page_title: 2016 Paris–Roubaix
section_title: Pre-race favourites
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Paris–Roubaix / Pre-race favourites
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Reportage réalisé le samedi 27 février à l'occasion du départ et de l'arrivée du Circuit Het Nieuwsblad 2016 et de l'arrivée du Circuit Het Nieuwsblad féminin 2016 à Gand, Belgique. Nederlands: Vertrek en aankomst, zaterdag 27 februari, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2016, Gent, België. Depicted person: Peter Sagan Depicted team: Tinkoff
context_page_description: The 2016 Paris–Roubaix was a one-day classic cycling race that took place on 10 April 2016 in northern France. It was the 114th edition of the Paris–Roubaix and was the tenth race of the 2016 UCI World Tour and the third monument of the season.
  The race took place over 257.5 kilometres. The principal difficulty was provided by the 27 sectors of cobbled roads, which cover a total distance of 52.8 kilometres. The difficult conditions caused by the cobbles have earned the race the name "the Hell of the North". It came at the end of the cobbled classics season, a week after the 2016 Tour of Flanders; the favourites included the winner of that race, Peter Sagan, as well as Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen.
  The race was hard from the very beginning, with major attacks being made over 100 kilometres from the finish. Cancellara and Sagan were held up by crashes and a five-rider group formed in the final 20 kilometres and, despite many more attacks in the closing part of the race, came to the velodrome in Roubaix together. The sprint was won by Mathew Hayman ahead of Boonen, with Ian Stannard in third.
context_section_description: The recent editions of Paris–Roubaix had been won in various ways. Seven of the previous ten editions had been won by riders who had made solo breakaways; the most recent of these was Niki Terpstra in 2014. Other editions had been won in small group sprints: there were three riders together at the finish in 2008 Paris–Roubaix, two riders in 2013 and six in 2015.
  John Degenkolb (Team Giant–Alpecin) won the sprint in 2015, but was unable to defend his title in the 2016 edition due to injuries sustained in a collision with a car during winter training. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), who finished third in 2015, was also unable to start the race after breaking his collarbone in a crash at the Tour of Flanders the previous week.
  The two principal favourites to win the race were Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek–Segafredo). Sagan, the reigning world champion, had won the Tour of Flanders (the other monument raced on cobbled roads) in a solo breakaway. He was able to win both from a breakaway and in a group sprint. Sagan's best previous result in Paris–Roubaix was his sixth-place finish in 2014. Cancellara had won the race on three previous occasions (in 2006, 2010 and 2013) and had finished in the top ten on five other occasions. Cancellara was racing in his final Paris–Roubaix, after announcing that he would retire at the end of the 2016 season.
  One of Cancellara's main rivals in classics races over his career was Tom Boonen (Etixx–Quick-Step), who had won Paris–Roubaix on four occasions in the past. He had not been in strong form, however, in the 2016 season and had struggled with a wrist injury in the Tour of Flanders. His team, however, was very strong, with Terpstra, Stijn Vandenbergh and Zdeněk Štybar all possible winners of the race.
  Other possible winners included Sep Vanmarcke (LottoNL–Jumbo), who was third in the Tour of Flanders, Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha), Lars Boom (Astana), Ian Stannard (Team Sky) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Dimension Data).
caption: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), the world champion and one of the favourites for the race victory (photographed at Gent–Wevelgem)
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