Eight years of waiting, of attempts, of bad luck, disappointments and even pain, but finally Wout Van Aert succeeded in the long-awaited feat, winning Paris-Roubaix. In an edition that had only two favourites, Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel, it was finally the Belgian from Visma-Lease a Bike who achieved success in the Hell of the North, the queen of the classics. And if Van der Poel, who was looking for his fourth success in a row at the velodrome, was held back by various punctures, the Slovenian world champion instead had to bow to the Belgian in the two-man sprint, still having to postpone the conquest of the only Monument missing from his palmares.
Last year, on his debut, it was van der Poel who beat him, this time he found another champion on his path who at 31 years old fulfilled a dream. The tears that Van Aert let escape at the finish line give the measure of his emotion at having achieved victory in one of the two great cobblestone classics that he has dreamed of since he was a child, together with the Tour of Flanders, which he still misses. The Visma rider has experienced countless disappointments, falls and injuries in recent years, particularly in Roubaix, where he finished second in 2023, third in 2024 and fourth last year, forced to watch van der Poel’s hat trick.
This time, the bad luck that seemed to have stuck to him has instead hit the Dutchman, the cyclocross champion who knows how to tame the impossible surface of this race like few others. Crossing the Arenberg Forest, he suffered a couple of punctures and lost time in getting a suitable bike, slipping two minutes behind the other favourites. A gap that despite his efforts he was no longer able to close, forcing him to settle for fourth place. A puncture, a more than probable event on the hard French cobblestones, also betrayed Filippo Ganna, just when the Italian champion had managed to join the train of the best, led by Pogacar and Va Aert, both of whom were also forced to stop due to punctures but were able to return among the leaders. At a certain point the two greeted the company in the Auchy lez Orchies sector, with 50 kilometers to go to the finish line, but this time the Slovenian was unable to place his usual leap. Every time he tried to go further, Van Aert didn’t lose a metre, perhaps seeing the opportunity to change his destiny and, when they entered the velodrome together, he easily went further, taking a more than deserved victory, and not just for what we saw today.
«This victory means everything to me. I had been looking for it since 2018, when I participated for the first time – said Van Aert still moved -. It’s been really tough since then but if I had been unlucky here so far, it certainly brought me experience”, he said, before paying tribute to his rival, “a true champion and he gave me a hard time. It was very hard to stay behind his wheel and then to beat him in the sprint, head to head, is something really special. There is nothing more beautiful than reaching the finish line with the world champion”, he added. For Van Aert this is the second victory in a Monument after the Milan-Sanremo in 2020 and he dedicated it to a former teammate Michael Goolaerts, who passed away at just 23 years old due to a heart attack during the Roubaix in 2018. It is also for him who raised a finger to the sky upon arrival. Pogacar, who was coming off victories at Sanremo and Flanders, was aiming for the second attempt to also put his stamp on Roubaix, a coveted prey precisely because it is cruel. «Almost everyone had problems today. I myself have punctured and changed bikes three times. It cost me energy. I immediately understood that it would be impossible to catch Wout on the cobblestones and beat him in the sprint. He deserves the victory,” said the Slovenian.