Van der Poel puts third cobblestone in path to legend

April 13 ^th 2025 - 17:12

Three out of three for Mathieu van der Poel, who in this 2025 Paris-Roubaix became the third rider in history to win three consecutive editions of this race after Octave Lapize (1909, 1910, 1911) and Francesco Moser (1978, 1979, 1980). The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider went toe-to-toe in Mons-en-Pévèle with current Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar, who impressed on his debut in the Hell of the North by playing for victory until being forced to settle with second place by a crash inside the final 40 kilometres. With this result, Van der Poel and Pogacar are now tied at 8 Monuments each, 6th and 7th in the legendary ranking of Classic winners at age 30 and 26. They were joined in the podium at the Vélodrome André Pétrieux by Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who finished 3rd as he already did last year.

175 riders took the start on the 122nd edition of Paris-Roubaix at 11:25, off to ride 259,2 kilometres between Compiègne and the Vélodrome André Pétrieux in Roubaix with 30 cobbled sectors to be covered. It had rained overnight and the skies were cloudy, yet it was not a cold nor remarkably wet race for the riders. It took 22 kilometres for a breakaway to go clear with Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), Oier Lazkano (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Markus Hoelgaard (Uno-X Mobility), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto), Rory Townsend (Q36.5) and Abram Stockman (Unibet Tietema Rockets). The eight riders built a gap that peaked at 3’05” as they were 90 kilometres into the race. The peloton then began to speed up with the first cobbled sector of the day, Troisvilles to Inchy (km 95.8 — 2.2 km) ***, in sight.

Tense chase for Philipsen and Ganna

Ineos Grenadiers was driving the peloton when its leader Filippo Ganna suffered a mechanical that forced him to chase along with his teammates for more than 30 kilometres. The British team found the company of riders like Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) or Dylan van Baarle (Visma | Lease a Bike), who were also affected by different incidents. They finally managed to rejoin the bunch during sector 25, Verchain-Maugré to Quérénaing (km 128 — 1.6 km) ***. The gap for the eight men at the front was steadily reduced to 50”, clocked at the entrance of Haveluy to Wallers (km 154.5 — 2.5 km) ****.

Race-defining attack by Van der Poel

It was there that Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) launched their first attacks of the day, whittling the peloton down to around 20 riders. They insisted on accelerating in the Trouée d'Arenberg (km 164,4 - 2,3 km) *****, reeling the breakaway back into the favorites group. The key attack, though, was made by Van der Poel at the exit from Wallers to Hélesmes (km 167.4 — 1.6 km) ***. Only Pogacar, Pedersen, his teammate Philipsen and Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale’s Stefan Bissegger managed to follow the defending champion in order to form a five-strong group at the front of the race.

Pogacar and Van der Poel alone at the front

At ​​Tilloy to Sars-et-Rosières (km 187.7 — 2.4 km) ****, Pedersen punctured and fell out of contention for the win while Pogacar accelerated to establish a duo at the front along with Van der Poel. Shortly after, Bissegger suffered a flat too and Philipsen dug deep in his own to regain the head of the race. The newly-formed trio cooperated all the way to Mons-en-Pévèle (km 210.6 — 3 km) *****, where Van der Poel hit the afterburners and Pogacar made good use of this to drop Philipsen off the front. Meanwhile, a chasing group with Bissegger, Pedersen, Hoelgaard, Rutsch, Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates) and Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) trailed 1’30” behind.

Unfortunate crash for Pogacar

Pogacar was putting the hammer down at sector 9 from Pont-Thibault to Ennevelin (km 220 — 1.4 km) *** when he misjudged a right-hand turn and crashed as a result. He rode out of the sector 20” in arrears of Van der Poel, with whom he sustained a duel all the way to the finish. The toe-to-toe, though, finished with 21 kilometres to go when the Slovenian had to change bikes and the gap went up to 50”. Despite a late puncture for Van der Poel midway through the Carrefour de l'Arbre (km 242.1 — 2.1 km) *****, the race was sealed for him to finish first and Pogacar second. As for the third spot in the podium, Philipsen was brought back by the chasing group, from which Vermeersch, Pedersen and Van Aert powered away at Bourghelles to Wannehain (km 234.9 — 1.1 km) ***. The trio sprinted for third place in the Vélodrome André Pétrieux, with the Dane taking the best out of his Belgian breakaway companions.