Mathieu van der Poel powered his approach to his first Paris-Roubaix victory on Sunday as he left his rivals reeling with a 15km solo assault on the finish of a usually eventful “Hell of the North”.
The Dutch rider produced a string of aggressive assaults earlier than the decisive transfer on the epic 256.6km race which included 54.5km of tough cobbles.
Jasper Philipsen completed 46sec behind to beat fellow Belgian rider Wout van Aert into second on the Roubaix velodrome finish-line.
After an early fall that includes three Ineos riders an elite clique broke away till solely seven prime riders have been left, together with Filippo Ganna, Mads Pedersen, Stefan Kung and 2015 winner John Degenkolb.
The motion then exploded on the Carrefour de l’Arbre five-star cobbled part with 20km to go when Degenkolb fell sprawled on the bottom, a number of riders swerving to keep away from him in a transfer that triggered Van Aert to puncture.
Van der Poel burst away and by no means seemed again as he added this race to his current Milan-Sanremo triumph.
“It’s impossible to do better than this,” stated the 28-year-old. “When I passed Van Aert his face looked low, I didn’t know he had a puncture. But that’s Roubaix, you need good legs and good luck,” he stated.
Defending champion Dylan van Baarle was one of many many crash victims there and his teammate Christophe Laporte took a puncture, leaving staff chief Van Aert alone along with his rivals.
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