Mathieu van der Poel has won a fourth Monument of his career, and a second in 2023, winning Paris-Roubaix after incredible drama on Carrefour de l’Arbre where a John Degenkolb crash and Wout van Aert puncture left the Dutchman solo.
When the Jumbo Visma rider accelerated only Van der Poel could follow, the race looking as though it was heading towards a showdown between the two great rivals. However, as quickly as the move went away, Van der Poel was solo, the Belgian suffering a rear flat and forced to drop back to Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen behind.
The puncture capped a wild two minutes of racing, Degenkolb crashing out of contention after contact with the race winner. As Van der Poel celebrated, teammate Philipsen pulled off the sprint for second ahead of Van Aert, completing an Alpecin-Deceuninck one-two.
The drama ?
A crash for John Degenkolb. Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert breakaway. Then a flat tyre for WVA. All in the space of two minutes!#ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/BPkwC3qwk0
— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 9, 2023
A lead group of seven, also including Filippo Ganna and Stefan Küng, had been in front since just after the Arenberg, cooperating well together and building up a huge advantage over everyone else.
When the final five-star sector came, the hell of Roubaix was perfectly encapsulated in two minutes of madness — a crash, an attack, a puncture — leaving Van der Poel to write yet more history.
Mathieu van der Poel wins the fastest ever edition of Paris-Roubaix! ⚡️
What a ride! What a race! ?? pic.twitter.com/bE1h92Xb9E
— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 9, 2023
“Incredible”
Speaking at the finish, Van der Poel said his teammates were “incredible” and expressed a touch of regret at his great rival being denied the chance to sprint one vs one in the velodrome.
“Jasper finishing second, it’s not possible to do better than this,” he said. “I think I had one of the best days on the bike. I felt really strong, I tried to attack earlier but it was really hard to drop the guys.
“I found myself alone and just rode as hard as I could until the finish line. I knew he [Van Aert] had a problem but I did not know it was a flat tyre. It’s unfortunate because I think otherwise we’d have gone to the finish line. Unfortunately it’s part of the race and you need a bit of luck and good legs. I had both today”.
Drama in Hell
Continuing the theme from last weekend in Flanders the pace was high from the gun, 51 km/h average speed for the opening hour and the breakaway taking 100km to form, many trying and failing to escape up the road before finally a quartet of Jonas Koch, Sjoerd Bax, Derek Gee and Juri Hollman got away.
As ever with Roubaix, crashes, mechanicals and punctures dominated the day, Kasper Asgreen, Florian Sénéchal and Magnus Sheffield just three of those to suffer setbacks before the first major pavé crash of the day saw the end of Peter Sagan’s final appearance.
> Paris-Roubaix safety concerns as tacks found on the course
Nils Politt, Küng and Van Aert joined the mechanical-sufferer club before the Jumbo Visma leader led an acceleration on the final pre-Arenberg sector, pulling away a group including Van der Poel, Küng, Degenkolb and Christophe Laporte.
Onto the infamous five-star sector and the bunch behind was split by a huge crash, Fred Wright, Asgreen and defending champion Dylan Van Baarle seeing their chances end.
? 94km
Crevaison impressionnante de ??@DerekGee7 dans la trouée d’Arenberg.
??@DerekGee7 suffered a spectacular puncture in the trouée d’Arenberg.#ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/fc52uLkSfQ
— Paris-Roubaix (@parisroubaix) April 9, 2023
An untimely puncture for Laporte saw him drop back as the breakaway, group of favourites and chase all merged to form an elite leading group of 13, also including Van der Poel’s teammates Philipsen and Gianni Vermeersch.
As the lead pushed out towards two minutes, behind Laporte, Nathan Van Hooydonck and Florian Vermeersch tried to bridge but always faced an uphill battle with the power ahead.
On Mons-en-Pévèle’s five-star hellishness an acceleration from Van der Poel saw the group made even more select, Van Aert, Ganna, Pedersen, Degenkolb, Philipsen and Küng the only ones able to follow.
13 had become seven and Alpecin-Deceuninck hearts were in mouths for just a second, a Philipsen puncture, but minimal stress and the Belgian sprinter was back in the mix.
On the final five-star sector, Carrefour de l’Arbre, drama erupted — Degenkolb falling after contact with Van der Poel before an acceleration from Van Aert, the Dutchman the only rider able to follow.
Seconds later, disaster. A puncture leaving Van der Poel as lone leader with 15km to go, an advantage of 26 seconds over the chasers.
As Van Aert set off in last-chance pursuit his great Dutch rival made an improbable save, showing off his bike handling before celebrating in the velodrome and consoling Degenkolb.
Van der Poel troost de ontroostbare Degenkolb #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/gO6y8KOBbi
— Han Kock (@Han_Kock) April 9, 2023
15 thoughts on “Mathieu van der Poel wins fastest ever Paris-Roubaix after Wout van Aert puncture drama”
That Degenkolb crash – racing
That Degenkolb crash – racing incident or VDP at fault??
looked similar to various sprint crashes from the last couple years where someone has been crucified over it? Maybe not.
Shame about the punctures but that’s Paris Roubaix
VDP at fault all the way
VDP at fault all the way
Terrible luck for Degenkolb
Terrible luck for Degenkolb but it was a racing incident. In any case, it was Philipsen’s move across that triggered it.
Yeah, how dared he steer to
Yeah, how dared he steer to the right when the guy in front of him cuts him of to the right. Shameful.
It was Van der Poel’s
What a disappointment for John Degenkolb, losing maybe his last chance to repeat his 2015 win. But it was Van der Poel’s teammate Jasper Philipsen who made the sudden move that caused Degenkolb to go down. Anyone comparing it to the times when sprinters have been disqualified for not holding their line clearly has not ridden on cobbles.
That said, the one thing this latest generation of top riders has been lacking is a baddie. They’ve all been too nice, too fair, too friendly, and (so far) too clean. Nobody has shown the kind of ruthlessness and eerie good luck (in the form of bad luck for their opposition) that leads to suspicions they may have made a Faustian pact. Perhaps, after today, Mathieu van der Poel will now fulfil that vital role.
Its a race. Sure. But i would
Its a race. Sure. But i would wonder what would happen if Dagenkolb wasn’t there. MVDP colleague changes direction, pushes him to the side and he is “supported” by Dagenkolb that goes to the ground. More than MVDP the colleague that was taking lead is to blame. Then surely MVDP, so both actions should be under analysis from the UCI. Will it be? Its MVDP so I guess not.
Cobbles are famously quite
Cobbles are famously quite uneven and they were crossing them at insane speed. There didn’t appear to be any intent. I don’t really see what there is to analyse.
My two bobsworth is that
My two bobsworth is that Degenkolb was actually the architect of his own downfall there: Van der Poel was following his teammate through the (admittedly very tight) gap, Degenkolb tried to muscle him out of it by leaning on, the pressure of doing that caused him to go up the grass bank and over. Racing incident at worst and certainly the hysterical reaction on social media calling for VdP’s head on a platter is ludicrous.
No, I’d say John did exactly
No, I’d say John did exactly the right thing there. Someone coming across you in a race, you put your elbow out to let them know you are there, and arguably give the other rider something to lever against to change direction.
It’s what I was taught and have learnt to do. Elbows out gives everyone room to manoeuvre.
The challenge here is the MVP was being squeezed hard by Jasper. MVP had no where to go, John had no where to go, and sadly as he was on the outside, he fell.
It was horribly unjust, unfair, and a terrible way for John’s campaign to end.
Alas, there is not a lot more to it. No malice, no great error, just one of those things.
He certainly did nothing
He certainly did nothing wrong, he had as much right to fight for the line as MVDP. It’s just that if one leans on the other will lean back and inevitably something’s going to give and, as you say, because JD was on the outside it was him. With 20/20 hindsight he should have (in my opinion) let the Alpecin boys through and jumped on their train but totally understand the unwillingness to surrender the best line.
Good to see JD saying afterwards that as far as he was concerned it was a racing incident.
Jumbo really need to look at
Jumbo really need to look at their tyre choice. They seem to be getting a lot of flats this classics season, yesterday Laporte and Van Aert both had their chances ruined by punctures
bobbypuk wrote:
They’re using almost the same tyres as Alpecin, Vittoria Pro Corsa for JV and the same but the graphene-added version for Alpecin. Punctures are inevitable during Roubaix, it’s just a matter of luck as to who, where and when. Don’t forget Philipsen, on the same tyres as MVDP, punctured not long before WVA did but happened to be in a position where he could get back on quickly.
Interesting comments from
Interesting comments from Luke Rowe today in another publication saying that he thinks it’s mad not to ride with foam inserts in tubeless tyres, especially (but not exclusively, he uses them on ordinary road stages as well) in Paris-Roubaix. In his view, with which it seems difficult to disagree, the 2-3W loss is more than compensated for by the additional safety and “ride flat” capability the inserts offer.
Says a guy who has someone
Says a guy who has someone else to fit his tyres.
IanMSpencer wrote:
Fair point, I’ve never tried them – a bugger to fit?