With a cannibalistic performance, world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Deceuninck) won the 122nd edition of Paris-Roubaix, repeating last year's success. The Dutchman covered the 259.9 kilometers of the route in a time of 5h25'58” at a record average hourly speed of 47.5 km/h. Like 12 months ago, second place went to his teammate, Jasper Philipsen, who finished three minutes behind his captain. The Flemish rider, who triumphed three weeks ago in the Milan-Sanremo, preceded the Danish Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) and the German Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) in the sprint, who earned the third and fourth coins respectively. For completeness of the record, the first of the Italians was Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain Victorious), who came 67th at the Andre Petrieux velodrome with a gap of 9'34” from the winner. The Easter resurrection in Flanders, like a swallow, did not make spring.
With today's success, Raymond Poulidor's nephew becomes the eleventh rider capable of winning the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in the same year. The first to succeed in this epic undertaking was the Swiss Heiri Suter way back in 1923. Then it was Belgium's turn to take the lead with eight double winners: Romain Gijssels (1932), Gaston Rebry (1934), Raymond Impanis (1954), Fred De Bruyne (1957), Rik Van Looy (1962), Roger De Vlaeminck (1977), Peter Van Petegem (2003) and Tom Boonen (2005). The giant from Mol was the first to repeat the pairing, repeating himself in 2012, emulated by his eternal antagonist, the Swiss Fabian Cancellara (2010 and 2013). Van der Poel places the Netherlands on this prestigious list, becoming the second to achieve it in the rainbow jersey after Van Looy in 1962.
The chronicle of the race, exactly like a week ago in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, is reduced to just one precise decisive moment. The role played by Koppenberg seven days ago was fulfilled today by the cobbled sector number 13, called Orchies, located 60 kilometers from the finish. On these 1,700 meters of cobblestone, classified with three stars by the organizers, Mathieu made a blank, definitively archiving the case. The much-discussed chicane, located at the entrance to the Arenberg Forest just under 100 kilometers from the finish line, was found to be irrelevant to the progress of the race, however ensuring that no crashes occurred in that specific passage.
With today's race the Franco-Flemish phase of the Northern Classics ends. Sunday will be the turn of the Amstel Gold Race, in which last year's dominator Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) will not take part. The champion from Komenda will return to the race in the Flèche Wallonne, also won last year, and then take part in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège where, however, he will not find the winner of the last two editions, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quickstep), who is out of action in the pits after the fall at the Tour of the Basque Country which seriously involved Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) and, more lightly, also Primoz Roglic (Bora Hansgrohe). It is very unlikely that all the four musketeers will be at the start of the Tour de France, scheduled for Florence on Saturday 29 June, given that Tadej, in search of the legendary pink-yellow pairing, will make his debut in May at the Giro d'Italia.
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