How did the victory come about?
The 29-year-old Dutchman living in Monaco threw his cards on the table on the four-star strip of Camphin-en-Pévèle. Mohoric and Lampaert had to watch patiently as he drove away meter after meter. Van Aert, Küng and Devriendt would eventually sprint for second place with Mohoric.
That after a strange Paris-Roubaix in which anarchy reigned for a long time and only Ineos-Grenadiers tried to get in line in this ‘rescue race’ that was continuously disrupted by Matej Mohoric.
The winner of Milan-Sanremo set ‘la Reine des Classiques’ on fire with only a hundred kilometers from the end. However, things only really started to get serious when, about 50 kilometers from the end, we got an elite group with Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Jasper Stuyven, Adrien Petit, Yves Lampaert, Florian Sénéchal, Matteo Trentin, Taco van der Hoorn , Stefan Küng, Guillaume van Keirsbulck, Ben Turner and Dylan van Baarle. With Mohoric, Laurent Pichon and the revelation of this Paris-Roubaix among the Belgians, Tom Devriendt, only fifteen riders were eligible for the cobblestone with more than 40 km from the end.
We had a fantastic final in which Van Baarle went solo on the dirty stretch of Camphin-en-Pévèle over 19 km. Mohoric and Lampaert had no story against the smooth driving Dutchman. Van Aert reacted with Küng and Mahieu van der Poel came from the background who passed Jasper Stuyven, but the two eternal opponents came too late to qualify for the victory for even one moment.
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What did the Belgians do?
With Wout van Aert (2nd), Tom Devriendt (4th), Jasper Stuyven (7th) and Yves Lampaert (10th), we had four compatriots in the Vélodrôme André-Pétrieux in the first ten of the 119th edition.
Yves Lampaert drove a silent Paris-Roubaix, but came forward at the ideal moment. Together with Matej Mohoric he moved away from an elite group at 29.4 km from the end and came a kilometer further with Tom Devriendt who was left over from a break that started before the Forest of Wallers. A little later, Dylan van Baarle would also join in. The ‘road to Roubaix’ was eventually blocked by a much too enthusiastic spectator who hit Lampaert with the elbow.
Jasper Stuyven had the bad luck that he punctured just before the killer section of Camphin-en-Pévèle in a dry classic in which an incredible number of flat tires were noted.
Wout van Aert unleashed his demons for the first time on the terrible stretch of Mons-en-Pévèle (45.5 km). He got Mathieu van der Poel and Stefan Küng with him. However, after he made the selection, the Herentalsenaar had a puncture again just under 40 kilometers from the end. He came up front again and at 32 kilometers from the finish the Belgian champion went again but Küng countered. When Lampaert left with Mohoric, neither Van Aert nor Van der Poel reacted. He did so at 22.4 km from the end together with Küng, towards Stuyven who had escaped a little earlier. The difference was barely half a minute.
And say that Wout van Aert was still dangling in the back of the pack when passing the Bos van Wallers. That was because he had to take this passage with Timo Roosen’s bike after he experienced mechanical breakdown. Immediately after the Bos, he switched bikes to rejoin the fourth peloton on lane 18 from Wallers to Hélesmes. At 83 km from the finish he was again close to Mathieu van der Poel and Kasper Asgreen, among others. What’s more, at 75 km from the end he ran smoothly behind Nathan Van Hooydonck’s back in the front of the pack.
Thomas Devriendt was the revelation of this edition. The 30-year-old West Fleming of Intermarché – Wanty Gobert was in a leading group of five just past halfway, along with Matej Mohoric, Davide Ballerini, Laurent Pichon and Casper Pedersen who dived into the Woods of Wallers. At 50 km from the end, the West Fleming of Intermarché – Wanty Gobert was the only one who could see the works of Matej Mohoric up close in the front of the race. Until the Slovenian from Bahrain Victorious dropped out at the front with a flat tire 37 km from the end and Devriendt entered the cobbled section of Templeuve all alone as leader with a lead of half a minute. At 19.1 km, with the acceleration of Dylan van Baarle, Tom Devriendt saw stars and had to let the three drive.
Jens Reynders gave his calling card to the world. In sector 24, the Limburger from Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise went for a solo that was stopped at 117 km from the finish when he had a puncture in the front. The front guard of the pack whizzed past him. It was not the day of Florian Vermeersch who had to face the facts in the first half of the race. To make matters worse, he punctured twice in a short period of time. The second time on the Saulzoir zone after barely 130 km. Together with Mads Pedersen he dangled 1’50” behind the head of the race at 110 km from the end, but before the Bos van Wallers he rejoined the peloton together with Tim Merlier.
Philippe Gilbert, on the other hand, wearing number 1, slipped into the first group in his very last Paris-Roubaix of his career and had to conclude that a second ‘Hell of the North’ started in the Forest of Wallers.
Tim Merlier and Matteo Trentin tried to start the counterattack 66 km from the end, but that was not how Ineos-Grenadiers had understood it.
Who was in the spotlight?
The entire Ineos-Grenadiers team launched a surprise attack behind the three leaders Laurent Pichon, Owen Doull and Aleksandr Riabushenko, who were already on the attack during the first hour of racing. By the time the group split into two, only 47 km had been covered. 73 riders were in the first section. The biggest victims of the coup were Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, Stefan Küng and Kasper Asgreen who were surprised. It would take 110 kilometers before people like Van Aert and Van der Poel would see the Gannas of this world again.
Once on the cobbles, it was raining crashes, with Anthony Turgis (giving up after 110km), Magnus Sheffield, Kasper Asgreen, Silvan Dillier and Mads Pedersen the biggest names. All of Ineos-Grenadiers took a prominent position in the front to stop when Filippo Ganna suffered a mechanical failure on the Viesly stones and was swept by road captain Luke Rowe.
After the third of the thirty lanes, the lead was suddenly only thirty seconds more, but once Ganna had taken his place in the front again, it went forward again. Still, it wasn’t his day because at 120 km from the end he was again standing on the side of the road with a flat rear tire on the strip from Verchain-Maugré to Quarénaing. And then it was Dylan van Baarle’s turn, who had a leak in Denain.
When the lead before the Bos van Wallers increased to more than a minute and a half, Mathieu van der Poel – after Trek-Segafredo – led his team in the zone in front of the Bos van Wallers. It was the first time that the lead had fallen below the minute. That after a crazy first half in which the front runners flirted with an average of 46.9 km after three hours of competition.
Then there was Niki Terpstra who reminded the world that he won solo eight years ago. He went ahead of the group and got about thirty riders with him. It was all just foreplay.
At 100 km from the end, Van Aert and Van der Poel were back on course when they caught the first group with Ineos-Grenadiers just before the stones of Haveluy. Reason still ahead: Tom Devriendt, Matej Mohoric, Davide Ballerini, Laurent Pichon and Casper Pedersen, while Connor Swift and Nils Politt followed at three quarters of the minute. The favorites themselves were there at 1’10”.
In the Woods of Wallers itself we lost Davide Ballerini who had a puncture at the back, which meant that Quick Step Alpha Vinyl had to give up the spacious position of the first four hours of racing. The peloton was 2’21 seconds behind the four leaders from the Bos. Soon after, we also lost the Dane Casper Pedersen up front in a Roubaix.
On the strip after the Bos, Ineos-Grenadiers pushed forward again in the large group under the impulse of Kwiatkowski, but then the Jumbo-Visma helpers who were in the vicinity of Mathieu van der Poel decided to wait for Wout van Aert who moment was in a fourth platoon.
Situation 75 km from the finish: three leaders with Mohoric, Devriendt and Pichon while Swift, Bissegger, Pedersen and Ballerini rode between the lead and the pack. There Ineos-Grenadiers again led the large group with Ganna, Van Baarle and Kwiatkowski.
On the cobblestone zone of Orchies (58.6 km from the finish), Van Aert instructed Van Hooydonck to accelerate. As a result, a quarter of Mohoric & Co’s lead was immediately lost. At that point, Kwiatkowski lost touch with this group. The final started 56 km from the end with the pursuers Van Aert, Trentin, Stuyven, Küng and the couples Van der Poel-Van Keirsbulck, Lampaert-Sénéchal, Van Baarle-Turner, Van der Hoorn-Petit. And soon after, the team leader team Bogaerts-Hammond pushed Van Baarle forward. The trio’s lead dwindled like snow in the sun.
Anything else you should know?
Groupama-FDJ’s Thomas Davy was the first of the countless series of riders to hit the ground. That happened after 16 kilometers in a sunny edition in which Van Baarle broke the speed record (45.792 km/h) of Greg Van Avermaet, which he set five years ago.
Top 10:
1. Dylan van Baarle (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) the 257 km in 5h37:00
(gem. 45,792 km/u)
2. Wout van Aert at 1:47
3. Stefan Küng (intermediate)
4. Tom Devriendt
5. Matej Mohoric (Sln)
6. Adrien Petit (Fra) 2:27
7. Jasper Stuyven
8. Laurent Pichon (Fra)
9. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) 2:34
10. Yves Lampaert
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