Van Aert and Pogačar go toe to toe at Paris-Roubaix

Sunday’s 123rd Paris-Roubaix, the Hell of the North, was a day of consequential punctures. Many of the main players–Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Filippo Ganna, Laurence Pithie–suffered flats at the worst junctures of the race. Pogačar and van Aert went toe to toe over the last 50 km, with the Belgian earning his first Paris-Roubaix and second Monument. Van Aert has overcome a lot of crashes and injuries over the past few years, and his cobbled trophy is well deserved. Top Canadian was Guillaume Boivin, who got up from a crash to place 13th.

Preliminaries

Last year, Mathieu van der Poel recorded the first Paris-Roubaix natural hat trick in 45 years. A crash ruined Tadej Pogačar’s Hell of the North debut. The two one-day race rivals were back, along with van Aert and Mads Pedersen.

Guillaume Boivin, 9th in 2021, was the part of the Canadian contingent with Nickolas Zukowsky and Riley Pickrell.

The Course

The 123nd Hell of the North offered up 30 bone-jarring cobbled sectors totaling 55.3 of 258.3 total kilometers. Starting in Compiègne, the first sector of pavé greeted the riders at Troisvilles at kilometer 95. The 2.3-km Trouée d’Arenberg at kilometre 163 was the first five-star sector. The other five-star cobbles were 3-km Mons-en-Pévèle (kilometre 209) and 2.1-km Carrefour de l’Arbre (kilometre 241). The famous Roubaix Velodrome is where the champion would be crowned.

The peloton was intact on the first couple of sectors of cobbles although there had been plenty of chaos with mechanicals. UAE-Emirates pulled the peloton on Sectors 27 and 26, Alpecin-Premier Tech close on its heels. The pressure split the peloton.

At the midway point, the average speed was 51.8 km/h. On *** Quérénaing à Maing Pogačar got a rear flat and had to take a Shimano neutral service bike. Alpecin-Premier Tech tried to bury him. He finally got a team bike on Sector 21 and was 30 seconds back by Sector 20.

***** Trouée d’Arenberg

Pogačar returned to the front 25-strong group after 22 kilometers in the wilderness, just in time for the trench. Wout van Aert led the way, van der Poel in Position 2, the world champion in Position 5. Boivin crashed and looked to be in distress. It was van der Poel’s turn to have a flat….