Watch men's Paris-Roubaix from 1855 AEST on SBS On Demand uninterrupted throughout the broadcast, with the SBS TV coverage starting from 2130 AEST.
There are four former winners of the Queen of the Classics on the startline, but none are considered among the top names.
The big favourite is Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) but he's coming off a series of really hard races which may have sapped his peak form for this event.
The closest team to a dominant one is INEOS Grenadiers, not something that you would have contemplated saying too often over the last decade of cobbled classics.
It's going to be a return to the dry after the mud-churning spectacle of last year, the cobbles in as good a shape as can be hoped for the riders looking to race for the win in the famed velodrome in Roubaix.
Course and weather
If you watched the women's race last night, highlights below, you will be familiar with the final 85 kilometres of the race and the cobbled sectors. The major addition is the Forest of Arenberg, the famous section that really signals that hostilities have begun in earnest.
The Trouée d’Arenberg is one of three of the five-star (hardest) cobbled secteurs, with Mons-en-Pevele and Carrefour de l'Arbre coming with 48.5 and 17.1 kilometres to go respectively.
Carrefour de l'Arbre is often the scene of the winning move, or at least the formation of the main group that will fight it out. From there, the remaining three cobbled sections are relatively easy, and it's more the tired legs that will play the major part in determining the winner.
Paris-Roubaix route 2022 Source: ASO
A gusty southeasterly is going to be a cross wind for much of the day, but will be a tailwind for the crucial middle sections of pave. A tailwind will make the race a bit easier than most editions, and it may be a relatively large group that makes it through to the final 50 kilometres of racing.
If I had to pick a decisive point, Mons-en-Pevele and the ten kilometres of so after, in that 48 to 38 kilometres to go range, will be really hard racing that should see the formation of the final group that will go to the finish line.
Contenders
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) will be the favourite, he's certainly earned it. Great wins at Tour of Flanders and Dwars dor Vlaanderen stand him in good stead here, his fourth at Amstel Gold Race was largely down to team tactics and being outnumbered.
His strength, bike-handling, winning mentality and prodigious sprint are all well-known, and will be the reason that he lines up the favourite. Is he vulnerable? Perhaps he has too much hard recent racing under his belt, but he actually started his season quite late after his back issues delayed the Dutchman's return.
With Roubaix podium-finisher Silvan Dillier and 14th-placed finisher last year Gianni Vermeersch in the team, van der Poel will be well supported, perhaps more so than in any other race this season. He'll be hard to beat.
If van der Poel is the dominant rider, then the dominant team is INEOS Grenadiers. A team that has mostly excelled in Grand Tours, with occasional forays into the classics with the likes of Geraint Thomas, Michal Kwiatkowski and Ian Stannard, a new generation of riders is bringing a new cutting edge to the INEOS squad.
Michal Kwiatkowski is fresh off an Amstel Gold Race win, but in just his second participation in the race, he'll be one of the relative newcomers, along with exciting new names of Brabantes Pijl winner Magnus Sheffield and in-form Ben Turner joining the likes of Tour of Flanders runner-up Dylan van Baarle, world time trial champion Filippo Ganna and stalwarts Luke Rowe and Cameron Wurf.
The listed leader is Ganna, though he has shrugged off the favourite tag. "I don't understand why people consider me as one of the favourites, even if for me it is an honour," said Ganna. "I think that for us at INEOS Grenadiers the goal is to present ourselves as one of the strongest teams and get to the bottom of this race.”
That aim of riding as a team will be key to them winning the race, I would expect them to try multiple attacks on the non-cobbled sections of the course, trying to recreate a scenario to how Niki Terpstra won the race on the back of a dominant Quickstep performance in 2014.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), but returning from COVID his team have declared that 'top form is impossible' and he'll be supporting the likes of Christophe Laporte and Mike Teunissen. Nathan van Hooydonck is also a smokey from the team who has been very impressive over the past few years in a support role.
Other favourites include Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Kasper Asgreen, Florian Senechal, Yves Lampaert (all QuickStep Alpha Vinyl), Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) and Florian Vermeersch (Lotto Soudal).
Former winner Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) isn't in the world-conquering form that we've seen in the past, but he is the most recent winner present at the start and at this stage of his career, it's probably better suited to him that the more punchy efforts that he built his name on in past years. He is still suffering lingering problems related to the bronchial infection that is sweeping through the men's peloton, so likely not in winning shape.
I'd throw in a rider who looks like Roubaix specialists in the making in Jonas Rutsch (EF-Nippo) and recent top performer Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) who could potentially surprise.
Australians Luke Durbridge (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Heinrich Haussler (Bahrain Victorious) will carry the nation's hopes for a top result, while Cameron Wurf (INEOS Grenadiers) and Taj Jones (Israel Premier Tech) will be team workers for their squads. None are favoured to win, but neither were Mat Hayman or Stuart O'Grady when they won, so nothing is certain.
Watch men's Paris-Roubaix from 1855 AEST on SBS On Demand uninterrupted throughout the broadcast, with the SBS TV coverage starting from 2130 AEST.
