Mathieu Van der Poel imperial and unbeatable in “The Hell of the North”

And three! After the Tour of Flanders (in 2020 and 2022) and Milan-San Remo in March, Mathieu Van der Poel added a third Monument – ​​the most prestigious one-day races – to his list by winning Paris-Roubaix on Sunday 9 april. At the end of an eventful race, the Dutchman managed to avoid falls and technical problems to arrive alone at the André-Pétrieux velodrome, and savor his victory at the end of the fastest Paris-Roubaix in history.

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The celebration is even total for his team, Alpecin-Deceuninck, since his Belgian teammate Jasper Philipsen took second place in the sprint ahead of the other favorite of the day, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). ” We worked as a team today. Jasper is 2e, it is impossible to do better. I was really having a good day. I attacked several times. It’s incredible, hard to describe what it feels like to arrive alone at the velodrome.”, declared, moved, the winner of the day at the finish of the race.

This victory, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor – who had never done better than a fifth place in the “Hell of the North” – acquired it after 257 kilometers of combat, including 55 of cobblestone sectors . And, unfortunately for them, many runners did not have the time to cover them all, the fault of incessant falls in a very nervous start. Winner in 2018, Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) was unlucky and had to surrender 150 kilometers from the finish after falling violently.

Mathieu Van der Poel avoided falls

Without results for many months, the Slovak would probably not have had the legs to follow the favorites in the race anyway, who never gave up respite throughout the day. Proof of the bitterness of the debates, the four riders who courageously tried their luck in a breakaway never counted more than two minutes ahead of the peloton.

The chances of survival for this breakaway were already not very high, but became nil when, 100 kilometers from the finish, the Jumbo-Visma armada decided to take matters into their own hands and accelerate to break away, accompanied by all the favorites of the day, including Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and, of course, Mathieu Van der Poel.

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Unfortunately for the yellow and black, its leader, Van Aert, very quickly had to do without his lieutenant Christophe Laporte, in great shape lately – winner of Gand-Wevelgem and A travers la Flandre – but victim of a puncture which caused him to lose a prohibitive time. ” We were unlucky. It’s Paris-Roubaix, unfortunately I had a puncture and I tried to come back without succeeding. It’s sure to change the race.”noted, bitter, the French at the arrival of the race with France Télévisions.

The Jumbo-Visma victims of punctures

In addition to Christophe Laporte, only the strong men of the Flandrian classics remained in front, within a group that was reduced over the kilometers and the cobbled sections. They were thus only seven at the decisive moment of the crossroads of the Tree (2.1 kilometers of cobblestones, 15 kilometers from the finish). This is where the race was decided: following contact with the two Alpecin-Deceunincks, John Degenkolb (DSM) fell, and Wout van Aert found himself alone in the lead, but did not have the leisure to take advantage of his lead for a long time.

His lifelong rival, Mathieu Van der Poel, only needed a few meters to catch him, before easily unhooking him from his wheel. Too easily even: the Belgian was in fact the victim of a puncture and was forced to let go, powerless, the Dutchman towards victory and his third Monument. ” I didn’t see at the time that Wout had punctured. Bad luck for him. We might have been able to go through with it together. It’s part of the race here in Roubaix.”, analyzed Mathieu Van der Poel at the finish.

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To succeed in the Grand Slam, he must now raise his arms on Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy, the last two major one-day races missing from his list. For his part, Wout van Aert sees one of his rivals once again adding a piece to his trophy cabinet, having already witnessed Tadej Pogacar’s victory in the Tour of Flanders up close. Despite the superiority of his team during the classics season, Van Aert still only has one Monument to his name, Milan-San Remo in 2020.


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