2023 Paris–Roubaix Femmes

The 2023 Paris–Roubaix Femmes (officially Paris–Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift) was a French road cycling one-day race that took place on 8 April 2023. It was the 3rd edition of Paris–Roubaix Femmes and the 11th event of the 2023 UCI Women's World Tour.

The race was won by Canadian rider Alison Jackson of EF Education–Tibco–SVB in a sprint finish, after the break stayed away from the chasing peloton behind.

Route
Starting in Denain, the race finished on the velodrome in Roubaix after covering 145.5 km, with 29.2 km of cobblestones, spread out over 17 sectors. The women covered the same final 17 sectors as the men's race. The route was around 20 km longer that than the last edition, using additional roads south of the start in Denain prior to the cobblestone sectors, which are similar to previous editions.

Organisers noted they consider it "too dangerous" to include the five star cobbled sector Trouée d'Arenberg due to its proximity to the start in Denain, but they also noted that they "do not rule out that we will pass through ... in the future".

Teams
23 teams took part in the race. All 15 UCI Women's WorldTeams were automatically invited, and were joined by 8 UCI Women's Continental Teams. The two best 2022 UCI Women's Continental Teams (Ceratizit–WNT Pro Cycling and Lifeplus Wahoo) received an automatic invitation, and the other six teams were selected by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the race.

UCI Women's WorldTeams



UCI Women's Continental Teams



Race
The race was held in dry conditions, however some roads were wet after previous days of heavy rain.

Starting from Denain, a 18 woman breakaway formed within the first 15 km of the race, prior to live television coverage being available - which was subsequently criticised.

By the time the first pavé sector was reached, the break was around 6 minutes ahead of the peloton. The time between the peloton and breakaway gradually fell. Marianne Vos of Team Jumbo–Visma suffered a mechanical, and fell behind the peloton. On the Mons-en-Pévèle sector of pavé with 50 km remaining, Lotte Kopecky of SD Worx attacked from the peloton, with key riders such as defending champion Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek–Segafredo, Pfeiffer Georgi of Team DSM and Elise Chabbey of Canyon–SRAM joining Kopecky to form a chase group of key contenders.

However, with around 40 km remaining, Longo Borghini crashed on the Pont-Thibault à Ennevelin sector of pavé, taking out Kopecky and others in the chasing group. This delayed the group - allowing Vos to catch them - but the gap to the breakaway gradually fell over time over the remaining kilometres. By the time the Carrefour de l'Arbre sector was reached, the gap to the break had fallen to under a minute.

As the now six rider breakaway group entered the Roubaix Velodrome with a kilometre to go, the gap to the chasing group was around 10 seconds. Alison Jackson of EF Education–Tibco–SVB won a sprint finish of the breakaway riders, holding off the chasing group who finished 12 seconds back. Lotte Kopecky of Trek–Segafredo took the leaders jersey of the UCI Women's World Tour, after winning the sprint of the chasing group.

Jackson later explained that "we were being chased down pretty hard in that last 5km" and that "it's the biggest win of my career and a dream come true". EF Education–Tibco–SVB described the win as the biggest in their history. Second and third place riders Katia Ragusa and Marthe Truyen both expressed surprise at their results - with Truyen saying "it feels like a victory".