Mathieu van der Poel records first Paris-Roubaix natural hat trick in 45 years

Sunday’s 112nd Paris-Roubaix was another 2025 round of Mathieu van der Poel vs Tadej Pogačar, with the one-time world champion and the current world champion trading haymakers on the pavé. But a crash on Pont-Thibault à Ennevelin inside 40 km to go meant that van der Poel would carry the day. The Dutchman earned the third natural hat trick of Hell of the North victories in history, joining Frenchman Octive Lapize (1909-1911) and Francesco Moser (1978-1980) in the record books. Guillaume Boivin was top Canadian in 48th.

Van der Poel’s spring palmares also includes Milan-San Remo and E3 Saxo Classic titles. He has won two of the three 2025 Monuments so far and was on the podium of the third.

Last Season

Van der Poel made the winning move on the three-star Orchies sector of cobbles almost 60 km from the famous velodrome. He soloed to his second straight title.

The Course

The 122nd Hell of the North offered up 30 bone-jarring cobbled sectors totaling 55.3 of 259.2 total kilometers. Starting in Compiègne, the first sector of pavé greeted the riders at Troisvilles at kilometer 95. Last year’s sketchy hairpin turn into 2.3-km, five-star sector Trouée d’Arenberg had become four right-hand turns within 600 meters. The other five-star cobbles were 3-km Mons-en-Pévèle and 2.1-km Carrefour de l’Arbre. The famous Roubaix Velodrome is where the champion would be crowned.

The Canadian contingent was Riley Pickrell and Guillaume Boivin.

An octet of fugitives bounced away early. There was a mess of crashes both before and during ***Troisvilles à Inchy , with Riley Pickrell, Wout van Aert and Jasper Philipsen all victims. By the time of the sixth sector of cobbles, **Quérénaing à Artres, the escapees were two minutes up the road from a peloton that had just regrouped.

The crashes continued. Ineos and Alpecin-Deceuninck pulled the peloton. The breakaway drew closer. On ****Haveluy à Wallers preceding the Arenberg, Mads Pedersen attacked and Pogačar responded, drawing van der Poel and an XDS Astana rider. When the dust settled there was a select group of 16.

*****Trouée d’Arenberg

The breakaway was within arm’s length heading into the Trench. Pogačar attacked, Pedersen fought van Aert for the world champion’s wheel. Van der Poel loomed. Van Aert dropped back. Van der Poel went to the front and gunned it.

The Arenberg created a new leading gang of about 20. Van der Poel made another surge. ***Wallers à Hélesmes elicited a move from Pedersen, with the world champion, van der Poel, Philipsen and Swiss time trial ace Stefan Bissegger going along. Van der Poel kept testing the Slovenian, who needed emergency resupply and came close to crashing in the process. Van Aert was in a chase group that kept losing time.

It was ****Tilloy à Sars-et-Rosières where Pogačar tried to slip the surly bonds of his group. Pedersen suffered an ill-timed puncture and had to ride with the van Aert bunch. Van der Poel found Pogačar’s wheel and wouldn’t work to allow his teammate Philipsen to come back.

Pogačar pulled on *****Mons-en-Pévèle before van der Poel tried to crack him. Then the Slovenian tried his luck. Philipsen, who had been part of the early breakaway and crashed, couldn’t hang on.

On ***Pont-Thibault à Ennevelin with 39 km to go Pogačar accelerated at the front and crashed on a corner. He needed a new bike. Van der Poel went into the grass as well but held it up. The great duel was over and it became a pursuit.

Someone threw a bottle into van der Poel’s face. Absolute rubbish. The gap was 17 to 18 seconds for a long time and then it increased. Another Pogačar bike change cemented van der Poel’s victory, although the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider also suffered a puncture.

Van der Poel had plenty of time to celebrate. A drained Pogačar managed to hold off the chase of his teammate Florian Vermeersch, van Aert and Pedersen. Pedersen rounded out the podium.

The WorldTour continues next Sunday at Amstel Gold Race, the first of the Ardennes Classics—the Cauberg is back in the final lap.

2025 Paris-Roubaix
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 5:31:28
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +1:18
3) Mads Pedersen (Denmark/Lidl-Trek) +2:11
48) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +10:55