Mathieu van der Poel stormed to a second victory in the Paris Roubaix on Sunday after the Dutchman launched a stunning solo attack 60km from the finish line to win his second Monument of the year following his Ronde van Vlaanderen victory last weekend.
On the 260km “Hell of the North” route which had 29 cobblestone sectors, Van der Poel’s victory by three minutes was one of the largest winning margins in years as he rode to his sixth Monuments victory, crossing the line with his arms outstretched.
Van der Poel became only the 10th rider to win both cobbled Monuments – the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix – in the same season and only the second rider to do it with the rainbow jersey after Rik van Looy in 1962.
Far behind him, Mads Pedersen, Jasper Philipsen and Nils Politt battled it out for the last two podium spots. Politt went for it early but it was Philipsen who finished second for an Alpecin-Deceuninck one-two while Pedersen was third.
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World champion Lotte Kopecky sprinted to the Paris-Roubaix Femmes title in a thrilling finish on Saturday.
Belgium’s Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) was in a lead group of six when the 148.5km race arrived at the famous Roubaix velodrome and had enough in the tank to outpace her rivals.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) finished second while Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) pipped Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) to third place.
