Here’s What You Missed from 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes

It seemed inevitable for a while that the breakaway would be eventually be caught at the third running of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. But as the kilometers ticked away, it was becoming more and more clear that an elite group of chasers would not catch the break.

EF Education-Tibco-SVB’s Alison Jackson won a sprint at the finish in the Roubaix Velodrome to capture a shocking win that appeared to surprise even her. Jackson put herself in the early breakaway and, miraculously, that breakaway maintained the lead for the rest of the race, holding off a strong chase that fell just short.

Jackson joins 2021 winner Lizzie Deignan and 2022 winner Elisa Longo Borghini as champions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

How the race played out

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A breakaway of 18 riders formed early, and wasted no time putting a sizable gap between them and the peloton. Most of the pre-favorites were stuck in the peloton. St one point, that breakaway held an advantage of over five minutes.

The with about 51K to go—and the advantage of the breakaway just under four minutes—Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) decided she had seen enough and broke free of the peloton to try to chase back the break. She was joined by others, like Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) and defending Paris-Roubaix Femmes champion Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and the chase could really get going.

But with about 38K to go—and the chasers making up some good ground on the lead group—Longo Borgini lost control on a slippery section of cobbles and caused a crash involving 17 of the 18 chasers.

Eventually an elite group of chasers got organized and put on a furious acceleration to attempt to catch the breakaway. With under 10K to go, the advantage dwindled down to 10 seconds, and it seemed like a forgone conclusion that it would be caught. Kopecky, Longo Borgini and even Marianne Vos (who spent a lot of her day trying to chase back the peloton after an early puncture)

But somehow—some way!—the remaining seven riders managed to hold off the chasers. The seven riders in the breakaway entered the Roubaix Velodrome and it was clear that it would be a sprint between only them for the win.

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Jackson, who did a lion’s share of the work to keep the breakaway free and was even waving her arms to encourage her fellow riders to keep pushing, was right near the front and launched a sprint with all she had.

The 2021 Canadian road race champion found enough in the end to take what is surely the biggest victory of her career. Katia Ragusa (LIV Racing TeqFind) was second across the line and Marthe Truyen (Fenix Cycling Team) was third.

The chasers ended up 12 seconds back of the leaders at the end of the race. Kopecky, who has dominated the spring classics with her SD Worx teammates, won that sprint to nab seventh overall.

Another plea for more equal coverage

While the men will get full coverage of the Paris-Roubaix Hommes on Sunday starting at 5 a.m. EDT, that was not the case for the women on Saturday. Paris-Roubaix Femmes is 145.5K in length, but coverage on Peacock only started with just under 80K to go at 9 a.m. EDT.

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Since fans missed the first 65.5K of the race, they also missed the forming of the early break, which ended up defining much of the race. This isn’t the first time that coverage has missed key moves. You may recall the penultimate stage of the Tour de France Femmes last year when coverage started after Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering had already put a massive gap between them and the rest of the field.

Here’s hoping next year’s edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes includes the whole race. You never know when an early move could decide it all. Just ask Alison Jackson.