March 19, 2026
The GP de Denain, otherwise known as the "mini Paris-Roubaix", is one of the few races other than Paris-Roubaix to take on the brutal cobbled roads of Northern France. At 200KM, 24KM of which on cobbles, the race is definitely a scaled back version but there is more than enough difficulty on course to separate the wheat from the chaff. The first half of the race will take place on a 26KM cobble-free circuit around Denain, taken on three times. The riders will exit the circuit in search of the stones and with a little over 90KM to go, the first of the pavé arrives with the sector of Avesnes-les-Aubert à Carnières. The riders will have twelve more sectors out on course, each spread between 3-10KM apart. The final sector of Abscon comes 9KM from the finish in Denain where we should have a solo rider or small group coming into the finish based on the last few editions of the race.
Highlighted Riders
Axel Zingle, Juan Sebastián Molano, Nils Politt, António Morgado, Tibor Del Grosso, Alec Segaert, Cees Bol, Thibaud Gruel, Albert Withen Philipsen, Arnaud De Lie, Milan Menten, Arjen Livyns, Jordi Meeus, Fred Wright, Anthony Turgis
Race Summary
Fortunately for the race, the gorgeous Spring weather across Norther Europe has continued and the start was given under warm, blue skies. A break of seven riders broke away early on but, with 80KM to go, things were kicking off in the peloton. On the Saint-Python sector, the third of the day, the bunch were just 20 seconds behind the break and the race was about to reset. At this point, the break consisted of six of the original seven riders including Cole Kessler of Modern Adventure, Aaron Gate and Alessio Delle Vedove of XDS-Astana, Gorka Sorarrain of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Ashlin Barry of Visma-Lease a Bike, and Morné Van Niekerk of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. Off of Saint-Python, the bunch had mostly reformed into a full peloton and the pace temporarily slowed, allowing the break to build their advantage to 45 seconds by the start of the 2.3KM sector of Vertain à Saint-Martin-sur-Écaillon.
On the paved roads after Vertain à Saint-Martin-sur-Écaillon, Arnaud De Lie of Lotto Intermarché had been dropped, presumably with a mechanical, and was sitting about 45 seconds behind the peloton. The problem for De Lie was that attacks were coming from the peloton. Axel Bouquet of St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 chipped off the front and was quickly across to the break, making contact with 66.5KM to go. Meanwhile, behind the bunch, De Lie had a teammate drop back and was able to make it back in after a fairly hard chase.
Visma-Lease a Bike stretched the peloton on the Capelle à Ruesnes. De Lie punctured on the segment as did Cees Bol of Decathlon CMA CGM, effectively taking them out of the race, and by the end with 63KM to go, the break were caught and the bunch was down to maybe 60 riders. Attacks started flying on the paved section after Capelle à Ruesnes and a strong group of ten formed. They stormed through the wide open fields with only water towers and modern windmills breaking up the sightline on the horizon. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe missed the move and were forced to spend the energy to close it down, bringing this back together once again.
The race continued with attacks, counter attacks, then those attacks would be caught and the process would start again, just like a break trying to form early in a Grand Tour stage. Per Strand Hagenes of Visma-Lease a Bike took the race into his own hands and ripped the bunch to pieces on the uphill five-star sector of Maing à Quérénaing. Hagenes didn't get any help from the others around him so, after taking a breath, he went again, this time solo. Alec Segaert of Bahrain Victorious linked up with Hagenes just as they swung on to Quérénaing à Verchain Maugre just under 50KM to go.
The two leaders built 20 seconds on the peloton and when it was clear that counter attacks were not going to bridge up, UAE-XRG set up an organized chase to control the move. Aimé De Gendt of Pinarello Q36.5 had found himself in between the peloton and the leading duo and was stuck in the void until 35KM to go when the UAE-XRG chase brought him back.
Segaert and Hagenes continued out front, passed the slag heaps from the regional coal mining of previous decades. Their gap went from 35 seconds down to 20 seconds at the start of Thiant à Haspres with 30KM remaining. Visma-Lease a Bike were in a strong position with three riders ever-present at the front of the peloton. Every time someone pulled off, they were there to slow the race down. At the start of Avesnes-le Sec à Hordain, the gap was holding at 20 seconds when a counter attack went from Brent Van Moer of Pinarello Q36.5 who was able to snap the elastic and go clear. The bunch looked to be losing steam with fewer and fewer riders willing to make the effort.
With 16.5KM to go, Van Moer was caught by a group six riders that broke away from the peloton. The group included Van Moer's teammate Aimé De Gendt as well as Nils Politt of UAE-XRG, Tibor Del Grosso and Jonas Geens of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Alessandro Romele of XDS-Astana, and Gianni Vermeersch of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Lidl-Trek were the primary team to miss out but resources were scarce at this point, making it difficult to close a gap of any material size.
As Segaert and Hagenes reached the penultimate sector with 13.5KM to go, they had 30 seconds on the Del Grosso/Van Moer chase group and nearly 1 minute on the peloton. At 10KM to go into the last sector, Hagenes put in a dig and gapped Segaert by a handful of seconds. Segaert did what he does best and went into time trial mode. He stayed between 4-5 seconds behind the Norwegian for kilometer after kilometer. Meanwhile behind, Visma-Lease a Bike drilled it with the few riders they had left and closed down the chase group with 6KM to go and were just 30 seconds behind the two leaders. It was an odd sight to see Hagenes riding just ahead of Segaert and it certainly was not helping their chances because Alpecin-Premier Tech added men to the chase and were quickly reeling the two leaders back.
The gap was down under 15 seconds so with 2.5KM to go, Segaert gritted his teeth for one last effort. He sprinted passed Hagenes and launched himself up the road in a bid for the line. The peloton was quite large with around 40 riders together. Segaert kept powering away and maintained 10 seconds under 1KM to go. The camera stayed tight on Segaert until 200M to when it panned back to find a peloton that had left it too late. Segaert crossed the line to take a victory made from pure strength and was immediately greeted by family and team staff to celebrate. The win was redemption for Segaert after such a close call yesterday in Nokere where he was caught just 100M from the line. The sprint was ragged behind, won by Milan Menten of Lotto Intermarché ahead of Anthony Turgis of TotalEnergies, 2 seconds after Segaert.