Cancellara’s Classics column: After Flanders-Roubaix double, Mathieu van der Poel should ride Liège-Bastogne-Liège

There’s not too much to say. Paris-Roubaix was an Alpecin-Deceuninck show from start to finish. Mathieu van der Poel was the big favourite, and he did what everybody thought he would do, but his team was also completely in command all the way from Compiègne to the velodrome in Roubaix.

In the end, there was no chance for the rest against Alpecin-Deceuninck. Finishing first and second with Van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen was only part of the story – they were in control all day long. In a race like Paris-Roubaix, there are always lots of possible scenarios, depending on the weather conditions, tactics and so on, but it felt like they would have handled any situation that emerged on Sunday.