch and Vos, making a front group of three again on sector 5, the four-star Camphin-en-Pévèle. Ferrand-Prévot briefly lost contact on the pavé but came back once more. In the chase group that had caught up to Vas, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) pushed on, getting away with Megan Jastrab (UAE Team ADQ) and Brand.

Koch led the front group on the five-star Carrefour de l’Arbre, putting the pressure on Ferrand-Prévot who had to leave a small gap. On the second half of the 2100-metre sector, Vos accelerated but then held back when Koch had no trouble following, thus allowing Ferrand-Prévot to return.

1:10 minutes behind, Brand crashed on the Carrefour de l’Arbre, colliding with a spectator as she rode on the verge of the cobblestone road.

The last three sectors on the final 15km were of little difficulty, and nobody tried to split the front group until Koch attacked with 4.5km to go. Vos could follow her, Ferrand-Prévot was dropped but returned one last time, pulling Koch and Vos into the velodrome where Koch held off Vos in a hard-fought sprint to win.

Kopecky outsprinted Jastrab for fourth place, 1:30 minutes down, while Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) finished sixth, winning the sprint of a group of 18 riders, 2:20 minutes behind.

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