Jumbo-Visma were the team that did everything right. The pre-race plan was to surprise the rest of the peloton by attacking still with over 100km to go on one of the first sectors of cobblestones, splitting the bunch before the expected chaos a few kilometres down the road in the Arenberg forest. They executed it perfectly.
As fans awaited in the forest – Flandrian flags blowing in the wind and the smell of frites wafting through the air – the team in yellow and black hurtled towards them in a promising group that was building a big gap over some of the other big pre-race favourites who had missed the move, including Fiippo Ganna of the Ineos Grenadiers and Mads Pedersen of Trek-Segafredo. The plan had gone faultlessly.
However, Paris-Roubaix is not nicknamed the Hell of the North for nothing. Every year, as the riders plough through the darkness of the trees in the forest, the Arenberg takes its victims. This year, it targeted Jumbo-Visma and turned a race that looked to be going well for the Belgian squad, completely upside down. It began as Dylan van Baarle found himself face to face with the cobbles in a fast and vicious crash and not long after, Christophe Laporte punctured and suffered a slow wheel change. The dynamic of the group in which Jumbo-Visma once had a numerical advantage shifted as Alpecin-Deceuninck were now the best represented team at the front of the race.
Read more: A king of the Classics: Clinical Van der Poel joins the greats with Paris-Roubaix triumph
Image: Zac Williams/SWpix
But Roubaix was still not done with its hellish treatment of the team that everyone expected to dominate. With just under 20 kilometres of the race remaining, Van Aert was in prime position on the wheel of Mathieu van der Poel – it was the start of what could have been another historic duel between the two riders. But you could almost see the pain and heartbreak etched on Van Aert’s face when it happened: a rear wheel puncture. As they exited the cobblestones, Van der Poel had a gap and Van Aert was forced to stop for a wheel change. He could only watch the chance of a Monument victory slip slowly out of his grasp.
“It’s very sad and disappointing that we didn’t win or could not fight for the win. Let’s put it that way. Today was the biggest challenge and the biggest goal of this part of the season,” team manager Richard Plugge said after the race.
“There was a big crash in the Arenberg Forest and Dylan was a victim of that crash. He…