The Dutch rider emerged victorious from his mano a mano with his rival Wout van Aert, victim of a puncture in the final, Sunday in Roubaix.
Like in a dream. Announced as one of the great favorites of the race, Mathieu van de Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) assumed his status and won Paris-Roubaix with authority, Sunday April 9. The Dutch rider pulled himself out of an XXL leading group 16 kilometers from the finish, took advantage of a puncture from his great rival Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), before raising his arms alone in the Roubaix velodrome.
A consecration for “MVDP” who, as a specialist in classics, dreamed of hanging the queen on his prize list. He thus won his second Monument of the season, after Milan-San Remo in mid-March, confirming his irresistible form.
better than grandpa
You should have seen him raise his arms, looking radiant, in a lap of the track that looks like an Easter stroll. On a cloud from which it will take time to descend, he succeeded where his father Adrie van der Poel (3rd in 1986) and his illustrious grandfather Raymond Poulidor (5th in 1962) failed. So much for the symbolic significance. Was he just thinking about it? The Dutchman, very offensive in one of the “better days” of his career, did everything to force his own destiny.
We first saw him following the wheel of Wout van Aert in the formidable Trouée d’Arenberg, to catch up with a group of four breakaway riders. Supported by his lieutenant Jesper Philipsen, who won second place by frustrating Van Aert in the sprint (46″), MVDP became the chief animator of the last hundred kilometers. He indeed placed many attacks to stir a five-star breakaway, in which appeared the outsiders Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers) or John Degenkolb (Team DSM).
The bad luck of Van Aert
The latter, who emerged victorious from the Hell of the North in 2015, despite himself, paved the way for the final outcome of the race. While trying to overtake Van der Poel in the Carrefour de l’Arbre, about fifteen kilometers from the finish, he fell and allowed Van Aert to place a first attack. The Belgian, despite the puncture of his handyman Christophe Laporte, then felt “GOOD”.
Undisturbed one penny by the streak, Van der Poel caught up with his arch-nemesis, in what was imagined to be an epic duel to the final victory. But the Dutchman benefited from the bad luck of Van Aert, slowed down by a puncture at the worst time, to rush alone towards the grail. The long-awaited text explanation did not take place, but Van der Poel, himself disgusted a week earlier by Tadej Pogacar on the Tour of Flanders, does not care. At 28, his track record of success is now topped by three different Monuments (Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix), two weeks from a Liège-Bastogne-Liège which still eludes him.