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.
Van der Poel and Pogačar in the 2025 Arenberg Trench.
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.
30 bone-jarring cobbled sectors on tap. Image by La FlammeRouge
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.
Wout van Aert among the Red Bull lads.
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.
Pogacar rode the blue Shimano bike for four kilometres.
***** 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. It took forever to get him going again. Then he had cleat problems. Oy!
Van der Poel’s situation was far worse than Pogačar’s.
Pogačar carried on with van Aert, Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven, Christophe Laporte, Stegan Bissigger, Filippo Ganna and Laurence Pithie. Both Ganna and Pithie would succumb to flats. The world champion had another rear mechanical. On *** Warlaing à Brillon, van Aert had his own puncture.
Pogačar caught back up with Pedesen, Stuyven, Bissegger and Laporte with 68 km to race. Van Aert and Pithie toiled to make the junction before Mons-en-Pévèle, and van Aert made a move on **** Auchy-lez-Orchies à Bersée , but couldn’t shake Pogačar and Pedersen.
***** Mons-en-Pévèle
Van Aert and Pogačar hit the next five-star sector 12 seconds ahead of Pedersen and 33 seconds before van der Poel. The world champion couldn’t rid himself of the Belgian and vice versa.
***** Carrefour de l’Arbre
Van der Poel and Pedersen’s sextet was 25 seconds in arrears by the last five-star sector. Van der Poel tried to bridge on his own. The leading duo had reached some kind of accord that the race would be decided in the velodrome. Van der Poel’s bunch started to think about podium spots.
The man in the rainbow jersey led into the Roubaix velodrome, drawing the roar of the crowd. Van Aert went with 200 metres to go, came around the Slovenian and took the famous victory. Van Aert wept with joy.
Stuyven claimed the final podium spot.
123rd Paris-Roubaix
1) Wout van Aert (Belgium/Visma-Lease a Bike) 5:16:52
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
3) Jasper Stuyven (Belgium/Lidl-Trek) +0:13
13) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/NSN) +3:46
