The principal difficulty was provided by the 27 sectors of cobbled roads, which cover a total distance of 52.8 kilometres (32.8 mi).

[1] 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 (Tinkoff), as well as Fabian Cancellara (Trek–Segafredo) and Tom Boonen (Etixx–Quick-Step).

The race was hard from the very beginning, with major attacks being made over 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the finish.

Cancellara and Sagan were held up by crashes and a five-rider group formed in the final 20 kilometres (12 mi) 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 (Orica–GreenEDGE) ahead of Boonen, with Ian Stannard (Team Sky) in third.

The first 98.5 kilometres (61.2 mi) were generally flat on normal roads, with the first sector coming between Troisvilles and Inchy.

[6] In February 2016, the race organisers announced the seven UCI Professional Continental teams that had received wildcard invitations, completing the 25-team peloton.

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.

[10] 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.

Sagan, the reigning world champion, had won the Tour of Flanders (the other monument raced on cobbled roads) in a solo breakaway.

[14] 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.

His team, however, was very strong, with Terpstra, Stijn Vandenbergh and Zdeněk Štybar all possible winners of the race.

[4][13] There was a high-speed start to the race, with several groups attempting to form breakaways; each was chased by the main peloton.

[15] The riders in the breakaway were Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Énergie), Mathew Hayman and Magnus Cort (Orica–GreenEDGE), Jelle Wallays (Lotto–Soudal), Yaroslav Popovych (Trek–Segafredo), Johan Le Bon (FDJ), Marko Kump (Lampre–Merida), Tim Declercq (Topsport Vlaanderen–Baloise), Salvatore Puccio (Sky), Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Frederik Backaert (Wanty–Groupe Gobert), Maxime Daniel (AG2R La Mondiale), Borut Božič (Cofidis) and Imanol Erviti (Movistar Team).

Over the following kilometres, Hayman attacked solo from the breakaway; meanwhile, Jasper Stuyven (Trek–Segafredo) rode hard to bring his teammate Cancellara back to within 40 seconds of the first chasing group.

[15] With 48 kilometres (30 mi) remaining and the chasers 37 seconds behind the lead group, the riders crossed the five-star Mons-en-Pévèle cobbles.

[21] He put in a strong effort with 20 kilometres (12 mi) remaining that dropped Erviti, Haussler, Saramotins and Marcel Sieberg (Lotto–Soudal), who formed a chase group behind.

[17] A five-man group then formed on the Camphin-en-Pévèle sector, with Stannard, Boonen, Boasson Hagen, Hayman and Vanmarcke the only riders remaining.

Vanmarcke put in a big attack on the Carrefour de l'Arbre; although he briefly had a significant gap, the other four riders brought him back before the next section of cobbles.

[27] Hayman's team manager, Shayne Bannan, described him as "so professional" and suggested that he had been helped by good preparation and motivation combined with a lack of expectation; he called it "an incredible ride".

He said that Hayman was "the rider nobody was really looking at" and that he had ridden a "good sprint", although no one had much energy left by the velodrome; Vanmarcke had faded in the final metres and boxed Boonen in at the bottom of the track.

[29] Stannard described the race as "so close yet so far" and thought that he could have managed a better result than his third place had he not attacked in the final kilometres.

[16] In the 2016 UCI World Tour season-long competition, the top 10 of the standings remained relatively unchanged after the race.