Mathieu van der Poel perfection in Paris-Roubaix defence
Dutchman runs away with incredible two Monuments in eight days
Incroyable. This spring Mathieu van der Poel attacked 44 km out to win E3 Saxo Bank, 45 km out in take a hat trick of Tour of Flanders titles, and in Sunday’s 121st Paris-Roubaix he made the winning move on a three-star sector of cobbles almost 60 km from the famous velodrome. Only Andrei Tchmil’s famous 1994 Hell of the North winning attack was longer, and marginally at that. Van der Poel now has two consecutive Paris-Roubaix titles and six Monument victories.
2024 Paris-Roubaix: The Course
Over brutal 257.6 km, the 121st Paris-Roubaix featured 55 km of cobbled roads spread out over 30 sectors starting at the 97-km mark. The five-star sectors were infamous: number 20 Trouée d’Arenberg (with its neato new chicane), 2.3 km long; number 12 Mons-en-Pévèle, 3 km; and number 4 Carrefour de l’Arbre, 2.1 km. The race ended in the famous Roubaix velodrome.
The Canadian contingent was Guillaume Boivin and, making his Monument debut, Riley Pickrell.
There were crashes in the frantic opening 97 km, a pace that ensured a record winning time. An octet of breakaways got clear and made it through the first four sectors of cobbles before being swallowed up, the peloton having been split by echelons heading into *** Viesly à Briastre. Alpecin-Deceuninck powered the first 30-strong group onto ***Vertain à Saint-Martin-sur-Écaillon with Mads Pedersen, Stefan Küng and late addition Tom Pidcock in the fold. Boivin was in Group 3.
Josh Tarling of Ineos was disqualified for hanging onto a team car. He held onto the commissaires’ car to remonstrate.
Alpecin kept marshalling the race a minute ahead of larger chase group, bumping over two and three-star sectors. An Alpecin near-disaster at the business end of the lead group on ****Haveluy à Wallers meant that Lidl-Trek was able to take the reins.
Trouée d’Arenberg
The chicane brought some riders almost to a standstill. Pedersen led into the trench. Van der Poel attacked with his teammate Jasper Philipsen, Pedersen and Mick van Dijke on his tail.
Philipsen was lost to a flat. Ten chasers including Pidcock and Küng clawed back the MvdP trio. Philipsen then returned. Pedersen punctured on ***Wallers à Hélesmes. A trio of Nils Politt, Küng and van der Poel’s teammate Gianni Vermeersch dashed away and held out for a few sectors as the race settled down. Pedersen got back on even terms and his Lidl-Trek squad chased at the front of a group of 25 and eventually reabsorbed the threesome.
Van der Poel pounces on sleeping Paris-Roubaix rivals
Just short of the 60-to-go mark, van der Poel ambushed a complacent group on ***Orchies and took a gap. Pedersen pulled the pursuit, his desperation clear when his deficit hit 11 seconds.
Done and dusted for Van der Poel? This will be 300m short of Andrei Tschmil's longest solo win (60km) in Paris-Roubaix from 1994. #ParisRoubaix
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) April 7, 2024
Van der Poel hit *****Mons-en-Pévèle with 1:07 on a platoon of chasers where Pedersen found no teammates.
The chasers bumped along the cobbles behind the Dutchman, a podium hopeful quintet skipping away. Pedersen, Philipsen, Politt and Küng kept a larger Pidcock chase at arm’s length.
Five-star Carrefour de l’Arbre received van der Poel 2:45 ahead of Pedersen and company. It would be Philipsen’s push that dislodged Küng. In the velodrome, Philipsen made it a 1-2 and Pedersen rounded out the podium.
Van der Poel joins 11 other riders with a brace of Paris-Roubaix trophies. His 3:00 winning gap is the largest since 2002 and the fifth largest since the Second World War.
Riley Pickrell made it to the iconic velodrome, and impressive showing in his first PR appearance, but finished outside the time limit. Boivin did not finish.
The WorldTour continues next Sunday at Amstel Gold Race, van der Poel the obvious favourite.
2024 Paris-Roubaix
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherland/Alpecin-Deceuninck)
2) Jasper Philipsen (Belgium/Alpecin-Deceuninck)
3) Mads Pedersen (Denmark/Lidl-Trek)
